Revell 1/32 Heinkel He 111H-6 Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

The Heinkel He 111 was an outgrowth of Ernst Heinkel's desire to build the world's fastest passenger aircraft. In the early 1930s, Heinkel unveiled the single engine He 70 which easily stripped the Lockheed 9 Orion of its speed record. Many of the features of the single-engine He 70 were incorporated into a larger, twin-engine design which could accommodate a greater payload over a longer range.

As the early versions of the He 111 entered commercial service with Lufthansa in the mid-1930s, the new German government wanted to press the aircraft into military service. Early versions of the He 111B-F bomber did see combat in the Spanish Civil War.

The He 111P would be the first version of this series to change the nose section from the more conventional 'stepped nose' to an all-glass design. The vast majority of the He 111s produced by the time the assembly lines were closed in 1944 was the H-model. The He 111H-4 was powered by the Jumo 211D or F engines and was distinctive by its conformal twin bomb racks under the fuselage. The He 111H-5 was similarly powered as the H-4, but it carried its bomb load internally. The He 111H-6 was powered by the Jumo 211F and replaced the two bomb racks with two torpedo cradles under the fuselage.

Revell has released their second installment in the Heinkel He 111 family in 1/32 scale, the He 111H-6. Two years ago, Stephen Sutton examined their first release, the He 111P-1 here. After seeing Stephen's first look, I almost acquired one for myself but the aircraft just doesn't look right to me with those engines. It could have been worse, Revell could have made their first release with the Merlin-powered He 111 that was used in the Battle of Britain (the movie, not the real campaign).

Here we have the He 111 with Jumo 211 power and set up with several options similar to the Monogram 1/48 scale He 111H-4/6. This kit is molded in light gray styrene and presented on 22 parts trees plus three trees of clear parts. Take a look at that detail! Among the features and options in this kit:

• Very detailed cockpit
• Detailed bomardier station
• Detailed mid-fuselage compartment with waist gunner positions
• Detailed ventral gondola with gunner's station
• Detailed dorsal gunner's station
• Detailed main wheel wells
• Detailed main landing gear
• Positionable flaps
• Positionable ailerons
• Positionable elevators
• Positionable rudder

The kit offers your choice of positionable bomb bay doors or conformal cradle under the fuselage. While the instructions don't call them out, this kit does retain the internal bomb load of the He 111P-1 release so you can do an early H with the bomb doors open or closed, The kit provides a pair of two SC500 bombs for the cradle to render an H-4/H-6 or a pair of torpedoes to render the H-6.

Markings are provided for two examples:

• He 111H-6, 5J+ER, 7./KG 4, 'General Wever', Stalingrad, Russia, 1942
• He 111H-6, 1H+GK, 2./KG 26, Norway, 1942

Another nice aspect of waiting to acquire the He 111 until now is the availability of aftermarket options. It took a few months for the He 111P-1 details to reach store shelves, but given that the plastic is nearly identical with this release, most aftermarket options were available for the release of this kit. In short, I've turned this $55 USD (street price) into a $200+ project.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Monogram 1/48 scale kit and I expect that this gem will be as much fun, if not more. With all of those windows in the nose and in this scale, there is some serious opportunity for some AMS modeling here!