Day 30 was a day for mixing homemade paint with some leftover paint I had already made. I just mixed homemade zinc chromate with homemade dark grey and stirred it up until I had the shade I wanted…

How did it work? 

I tested it in the cockpit area…

I tested it on the bomb bay doors…

 

I tested it in the wheel wells and on the landing struts.

 

Finally I tested it in the bomb bay.

After all that testing, I still had lots of homemade RLM 02 acrylic paint left over that I can use when I will be building my next German model airplane.

 

Tomorrow maybe the biggest decision ever made on My Forgotten Hobby III.

Day 28 was a day of “remembering” the past. Remembering why I have been doing all this since December 2013…writing about a forgotten hobby.

It was written in the stars back in 1958 that I would start writing about my forgotten hobby in December 2013. I was then remembering the movie Air Force I saw as a kid, and I had started following Amateur Airplanes’ blog.

Amateur Airplanes was building 1/72 scale model airplane kits and his collection of what he was building, as well as his stash, was impressive.

I was learning a lot from him even the word “stash” which I had in the basement but did not know how it was called.  

Not my stash but I wish it was…

So this is how I started remembering in December 2013 that I had a  stash collection of unbuilt model kits in my basement, and also remembering all those model airplanes I had built starting in 1958.

The first one was Lindberg F-86.

Source Scalemates

Lindberg F-86 was state of the art back then. It was not perfect by any means but I did not know that in 1958.

Moving fast forward to 2020, this is my work in progress…

I remembered I had to glue these last parts to complete the landing gear assembly before I start painting. I had procrastinated long enough and for good reasons.

Tweezers were quite helpful and I had my hands full which is why I took no pictures showing the tweezers.

 

Next I moved to install these panels on the engine nacelles.

 

And then there was checking on this.

Solid as a rock!

The side window was causing the problem with the fit. It was not glued tight leaving a bulge.

With so many parts in that model kit, each part has to fit perfectly so all the others will fit just right. 

There is still a gap but I will fill it with Testors clear glue.

The other side looks fine with a small gap.

The model will be ready for the next step tomorrow when all the engines panels will be added as well as the landing gear doors.

I dry fitted some parts here to get a feeling of what it will look like before I start using my airbrush in a few days.

So why I have been doing all this since December 2013…? I am still looking for the answer, but it might be hidden here.

Day 27 was a day of “reckoning”…

I had to check the spelling of “reckoning” first. My Forgotten Hobby III has to be perfect. For all those who have reviewed this kit on the Internet, they probably haven’t build ICM He 111H-3 because “perfect” can’t apply to this model kit.

ICM He 111H-3 is quite challenging for a 71 year-old, but I will soldier on. Tomorrow I will be working on the engine nacelles and do some touch-up painting in the cockpit area, maybe even painting the engines since painting is what I like best.

We’ll see what happens.

All unglued clear parts will be set aside and await masking which is probably the way to go with all the windows on that plane. 

I know now what was wrong with the fit here and I am sure I can work around that problem later.

The starboard side of the He 111H-3 seems solidly attached and I will leave there.

These two other parts that were joined with masking tape were glued then set aside.

 

I will be checking tomorrow morning if they are still joined solid.

So much anticipation isn’t?

Tomorrow will proove prove to be just another day on My Forgotten Hobby III.

 

This is how I have tried to work around the problem with the instructions.

 

 

The starboard side had been glued the day before.

Then came the port side which did not fit perfectly but I glued it anyway.

In my haste I forgot to paint the seat on the starboard side and add part E24 with the decal.

Later in the day I checked on how the glue was holding up and I was expecting the worst.

I was right!

You have to remember why I have been writing all this on My Forgotten Hobby III since October 31st.

It’s the only way I have found to restart building my collection of unbuilt model airplane kits. By writing about it here each passing day motivates me to make progress.

ICM He 111H-3 is quite challenging.

I will have to remember that calling it a day is sometimes the best way to avoid mistakes and to make notable progress.

As I was trying to add these parts yesterday morning I noticed I did not have to jam them through but just glue them gently.

I did one part at the time to let the glue set. 

 

While at it I glued more bomb braces and managed to lose one on the floor.

I was then confronted with these parts. Even if I did not expect any trouble I opted to skip that step.

Then came the bomb bay doors and the fit was perfect. 

Looking around for the next step I reached for the clear part sprue and located E24 but I decided to skip step 95.

The next steps seemed challenging enough to dry fit the parts first.

That’s where I saw problems aligning each part and gluing everything. After careful consideration I glued just one part making sure it was aligned perfectly to the front of the plane.

It was time to call it a day…

 

I haven’t done much on Day 24 except trying to figure out how to proceed with the instructions which were confusing.

I had checked the strut I had glued the night before. It was solidly attached.

Then I tried dry fitting the parts using the images I had found on the Internet, working with tweezers…

 

 

Still unsure how to proceed I had decided again to call it a day since there is always a tomorrow on My Forgotten Hobby III. So until tomorrow here are some more pictures I took yesterday…