masks to make this a little
easier. The cockpit glazing is
made up of four large clear
parts, three of which cover the
main chunk of the area, with
the fourth being the small
dome at the front. This was
left of as there is a machine
gun placed through this, and
I thought it would be easier
to mask and paint this part
separately and attach it during
the inal stages of construction.
At this stage the, windows
were added, which in some
places were quite a tight
it, as well as the glazing
on the belly of the aircraft.
Everything was then masked
of ready for painting.
I’ve always liked
desert camoulage for
this aircraft, and since
I have already built the
previous version of the kit
in the standard RLM 70/71
splinter camoulage, I decided
the desert version was the
way to go for this build. I used
Tamiya XF-2 White acrylic for
the band on the fuselage and
the underside of the wing
tips, XF-23 Light Blue on
the remaining undersides,
and XF-59 Desert Yellow
for the upper surfaces. Once
the painting was completed,
I used Tamiya XF-22 Clear to
gloss the aircraft for the decals.
As with all kit decals, I have
used recently, there were zero
issues, and everything bedded
down perfectly. I used Micro-
Sol and Set to help everything
settle down into all the panel
lines. Once the decaling was
completed, I applied another
gloss coat to seal everything in.
Finishing the kit was just a
case of adding all the smaller
parts and sub-assemblies. One
of the nicest parts of this kit is
the undercarriage, and it its
perfectly into place with little
efort. It starts with a simple
main strut, which is attached
under each wing, followed
by the support structures.
The wheel is then attached in
place, then the doors, which
also it perfectly. Airix gets
a big thumbs up from me
here, as this a superb bit of
model engineering. Now thepropellers, bombs and exhausts
were added; these had all been
painted and weathered earlier,
to be added now with any
remaining small parts. On to
the inal stage, by applying a
good coat of XF-86 Matt Clear.
Once dry, I used my favourite
Prismacolor silver pencil to add
some paint chipping, followed
by Tamiya weathering powders
to fade the paintwork and
give it a weathered, sun-faded
look. At last, the only thing
left to do was to remove all
the masking and sit back to
admire my completed model. CONCLUSION
The Airix He111 is a nice kit,
and I feel it is far more detailed
and well thought out than
many other kits on the market
for a similar price. This was a
great kit to build, with only a
few small areas needing a little
work, but no kit is ever going
to be 100% perfect. Though
some of the younger builders
might need a helping hand,
this is a kit I can recommend
to modellers of all skill levels.SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL • MARCH 2019KIT REVIEWS
47