Hasegawa

1/72 Scale Heinkel HE-111H-8 w/Balloon Cable Cutter

Kit Number: 00929

Reviewed by  Brian R. Baker, IPMS# 43146

MSRP: $80.00 Review kit supplied by Dragon Models USA: Website: www.dragonmodelsusa.com History The Heinkel HE-111H was one of the Luftwaffe's most widely used bombers during World War II. I will refer you to Dave Morrissette's excellent REVIEW of the original Hasegawa offering, kit Number 00551, the HE-111H-6 medium bomber, for the basics of this kit, as anything I say would be merely repetitious. It is an excellent, well-engineered kit, and the added parts are only required to make this very unusual variant, the HE-111H-8. Heinkel converted about 30 HE-111H-3's and HE-111H-5's to HE-111H-8 configuration by the addition of a full span barrage balloon cable cutting system. This apparently consisted of a long hard-edged cutter that was intended to sever the balloon cables by the force of the aircraft moving through the air at relatively high speed. The whole unit weighed a little over 2200 pounds and significantly reduced the payload of the aircraft as well as inhibiting its performance. After a short time in service, the surviving 20 aircraft had their cable cutters removed, and they were converted to HE-111H-8/R2 glider tugs. The HE-111H-10, with the lighter Kuto-Nase cutting system mounted in the wing roots and nose, was more successful, and 425 of them were converted. Documentation on the HE-111H-8 variant is elusive, but two photos appear in the Squadron Signal "In Action" series on the HE-111, No. 184, and a two view of two variants is also included. The photos show a fairly robust-looking installation, and both photos show aircraft with 70/71/65 camouflage, with light undersides clearly visible on the low-grade photos. Other markings are not discernable. The kit provides a suggested color scheme of 70/71 over black undersides, with a yellow letter "Z" aft of the fuselage cross. The only information given is that the aircraft was attached to the Luftwaffe during 1941. No unit or location is given. I have found no other information on this particular variant, and I wonder where Hasegawa's researchers found their information. Decals are provided for this aircraft, along with oversize under wing crosses and complete white outline swastikas, although there is no indication of their use on the painting diagram. The Kit The kit is very well designed and molded, with very little, but some flash. The instructions are clearly presented, and a modeler of moderate skills should have no trouble building an excellent model of the HE-111H. Holes are marked on the insides of the wing panels, and these need to be drilled out for the cable cutter mounting structures. Use extremely fine drills for these, as one unit did not line up exactly. More on this later. Read Dave Morrissette's review for specifics on basic assembly.

The cockpit is nicely detailed, and since it is quite visible through the clear plastic cockpit covers, it should be painted as per instructions. Two bulkheads are provided, along with the bombs in a bomb rack. The cockpit consists of a floor, seats, control panel, instrument panel, control yoke, and some very delicate rudder pedals. Be careful not to break these off after assembly. Just assemble the canopies right away and install the completed unit and this will not be a problem. The canopy is a bit fiddly to assemble, but with a little perseverance and probably much profanity, it can be done. When the fuselage is assembled, the side windows can be left out, as they are inserted from the outside later on. The forward four windows, two on each side, are painted over, so they can be installed at any time. Two of the rear windows have MG mountings, and these should go in last. These are also potential "break off" parts, so be careful. The nose cone has no MG mounted in it, so it needs to be filled in. I used white glue. The bomb bay consists of several parts. The bombs in the rack are mounted bottom down, and although they are nicely done, they can't be seen once the model is completed. I just painted that section RML 66, along with the rest of the interior. The bomb bay doors fit very well, hiding everything. The dorsal turret consists of a seat and a gun mount, and these slip into the fuselage after assembly. Good design. The landing gear appears to be quite complex, but in fact it goes together pretty easily. There is no three view drawing showing the proper angles, so you need a reference there. The wheel well doors are a bit of a problem, so be careful to line them up properly. Just be sure that you use the proper parts for each side, especially Parts C11 and C12 (the wheel well interiors), as the instructions are a little confusing. The engines and props are easy to do, and the props can be stuck into the cowling after painting, which is nice. The exhausts are very detailed, but it is a little difficult to paint the exhaust stack openings. No wire is provided for the ventral antennas under the rear fuselage, but this is not a problem if you have some thin wire or plastic rod.

In all, the kit is excellent, and is relatively easy to build and paint. Once the kit is completed and painted, and the decals are applied, it is time for the balloon cable cutters. And these demand some extra modeling experience. The cutters are made of photo etched brass, and they are VERY fragile. At first glance, I wondered why they didn't just use injection molded plastic, and after assembly, I think that still might have been the right approach. The photos in the Squadron publication show a much thicker and more robust structure, but I went ahead and did it according to instructions. "Ours was not to reason why….." I first painted all of the strut assemblies before I cut them out of the photo etched sheet. I didn't paint the long cutters, as they had to be glued together, and I wanted the glue to hold. When dry, I removed the struts from the mounting board. I mounted the center mounting structure to the bottom of the fuselage. This mounts in a small mounting hole, and also on a tab that has to be rotated 90 degrees on the strut. The main strut need to be folded over, and glued in a couple of places. Little tabs on the front need to be bent out so that the cable cutting bars can be mounted on it. The main problem here is to mount the strut perfectly straight, and this is made more difficult since the nose of the Heinkel is skewered off to the right, as seen from the pilot's seat., and if you fill in the seams properly, you won't have a good reference line. The other angles will pretty much adjust themselves. I then folded, glued, and painted the cutter bar assemblies. My suggestion on mounting the cable cutters would be to cut and drill out the wingtip mounting receptacles as shown in the instructions, paint them, and then assemble the cutter bars before you mount the inside struts. On my example, I found that the outside struts needed a little bending to become aligned properly, while the inside struts needed even more. This might have been because my main strut was not perfectly straight, although it was very close. I think it would be easier to insert these struts after the whole assembly is glued in place. I used super glue, and had no real problems. Incidentally, the mounting struts have little notches where the cutter bars are supposed to fit into place. These are slightly too small for the doubled over bar, and they are almost too small and delicate to trim, so I just did the best I could on that one. Once you have the whole trapeze system in place, remember that it is EXTREMELY FRAGILE, and that any knock or even look will probably move it out of alignment. And you don't want to bend any of those tiny thin struts, or you will probably end up rebuilding the whole thing in plastic or committing Hari Kari. Actually, before I started on the unit, I took Carmel Attard's advice and made a couple of photocopies of the photo etch sheet in case I screwed something up. I didn't, but it was nice to know that I had the patterns if I needed them. In addition, there is some kind of ladder assembly that can be constructed from the photo etch material. I passed on that one. I'll save it for later. Recommendations This is obviously a reissue of the excellent Hasegawa Heinkel HE-111H kit, and it will be a unique addition to any 1/72 scale model collection. It is certain to get attention, and it is certainly up to Hasegawa's usual standard of excellence. To scratch build this conversion would be possible, and it could be done with card and rod plastic, but the kit takes a lot of work out of it, and the results are quite impressive. If you want a model of this aerial monstrosity, get this one. It's really not as difficult as it looks. It's really fun. Go for it! Thanks to Dragon Models USA and IPMS/USA for the review copy.