1:32nd scale
Review by Geoff Coughlin (July 2011)
Price: around £59.99 (GBP)
Our thanks to Revell Germany for our review sample: www.revell.de
Here’s some useful reference for you…
Ed Note: Do keep an eye out in Build Now – this new release from Revell is certainly going to feature there, just as soon as we can clear space for it! Geoff
Background to the Heinkel He 111
At the start of the Second World War, the Heinkel 111 was the most powerful medium-range bomber in the world. With a maximum speed of 410 km/h (255 mph) it was faster than most fighters of the period. Although the He 111 evolved as early as 1932, it was still as a civil project for a fast aircraft for Lufthansa. At this time though, it was still forbidden to build military aircraft in Germany due to the Treaty of Versailles. Heinkel therefore designed the civil aircraft in such a way that it could be mass-produced as a medium range bomber with little effort. After the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles were lifted in the summer of 1935, work on the military version of the He 111 began in earnest.
Series production started in the summer of 1936 and in May 1937 the newly formed Luftwaffe took delivery of its first He 111 B-1. With the advent of the Spanish Civil War the Luftwaffe found an opportunity to test its new aircraft under actual war-time conditions. Experience gained during this conflict was eventually incorporated into the He 111 during a large modification programme. The aircraft had a fully glazed asymmetric glazed nose section and this was to become a trademark feature of the type. This version received the designation He 111 P and went into mass production in 1938 as the P-1 experience with this model led to the more powerful P-2 which in the summer of 1939 gradually began replacing the P-1.
Initial assessment
“We should have had it by now Geoff…”: Les says over a cup of coffee this morning “don’t worry, I have a sneaky feeling I’ll get a knock on the door today or some time very soon and it’ll be here” I say, “blimey, it’s big though” says Les and on we go and on that note, I’ll move on. Suffice to say, sure enough, no sooner had Les departed than a bang, bang, bang, and a nice courier guy hands me two packages from Revell and yes, you guessed it, one contains the 1:32nd Heinkel He 111 P-1.
The box is restrained in size – fat rather that big but the contents are significant, very significant, because I am holding a 1:32nd scale He 111 in my hands – who’d have thought it? I am rapidly coming to the view that nothing is impossible these days – someone, somewhere just might produce one. Les also mentioned that Hannants are listing new 1:32 scale SEPECAT Jaguar decals, so maybe that rumoured Trumpeter release is nearer to reality than I thought – oh yes, that’ll be in SMN first too.