Your He111 is coming along nicely. Im not sure about the bomb though, it kinda looks like a relic thats been stripped of paint and forgotten in the back of an antique store basement somewhere. I think german bombs came in gray and dark yellow or "ordnance tan"but could vary according to all kinds of rivet counting research so id probably stick with gray. I think your original plan of a dirty gray bomb was best but steer away with less dirt emphasis and go with some scratches chips and maybe a little rust. Vary the shade of gray on the other bomb(s) maybe? Just some ideas

Mike I have to agree with you. The more I look at it the more I think it looks like tarnished bare metal with a little patina on it. Too bad the bombs weren't pewter! They're already attached but I think a quick brush job of grey will fix them up.

Thanks for the input, I appreciate all the help I can get!

Oh my gosh am I still working on this model? Yes, I am. I'm still not at that "done" phase. I think the closer I get to being finished, the more I tend to slow down, because after the long, strange trip to get this far, I almost hate to see it come to an end. So I've been crawling along at a snail's pace, but it is time to put up some pictures to show that I have done something.
These are photos of the top gun tub. The MG is the resin kit from Vector mentioned earlier in this blog, and the straps I added from an extra set I had laying around. All in all I think it turned out well. Let me know what you think.

Here is a shot of the straps. I tried to get a draped look while not breaking them off. This whole piece was a bit fragile and a tight squeeze to get in to.

And a final shot just because I took it. The gunmetal was painted I believe with a base of dark grey, then a drybrush of silver, then various applications of Mig gunmetal pigment and a silver Prismacolor colored pencil.

A final note, I did heed advice and repainted the bombs in a flat dark grey with a tiny hint of earth tone pastels. They look much better. Some of the photos I had hoped to add were to show the antennae that I strung with stretch sprue. I was quite proud of myself until a case of fat fingers popped the sprue off the tail. Hopefully I can glue it back on nice and taut. The exhausts stacks are painted and on, and really the final thing I need to do is repaint the prop blades to cover a boo-boo and then this plane really is done!

...upon which time I'll ask for a bunch of pictures so we can put it on the front page for everyone to marvel at

Great build! The 111 is such a nice looking plane, your build really came out well. The weathering really looks authentic.


Does the Legion Condor decal mean the pilot participated in it, or is this supposed to be a Spanish Civil War plane? Cause I thought only the early versions participated in that?

According to the instructions, this is a legacy badge for KG 53 which had previously operated in Spain. The plane I marked up is supposed to be in Russia 1941, though I confess that I went into this build with no research, so I won't vouch for the accuracy beyond the instruction sheet provided by AeroMaster. That was a real mistake, because I normally use new builds as an excuse to overload on new books, and I had nagging doubts all through the build. But, I'm an armor modeller, so I didn't think it would be worth buying a whole bunch of books on "wingy-thingies" for just one model. Of course, now my next build is an Hs-129, which I've always loved, so I bought everything I could find on that.

Jessica, I would be thrilled and honored to have my model posted on the front page! I just need to be walked through how to make a submission, because I've read the instructions but for some reason I can't make heads or tails of them. Thanks again!

It's really easy. Just bundle up your pictures and send them to me in an e-mail: jessica.cooper(at)aeroscale.co.uk
Write up whatever you like about how the build went and the special tools, parts and techniques you may have used. You can probably copy the text of your posts in this thread for much of it. If you can, send me the full size pictures right out of your camera. I'll take care of resizing and cropping them down to make them fit our pages.

Then I'll do the putting together stuff to turn it into an article and you get the bragging rights : )

Jessica, that sounds super easy. Now I have some incentive to get this gal finished!

Just 3 pics to show a quick update. After spending almost a month staring at the broken antenna, i decided to try a repair. I brushed Insta-set on one side and put a tiny bubble of Sprue-Brothers Maxi Cure CA glue on the other side of the break, then with the magnifying glasses on, i touched them together and there you go! I added another tiny bit of CA glue to strengthen the bond. Luckily the stretched sprue didn't get any kinks and doesn't seem to be sagging, and the repair for the break isn't visible to the naked eye. I can live with that.

The only thing that bugs me is that the antenna seems too thick to me. I got nervous and didn't want to try messing with something thinner, but I'll have to have more confidence on my next project.

Continuing the theme of repairs, I present the repainted propellers. Not much to see, just repainted to cover damage from removing decals.


final picture is simply proof that I have attached the exhaust stacks. The camera flash does a great job of washing out the nice parts of the painting and pigment weathering, while at the same time amplifying little mistakes and nasty painting spots that I'd rather not know about. Trust me, in person it looks nice.