Panzerfux Modellbau

Heinkel He 111Z Zwilling

As someone who enjoys modelling aircraft and HO scale military it is nice if I can combine the two pleasures and since discovering sites like Panzerfux,Arsenal-M and United Fun I have been able to pursue this.

Unlike 1/72 scale aircraft the range of airplanes in 1/87th is no where near as extensive and number around 50 or so different models. This lack of variation is what prompted me to consider building a HE111Z just to see if it could be done and produce an aircraft that at least looks like the real thing if not entirely accurate.

I had already built a 1/87 He111 made by CMK kits and was happy with the result.

So I was reasonably confident that I could join two of these kits together just as long as I could work out how to create a centre wing with 5^th engine.

The first problem I realised was that I would need 3 He111 kits because I needed the wings and engine from the 3^rd kit to create the middle wing and this does mean that it becomes an expensive model to create especially if it all goes wrong!

There seems to be very little information and pictures of the real Zwilling and so I had to use the Italeri 1/72 kit as a guide for the paint scheme and general proportions.

The first task was to create the middle wing from the left and right wing of the 3^rd model.

This involved cutting the wing in 2 parts through the engine so that the engine nacelle was symmetrical as on the real 5^th engine and also gives the straight trailing edge behind the engine.

The next task was to straighten out the leading edge.

This was achieved by removing a piece of leading edge from the redundant cut up wing.

My main concern here was the varying thickness of the resin wing edges which was addressed with the use of modelling putty.

Next came drilling out the windows in the fuselage and cutting the wings down to size on the 2 other aircraft.

With this completed, I checked that the basic shape would line up.

Another concern at this time was whether the centre wing would take the strain of supporting the 2 other fuselages and if I needed to insert metal rods to relieve the pressure. As it turned out the superglue used was more than up to the task of holding the aircraft together. Also as an item of interest it is important that the 5^th engine has its exhaust positioned to the right side of the nacelle.

It was found at this point that due to the how the model is cast there is a slight upturn of the wings outward from the engines and results in the middle wing being slightly higher than it should really be. There was also a problem in aligning the middle wing up which was only resolved with dipping the wing into hot water and bending the resin into the correct angle as well as modelling putty to produce a smooth appearance.

With the wing finally in place and the model in as an acceptable build I then proceeded to paint it in a camouflage colour scheme.

The markings used are for the prototype Zwilling and came from a 1/72 decal set and so are a little over scale . With the paint applied I then used Micro Kristal Klear to create the windows in the fuselage and then added the nose canopy last. Anybody who has had experience of this model (or any other vac formed aircraft canopy) knows how hard it is to get these multipart pieces cut and joined in a satisfactory manner and are always my least favourite part to do.

Eventually all was finished and produced the model seen below.

It was certainly an interesting build which I was glad I tried but I am not sure I would want to do it again, but it has given me confidence to try further conversions of HO aircraft in the future.

Ian