Italeri 1/72 Heinkel He 111H 'Battle of Britain' 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 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.

Here is Italeri's reissue of their 1/72 He 111H tooling first released in 1976. Molded in light gray styrene, this kit is presented on four parts trees plus one tree of clear parts. Among the features and options in this kit:

• Basic flight deck
• Choice of nose gun types
• Choice of dorsal gun station open or closed
• Choice of dorsal gun types
• Choice of ventrail gun types and configurations
• Choice of open or shrouded exhaust stacks
• Positionable elevators and rudder
• Choice of external bomb or torpedo racks
• Choice of three bomb types

The kit provides five markings options:

• He 111H-2, A1+DA, KG 53, Stab Leader, Battle of Britain, Sept 1940
• He 111H-3, G1+BH, KG 55, 1st Staffel, Battle of Britain, Sept 1940
• He 111H-2, 1H+JA, KG 26, Geschwader Stab, Oct 1939
• He 111H-6, 1H+GP, KG 26, 6th Staffel, Grosseto, 1942
• He 111H-6, VQ+BA, Sonderkmmendo Blaich, North Africa, 1942

Considering this kit was first released a few years after I joined the Air Force, it has held up rather well. While the interior might be a bit basic, you won't see that much through the clear parts (which are indeed clear) in this scale. Given its age, it isn't surprising that the surface detailing is raised, but it will look great in any of the schemes included in this release.

Thanks to MRC for the review sample.

Here is a list of colors Italeri identifies for use with this kit: