Revell 1/32 He 219 Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

The Heinkel He 219 Uhu (Eagle-Owl) was a radar-equipped night fighter designed specifically for that purpose. The design was based on an earlier Heinkel high-speed bomber design and featured a number of innovations: it was the first operational aircraft with an ejection seat, it was equipped with tricycle landing gear (which was still rare in Luftwaffe designs), armed with up to six-forward-firing 20mm cannons, and some versions were armed with 2 30mm cannons angled upward allowing the Heinkel to shred its target from outside the debris field that it would create behind the aircraft.

The aircraft first flew in late 1942 and entered service in 1943. Before the aircraft had actually entered service, three pre-production He 219A-0 aircraft had supposedly shot down 20 RAF bombers in 10 consecutive days including several Mosquitos though the validity of these claims are in question. Nevertheless, the commander of the night fighter force was sold on the design and pushed to get the type into full rate production.

Revell recently released this newly-tooled kit to create the first He 219 in styrene in 1/32 scale. Molded in light gray styrene, the kit is presented on 12 parts trees plus two trees of clear parts. The kit designers have really done a nice job with the kit and provide some nice features and options. Let's take a look:

• Nicely detailed cockpit straight out of the box
• Front and rear ejection seats and frames are nicely done
• Posable armor shield ahead of interior windshield
• Nicely detailed radar set in rear cockpit
• Choice of Naxos bulged canopy or regular canopy
• Positionable canopy
• Boarding ladder
• Fuselage has twin frames with wing spars to provide a solid foundation
• Interior bay behind cockpit to hold 70 grams of ballast (not provided)
• Ventral gun tray can be configured for two or four 20mm cannons
• Positionable ailerons
• Positionable elevators
• Positionable rudders
• Positionable flaps
• Positionable landing gear
• Choice of radar types
• Choice of vertical or 45 degree antenna dipole installations

The kit also provides five markings options:

• He 219A-7, W.Nr.310189, 3./NJG 3, D5+CL, Grove, Denmark, 1945
• He 219A-7, W.Nr.310200, 3./NJG 3, D5+DL, Grove, Denmark, 1945
• He 219A-2, W.Nr.290123, 1./NJG 1, G9+TH, Westerland, Germany, 1945
• He 219A-7, W.Nr.310213, 1./NJG 1, G9+FK, Westerland, Germany, 1945
• He 219A-5, W.Nr, 420331, Stab 1./NJG 1, G9+DB, Muenster-Handorf, Germany, 1945

In addition to the distinctive aircraft markings, this sheet provides a nice set of instrument faces, airframe maintenance stencils, and walkways. Not surprising from a kit from Germany, this decal sheet does not have swastikas, so you'll have to get these elsewhere.

I built the Tamiya He 219 in 1/48 scale many years ago and thoroughly enjoyed the project, though it unfortunately was destroyed my move to Indiana. I've held off rebuilding the aircraft as I was waiting for some good references to come available and now we have several to choose from! When Revell announced this kit last year, Zoukei Mura had also announced the same subject in the same scale. Revell was the first to market and came up with this kit for 1/3 the price. It will be interesting to see what Zoukei-Mura finally produces in their kit. In the meantime, I am looking forward to this project and having a good interceptor on the shelf to deal with those upcoming HK Models 1/32 scale bombers...