The Little World

You can get into a rut in model airplane building.

I do planes that are mostly British or American types. Sometimes a Soviet job, or the rare Japanese one. In all these cases they have distinctive national characteristics quite apart from paint jobs or insignia. There are styles of fuselages, wings, and engines. Some are sensible and attractive and some are not.

But I must say, the German planes I have built – a Junkers 52, an Me 109, and this Heinkel 111, are some of the weirdest of the lot. In the case of this one, It is a new mould that shows a great deal of the interior as you build it, and the geometry and proportions are strange indeed.

As the build grows outwardly, it gets more understandable. I can recognise the Heinkel tail and the odd swoop of the flaps on the wings. But it still doesn’t quite compensate for the very odd bomb bay or the painful gun positions. I am happy in this build that I will not have to put weapons in these positions – they look like a nightmare to attach without breaking something.

As it is. I have deviated from the Airfix plan in assembling the wings altogether before offering them to the fuselage – this means I do not have the strengthening benefit of the stub spars. But I do have the chance to get the wing assembly correct and then attach it with a circle of cement. I think it will be fine.

The Airfix kit from which this model is constructed is a marque that carried two torpedoes or one giant bomb. As such, it has external pylons laid over the bomb bay doors. I am building an earlier version and so welcome the kit provision of Heinkel bomb racks to fill the empty space. It’s not explained in the instructions but is easy enough to figure out. They just need to loom empty there inside the windows of the fuselage. Silly design, as it could have had only a bad influence upon bomb ballistics. I’m surprised the Germans could hit the ground with this sort of thing.

The grey interior colour is probably wrong, but my reading of Britmodeller forums and the SAM magazine suggests that it would be impossible to get it right anyway. I am practical and not fussy. The best part about it was that it was kept to a thin mixture and this has made noticeable modelling effects in the ribs of the interior.

I am also delighted to see that Airfix want me to put the side windows in after the paint job is completed – the window surrounds are recessed from the outside.