He-111 "War Prize"

[Sakrison]

I've been busy with my first major repaint, a GPM Heinkel He-111 captured and put to use by the Russians.

I had to scan it twice; the first time it lacked contrast, and I wanted to bring out the camouflage markings. They are very subtle on the original. After scanning, I took each page into Photoshop®, rescaled it to 1/35 scale (to fit on US letter-size paper), and went to work. I added Russian markings, poorly spray-painted by the repair crews, and some oily smoke from a damaged starboard engine. So far I've learned that a repainting project like this is not difficult but it is fussy.

After about 12 hours of work, I'm ready start building. I won't do a full build thread; there are others out there. But I'll try to post the occasional progress report.

I can't share this repaint, other than the sample below, because the GPM owns the original. I may send the files to them. Who knows, maybe they'll publish it.

Happy New Year!

[Wyvern]

Will be inter stead to see this captured eagle built under its new owners!

Wyvern

[Mike1158]

Looks great from the sample, good luck with GPM, it can only be a benefit to them if they go ahead and produce it.

[Isaac]

Do you have a photo of the actual plane with the red stars?


Isaac

[Butelczynski]

There was an article on one of the Russian sites about use of captured German planes by VVS.If I remember correctly all of them had old markings painted out with a brush-not with spray gun.Even new stars have been done with a brush,just with help of a card template.In effect both paint jobs were uneven,sometimes sloppy and stars were crooked.

One exception were planes that made it to main research and development facilities where crashed planes had to be repaired-those were painted with spray gun ,front to end entire plane.Many 109s and 190s were done this way.

[Sakrison]

Originally Posted by Isaac

Do you have a photo of the actual plane with the red stars?

I don't. I used a book on Russian aircraft markings for "reference."

There was an article on one of the Russian sites about use of captured German planes by VVS.If I remember correctly all of them had old markings painted out with a brush-not with spray gun.Even new stars have been done with a brush,just with help of a card template.In effect both paint jobs were uneven,sometimes sloppy and stars were crooked.

One exception were planes that made it to main research and development facilities where crashed planes had to be repaired-those were painted with spray gun ,front to end entire plane.Many 109s and 190s were done this way.

We'll call this one a shortage of spray paint at the research station. Or a hurry-up-get-it-back-on-the-line spray job -- strictly my "what-if."

[Sakrison]

So, done in the field, it might look something like this:

[MichaelS]

That looks very good to me. At that time the Russians had much more than neatness to worry about.

[MacSongLi]

I do like both versions. You done a great job. That hadn painted version does look realistic. Nice work.


Gary

[Don Boose]

David -

Here is the one image that I could find. The caption reads, "Heinkel He 111H-11, (Wk. Nr. unknown), KG27 captured by the USSR in Jan 1943. It was sent to the NII-VVS (Soviet Air Forces Scientific Research Institute), where it was flown in May 1943. (Soviet Air Force Photo)."

Source: Harold A. Skaarup, author of Shelldrake

Great project. I look forward to seeing your red-star Heinkel take shape.

Don