Heinkel He111, Revell 1/72 (No.04377)

Perhaps the best-recognised German bomber due to the distinctive, extensively glazed "greenhouse" nose of later versions, the Heinkel He 111 was the most numerous Luftwaffe bomber during the early stages of World War II. It was described as a "wolf in sheep's clothing" because the project masqueraded the machine as civilian transport, though from conception the He 111 was intended to provide the newly established Luftwaffe with a fast medium bomber. The bomber fared well until the Battle of Britain, when its weak defensive armament was exposed. Nevertheless, it proved capable of sustaining heavy damage and remaining airborne. As the war progressed, the He 111 was used in a variety of roles on every front in the European theatre. It was used as a strategic bomber during the Battle of Britain, a torpedo bomber in the Atlantic and Arctic, and a medium bomber and a transport aircraft on the Western, Eastern, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and North African Front theatres. The He 111 was constantly upgraded and modified, but became obsolete during the latter part of the war. The Luftwaffe continued operating the He 111 in combat roles until the end of the war. Manufacture of the He 111 ceased in September 1944, at which point piston-engine bomber production was largely halted in favour of fighter aircraft. With the German bomber force virtually defunct, the He 111 was used for logistics/transport.

Construction & Painting

In this build we model the Revell He111H-6 kit (Νο.04377), which originates from the Hasegawa molds, building it straight ΟΟΒ (out of the box), without the use of any detail sets.

We started from the cockpit where we added aluminum foil belts to the seats. The cockpit interior was painted in Humbrol's Matt 67 (32 is also good) for the proper RLM 66, which is a Grey-Black but for 1/72 scale a dark grey is better. Then we used a matt medium grey for dry-brushing details, followed by a generous black oil wash. The rest of the fuselage interior, behind cockpit, was painted with Gunze's RLM 02 (H70), without adding anything more, as nothing will be visible when the fuselage parts are closed. With the use of  Humbrol’s Maskol and Tamiya masking tape, all the transparent parts were masked and we began painting the undersurfaces. We chose none of the suggestions in Revell's instructions, so we used the Hasegawa He111 kit markings with an Afrika Korps desert camouflage (Kesselring's personal aircraft).

The undersurfaces were sprayed with Gunze's RLM 78 Hellblau (Light Blue) and then the same color was mixed with some white in order to “light” some panels locally. After thoroughly drying, the model was carefully masked and the uppersurfaces were painted with RLM 79  Sandgelb (Sandy Brown) by Gunze. Again the basic Sandgelb color was mixed with some white to create more realistic panels, but also with the use of other similar light brown shades to create various contrasts near our basic color. Then the model was sealed with two coats of  Future (or your preferred gloss varnish) and we started decaling, using some markings from the Revell and some from the Hasegawa kit. Mr. Mark Softer did an excellent job to soften the large decals.

Finally we applied a black oil wash all over the model, and some more weathering using shades of white, yellow, raw and burnt amber as well as burnt sienna oil colors. With a fine brush and the use of Humbrol metallic enamel, we added locally a little chipping, especially to areas where ground staff was usually involved. With Humbrol's matt varnish, we sprayed the final finish to our model, while with some dust/brown pigments we weathered the wheels. With the use of dry pastels the engine exhausts were smoked and our last step was to clear-coat the transparent parts.

In conclusion, we would say that this was a very pleasant, easy and fast build of the legendary bomber that should not be missed by any modeller fond of this period. Another build of this particular airplane, this time from the new and very detailed Airfix 1/72 scale kit, is planned. So do watch this space and stay tuned in Modellingnews.gr!