Too much thinner. I should have remembered.
Post 300 – Progress report
He 111-H3
Post 299 – Progress report
Yesterday I had remembered how I had painted canopies before on My Forgotten Hobby.
I had been using a paintbrush with thinned acrylic paint and then gently scrape away the excess with a wooden stick.
Since it had worked so well with the Japanese Zero I have decided to use it again on the Heinkel.
I don’t think I will be completing the He 111 before July 6 when I will be embarking on my next project.
The Saviour of Ceylon
What would you do?
I was tackling the control panel yesterday.
I had left it on the sprue making sure it was easier to add the decal.
How to glue the control panel inside now that I had already glued most of the clear parts?
I had to figure a way out to get it inside.
I came up with this brilliant idea!
How to hold it in place for the glue to set up? Blue Tack on a stick.
Piece of cake…
I have not forgotten my ICM He 111
However I had forgotten to glue the control panel and I decided then to call it a day.
That was a few months ago.
Update
I think this is a good time for a little update on My Forgotten Hobby III.
The MiG-15 finally got its decals two weeks ago. Then came the F-86.
I tested the MiG decals first and they worked perfectly even if they sat in the box since the 1980s. The F-86 decals came after with the yellow decals I had received from Model Airplane Maker.
I still have to figure a way to fix this though.
I still have a few touch-ups to do before I think how I will give them as a gift.
Next in line will have to be the He 111.
I think the clear parts should be solidly glued now.
I had started painting the He 111 using a paintbrush.
First the upper surfaces with dark green which seemed to be the wrong shade of green, and then the undersides with the right shade of RLM 65 Hellblau.
Those photos we taken with my new Motorola Stylus G cellphone I got as a gift from my son. Now I have no reason to procrastinate and then shower you with photos of my progress reports.
To be continued…
ICM He 111H-3 – Day 30
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.
ICM He 111H-3 – Day 29
Day 29 was a day for “colorizing” the past. This is what I like to do in my spare time beside building model airplane kits.
This is the latest one I did for his children using a black and white photo they had of their father. Looking at it I think I got the shirt color wrong. I will fix it later.
If you are interested, what I wrote about Flight Lieutenant Thomas Oscar Meteyer is here. He is the reason I bought these two model kits of the planes he flew in WWII.
Getting back to my build, this is where I am today.
The landing doors were added last Friday night.
Before…
And after…
The engines panels and the exhausts were added Saturday morning. Again I had fitting problems, but I’ll get over it.
The small parts will be added after all the painting has been done. That way I won’t break anything.
Final unpainted photo of ICM He 111H-3.
Tomorrow I should mix some homemade RLM 02 or RLM 66 and test them in the cockpit area, on the bomb bay doors, in the wheel wells and the landing struts.
About Lieutenant Meteyer’s colorised photo… Can you spot “la différence”?
Before…
After…
ICM He 111H-3 – Day 28
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.
ICM He 111H-3 – Day 27
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.
ICM He 111H-3 – Day 26
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!
My Forgotten Hobby III 