Hasegawa Heinkel He 111H-20 of Dietrich Kornblum in 1/72 Scale

This is the 2004 Hasegawa He-111H-6 kit updated to H-20 configuration.  The model represents the aircraft of bomber “ace” Oberleutnant Dietrich Kornblum, Staffelkapitän of 4./KG 53, located at Piastow, Russia in June 1944.  Kornblum was awarded the Knight’s Cross after completing 400 missions.  The aircraft has been overpainted with RLM 76 “clouds” and black undersides over the standard Luftwaffe RLM 70 / 71 splinter scheme.  The dorsal turret transparency was formed using the “plunge mold” technique.

Construction posts here: https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com/2021/01/15/hasegawa-heinkel-he-111-build-in-1-72-scale-part-i/

Hasegawa Heinkel He 111 Build in 1/72 Scale Part III

With major assembly complete I sprayed the model with Mr. Surfacer 1000 to check for flaws. Given the size of the underwing crosses I decided they would look best if painted. I painted these areas white and masked off the crosses with Tamiya tape.

The uppersurfaces had a standard factory RLM 70 / 71 splinter scheme. The masking tape here is regular household tape.

Here is the splinter scheme with the masks removed. Two hours of masking, fifteen minutes of painting. I laid this pattern out as it is shown in the Monogram Guide.

The aircraft I’m modeling had black undersides for night missions. I have pre-shaded the panel lines with a scale black mixture, the same mix will be oversprayed in a light coat to bring out the highlights.

Here it is with the black applied and the insignia masks removed. The panel highlighting is subtle but you do get some tonal variation between panels.

This aircraft had “clouds” of RLM 76 Light Blue applied over the uppersurfaces. This photograph shows the colors used.

Decals are in place and have been sealed with Future (Klear) in preparation for panel line washing and weathering. Decals are from Aims sheet 72D010.

The kit pitot tube is easily broken off, at least by me. I have learned to replace this sort of thing with metal parts. I made this one with Albion Alloys tube and 0.005” Nitenol wire for the tip. The Nitenol wire does not break or bend, but returns to its original shape if bumped.

There is a lot of glare from the lightbox in this photograph but even so you can still see much of the interior of the nose compartment. With the hatch open even more of the detail is visible.

The finished model represents the aircraft of bomber “ace” Oberleutnant Dietrich Kornblum, Staffelkapitän of 4./KG 53.  Kornblum was awarded the Knight’s Cross after completing 400 missions.  The dorsal turret transparency was formed using the “plunge mold” technique.

More finished photographs here: https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com/2021/02/02/hasegawa-heinkel-he-111h-20-of-dietrich-kornblum-in-1-72-scale/

Hasegawa Heinkel He 111 Build in 1/72 Scale Part II

I’ll be modifying this model to H-20 standard, the most obvious difference is the dorsal gun position of the H-20 was replaced with a turret mounting a 13.1 mm gun. Here I have inserted a section of PVC pipe to build up the base for the turret.

The gaps in the opening were filled with superglue and the area smoothed with Mr. Surfacer 500.

The turret ring was fabricated from various bits of Evergreen stock using the ring from a Revell of Germany He 177 kit part as a template.

There is a tricky area on the Hasegawa kit which I have learned to respect from previous builds. The bomb bay at the heart of the aircraft is the junction of seven different parts and the fit is not optimal. There will be noticeable seams here if one is not careful. It is best to address the seams in stages to get the best result. Here you can see the wing to fuselage to bombay joint has been filled using superglue and Mr. Surfacer and smoothed.

For my build the external racks are needed. Test fit these parts carefully, as the backs of these will need trimmed to get the best fit. Gaps at this point are filled with Perfect Plastic Putty and the excess wiped away with a damp swab.

The Eduard canopy mask set is a big time-saver. The kit provides an overhead instrument panel with a decal for the dials but does not have the panel next to the sliding hatch, which is a PE part here. The canopy curtains were made from rolled up sections of masking tape.

Aside from the bomb bay area the rest of the parts fit well. I use MEK from the hardware store which is the equivalent of the various “thin” cements on the market but vastly cheaper. This tends to melt any minor imperfections along the joining surfaces and results in a tight fit.

Here is the canopy in place with the seam filled with Perfect Plastic Putty. The PPP is ideal for this application.

The underside of the canopy join was not as tight as the upper side but close enough to fill with putty.

The other major difference between the H-6 and the H-20 is the H-20 had fewer transparencies in the area of the ventral bathtub. The excess windows were simply sanded smooth. The fit of this clear part is extremely good.

Here the RLM 66 interior color has been sprayed on the exterior of the canopy.

Part III here: https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com/2021/01/29/hasegawa-heinkel-he-111-build-in-1-72-scale-part-iii/

Hasegawa Heinkel He 111 Build in 1/72 Scale Part I

This is the Hasegawa He-111H-6 kit which was first issued in 2004. This will be my third time building this kit (fourth if you count the He-111Z as two) so this time I’ll be modifying it to H-20 standard, a rather simple conversion.

The kit has been criticized in some circles for having over-emphasized panel lines. There is some justification to this, although there are many examples of kits with panel lines which are worse. They are not far enough out of scale to bother me so I plan on leaving them as they are.

The detail sprues contain a few options. Hasegawa has provided three different types of exhausts which I believe covers all the major options. There are bomb bay doors or alternatively two different types of external racks which could be mounted in their place.

I also have on hand some Eduard PE frets. These were intended for the He-111Z Zwilling boxing, but I got them at a discount several years ago so there is enough to outfit two standard He 111s. I’ll be using the parts which are useful, but PE can be a pain to work with and many parts do not offer a significant advantage over kit parts so I’ll only use some. PE can be helpful as it gives you a choice but I don’t feel every part should be used every time.

Here is one application where the PE has some advantage. The kit wheelwells are a little on the shallow side and have some really inconvenient ejector pin marks. The top of the well is removed with a Dremel tool which deepens the part and then the interior is replaced with PE parts.

Not much of the interior is visible on this kit. The front cockpit greenhouse is the exception, and well worth the effort to add some extra detail. The clear parts have minimal distortion, also there is a sliding hatch over the pilot’s position so much of the interior in this compartment can be seen.

Here is the cockpit with several selected PE parts to enhance the detail. The most easily visible additions are the seat belts and the yellow wiring for the instruments.

Throttle levers are 1/700 ship railing, this allows for several levers to be installed at once and ensures that they all point in the same direction. I find this much easier to deal with than the separate levers on the PE fret.

Part II here: https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com/2021/01/22/hasegawa-heinkel-he-111-build-in-1-72-scale-part-ii/

2020 Year in Review

“May you live in interesting times.” – ancient Chinese curse

2020 in the form of a gingerbread house.

Oddly for a method of telling time, the positioning of our new year is arbitrary from a physical perspective and should have no actual bearing on earthly events, but here’s hoping for a better 2021 anyway!

I’ll look for the “win” here even if it is minor: We modelers are fortunate to have an inherently solitary hobby in these times.  Overall modeling appears to have picked up, Hornsby (parent company of Airfix) is reporting profits for the first time in years.  Modeling podcasts have come into their own and make bench time even more enjoyable.

The biggest void from a modeling perspective in my opinion is the cancellation of the shows.  I usually attend half a dozen per year and they are always a fine day out, with friends, new kits, and getting to see the work of hundreds of fellow modelers.  Also missing was the Half Price Books annual clearance sale where literally semi-truck loads of books are sold at ridiculously low prices at the state fairgrounds.

On a different note, perhaps the most interesting story of the year received very little attention – the U.S. government admitted that it was studying materials retrieved from vehicles of extraterrestrial origin.  Another commentary on the year 2020.

Blog Statistics and News

2020 was the second complete year for the Inch High Guy blog.  I am happy to report that I again managed to make a post each day, so 366 posts due to the leap year.  The blog received 73,992 views and 26,731 visitors, up from 27,174 views and 7,303 visitors last year.  The most popular post was “Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Interior Colors Part I” with 1,857 views, followed by “The B-17E and the Myth of the Bendix Ventral Turret” with 1,116 views.  Forts appear to be popular around here!

Link:  https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com/2019/09/11/b-17-flying-fortress-interior-colors-part-i/

Link: https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com/2018/11/18/the-b-17e-and-the-myth-of-the-bendix-ventral-turret/

I am still struggling with the counter-intuitive Word Press editor, and that was only made worse with the introduction of the Word Press “Block Editor” in September.  This eliminated some useful functions while re-naming and moving others, with no apparent improvements on the user end.  On a more positive note, I did finally locate the tagging function and busied myself adding tags to all posts old and new.

I have linked several posts on ScaleMates, where the walk-around posts of museum aircraft have proved to be the most popular.  The Women Warriors posts have found a following with wargamers over on The Miniatures Page, among others.  I had intended for these pictures to tell their own stories, but there have been a few requests for captions.  Easier said than done with the modern-era photos as information ranges from obvious to impossible-to-determine, but there may be hope for the historical pictures.

Models Built in 2020

Forty-seven completions, twenty-nine aircraft and eighteen vehicles.  In addition I painted fifteen figures (plus one dog) and constructed three diorama bases. Everything was built to 1/72 scale as is my preference.  The mosaic has a picture of each build, if you want to see more finished pictures or the construction posts just follow the tags at the bottom of this post or enter the descriptions in the search bar in the upper right column.

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Hasegawa Kawanishi Kyofu (Rex) x 2

Tamiya Kawanishi N1K1 Shiden (George)

Aoshima Kawanishi N1K1 Shiden (George)

MPM Kawanishi N1K1 Shiden (George)

Hasegawa Kawanishi Shiden Kai (George) x 2

Hasegawa Mitsubishi Raiden (Jack)

Fujimi Aichi B7A1 Ryusei (Grace)

LS Yokosuka K5Y Akatombo (Willow)

AZ Yokosuka K5Y Akatombo (Willow)

Special Hobby Curtiss P-40 Warhawk x 5

Tamiya Republic P-47D Thunderbolt

Airfix Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress conversion to B-17E x 2

RPM Hotchkiss H35 French Light Tank

RAF Bomber Supply Set x 2 (6 vehicles)

IBG Chevrolet C15A Personnel Lorry

Monogram Boeing F4B-4 x 2

Rare Bits Boeing F4B-1 Conversion

Monogram Curtiss F11C-2 Goshawk

Matchbox Boeing P-12E x 2

Czech Master Resin Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk

Plastic Soldier StuG III Ausf. G Assault Gun x 3

Trumpeter StuG III Ausf. G Assault Gun

Revell Heinkel He 177A-5 Greif

Revell Junkers Ju 88P-1 Conversion

Hasegawa Heinkel He 111H-20

Italeri 15 cm Field Howitzer sFH 18

Trumpeter Sd.Ah.116 Tank Transporter

Zvezda Panzer IV Ausf. H

Planet Models Resin Sd. Kfz. 9 FAMO Halftrack

Revell Sd. Kfz. 9 FAMO Halftrack

Trumpeter Sd. Kfz. 9 FAMO Halftrack

Forward

Arma hobby has just announced a P-51 B/C Mustang in 1/72. The computer renders look good and show areas such as the wing leading edge and wheel well openings which have given other manufacturers problems appear to have been rendered properly. Here’s hoping! Every previous B/C in 1/72 scale has had some major shape issue so an accurate new tool kit has been at the top of many modeler’s wish lists for many years now. The early Mustangs, if done well, are sure to be a hit and a license to print money for Arma so here’s wishing for a successful release!

In more local news Ms. Inch High put a Creality LD-002R 3-D resin printer under the Christmas tree this year. These are very useful if you know what you’re doing, which I don’t at this point. Hopefully I will soon though, and I look forward to printing something useful. It is an amazing technology to have sitting on the bench. For all the talk of “Death of the Hobby” in some circles, I have yet to see any hint of it from here.

I have enjoyed putting this together, and have enjoyed hearing from other modelers and discovering other blogs.  A big thank you to all who have visited here, commented, followed, and especially those who have posted links.  

May you all live long enough to build every model in your stash!

Hasegawa He 111H-6 in 1/72 Scale

This is Hasegawa’s Heinkel He 111H-6.  The kit has endured criticism in some circles due to deep panel lines on the exterior surfaces.  This is somewhat warranted as they exceed what is normally expected from Hasegawa, but they are not prohibitively excessive in my opinion.  I masked the canopies the hard way on this build, but investing in a set of pre-cut masks would be well worth the expense.

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Hasegawa He 111Z Zwilling in 1/72 Scale

The Heinkel He 111Z was developed when the Luftwaffe suddenly realized they had neglected to design a tug big enough for their Me 321 glider.  The solution was to stick two He 111 bombers together with an extra engine in between.  Hasegawa’s kit contains two of their fine He 111s, substituting a new center section for one of the standard wing sprues.

I added the Eduard PhotoEtch interior set, if you open up the transparencies you can see inside this one so it is worth the time to dress it up.  The Eduard canopy masks are a must for this kit, I’d hate to build it without the masks!

Overall, not a bad kit, although it has a few tricky areas.  The nose transparency is molded in five sections, the three main ones are difficult to line up exactly.  Test fitting and patience when building up the central core components and the nacelles really pays off.  The model does look the part when completed, and the Eduard PE really dresses it up.

Heinkel He 111Z Zwilling

After the fall of France in 1940 German planners realized they would need to enhance the Luftwaffe’s airlift capability prior to the invasion of England.  Messerschmitt designed an enormous glider designed to take a load the size of of a standard German railway flat car with a weight limit of 23 tons.  This was the Me 321.

While the glider design was successful, the Luftwaffe lacked a suitable towing aircraft.  The largest German transport in service at the time, the Ju 90, struggled with the Me 321.  Three Bf 110 fighters were tried along with rocket assistance, but this arrangement proved extremely dangerous.  At the behest of Ernst Udet, Heinkel designed the He 111Z as a towing aircraft.

The He 111Z Zwilling (Twin) was constructed by taking two He 111H-6 airframes and rebuilding them as a single twin-fuselage aircraft around a new common center wing section which contained three Jumo 211F engines, for a total of five engines.

The new design proved successful, and was reported to have good flying characteristics.  It was able to remain flying with three of the five engines shut down as long as the remaining two powered engines were arranged symmetrically.

Total fuel capacity was 2,260 gallons (8,570 liters), and it could carry an additional 640 gallons (2,400 liters) in four external tanks.  This gave the He 111Z an endurance of 10 hours while towing a glider.

A rare in-flight photograph of an He 111Z towing a Me 321 glider.  This view gives an interesting size comparison of two enormous aircraft.  Wingspan of the He 111Z was 115 feet 6 inches (35.2 meters), wingspan of the Me 321 was 180 feet 5 inches (55 meters).

The Zwilling carried a crew of seven, four in the port fuselage and three in the starboard.  The pilot flew the aircraft from the port fuselage.  The tow line attachment points can be seen in this picture.

Twelve He 111Z were built, two prototypes and ten production aircraft.  These were converted from standard Heinkel He 111H-6 and H-16 airframes.  The Me 321 gliders proved difficult to handle on the ground, and eventually they were converted into Me 323 transports by adding six Gnome-Rhone GR14N radial engines.

The Zwilling could be used to tow other types of gliders.  Three Go 242 gliders were towed simultaneously during trials, but usually no more than two were towed at a time operationally.

A Go 242 at rest while a Zwilling takes off overhead.  Like the larger Me 321, the Gotha glider was also converted to a powered transport using two Gnome-Rhone GR14N radial engines.

A poor photograph, but an interesting view of a He 111Z as seen from the second of two Gotha Go 242 gliders while under tow.

Due to a chronic shortage of transport aircraft, the Zwillings were used extensively as transports on the Eastern front.  Here is one on a rather muddy airfield with white temporary camouflage.

Of the twelve Zwillings constructed, eight were lost during the war.  None of the four remaining airframes were preserved, all being scrapped.

Hasegawa Heinkel He 111H-6 in 1/72 Scale

This is Hasegawa’s 1/72 scale Heinkel He 111H-6 modeled a machine of 6./KG 27 operating on the Eastern Front during 1941.  Typical Hasegawa quality, nicely detailed and with a good fit.  The kit has been criticized in some circles for the depth and width of the engraved panel lines, which some view as excessive.  Interior details were enhanced with Eduard photoetch.