Revell 1/32 He 111P-1 Kit First Look

By Stephen Sutton

First Look

The Heinkel He 111 was designed by Siegfried and Walter Günter in the early 1930s in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. It was described as a "Wolf in sheep's clothing", it masqueraded as a transport aircraft, but its purpose was to provide the Luftwaffe with a fast medium bomber.

Perhaps the best-recognized bomber due to the distinctive, extensively glazed, "greenhouse" nose of later versions, the Heinkel was the most numerous and the primary Luftwaffe bomber during the early stages of World War II. It performed well until the Battle of Britain.

The He 111P bomber incorporated the updated Daimler-Benz DB 601A-1 water-cooled engine and featured a newly designed nose section, including an asymmetric Ikaria nose mounting for an MG 15 machine gun that replaced the 'stepped' cockpit with a roomier and aerodynamically favorable glazed "dome" over the front of the aircraft. The design was implemented in 1937 because pilot reports indicated problems with visibility. The pilot's seat could actually be elevated, with the pilot's eyes above the level of the upper glazing, complete with a small pivoted windscreen panel, to get the pilot's head above the level of the top of the "glass tunnel" for a better forward view for takeoffs and landings. After WWII the original design was continued in Spain as the CASA 2.111, but the Junkers engines initially used were replaced with Rolls Royce Merlins, and it is these post-war aircraft that served as He 111s for the film Battle of Britain in the 1960s.

Revell has released the 1/32 scale kit of the Heinkel He 111P-1. The kit comes in a huge top opening box, typical of Revell Germany kits. This kit has lots of plastic parts in several clear plastic bags, including the clear sprues bagged all together separately. The parts themselves are free of any flash. Decals are in perfect register with flat carrier film, printed by Cartograf.

The price of the kit is significantly higher than their 1/32 Ju 88 A-1l but it still is a bargain. This kit contains 433 parts, 43 in clear parts.
The assembly starts with the cockpit with several sub- assemblies for all the equipment. Seats, steering column, the work places for aimer and radio operator are built up from multiple pieces to present a lot of detail out of the box. Eduard has release several detail sets to include seat belt harnesses and interior, exterior and landing gear sets. The main instrument panel has raised details, but the instruments are all empty. Revell provided a excellent decals for it. I’m still looking for Revell’s photo-etch set sold separately in the future.

The seat belts are molded on the pilot´s seat are way undersized. The inner fuselage parts show a lot of ejector pin marks and will have to be filled, but these are in the interior and you would have to look through the windows to see them. The fuselage windows are nicely done and mostly free of any distortion, but my kit had some small scratches, because they were all in one plastic bag.

The center of the lower fuselage and the inner parts of the under wing is one piece where the engine nacelles, landing gear bays and the twin bomb bays are attached, before the complete assembly is installed to the fuselage. The engine nacelles yet again are built up of multiple parts. The kit contains no separate engine to display. The exhaust manifolds are built up of two parts each, which means, they are hollow and do not need to be opened or replaced by aftermarket pieces. The propeller blades show significant sink holes on their roots which need to be filled.

The twin bomb bays are made of several parts each, replicating very nicely the sheet metal construction with the holes for weight reduction. The bombs are made of two parts each, plus additional fins. A complete bomb load of eight SC 250 bombs is included in the kit. The bomb bay doors are separate parts to display it open.

The main landing gear bays are built up of several parts for the side walls, plus additional parts for more detail. The landing gear is a very fragile construction of many separate parts. Very cautious assembly is needed for them, plus sufficient drying time.

The main wing is made of two main parts with separate flaps and ailerons. Vertical and horizontal stabilizers are made of two parts each with rudders separate and can be built movable. The gondola under the fuselage is separately made with many clear parts, including MG and ammo drums for the gunner. The spine MG station has a separate mount that can be positioned in any direction. The MGs need to be drilled at the muzzle to give a better appearance.

1. He 111P-1, 5./ KG 54 “Totenkopf- Geschwader”, Coulommiers, France 1940
2. He 111P-1, III./ KG 27 “Geschwader Boelcke”; Delmenhorst, Germany 1940
3. He 111P-1, II./ KG 5 “General Wever”, preserved at Norwegian Aviation Museum Gardemoen

Revell has released a very large replica of the Heinkel He 111P in 1/32. This kit is well detailed, but as always there is room for more. The seat belts really need a replacement and the clear parts should have each been packed separately to avoid scratches.

I highly recommend this kit.