I gladly do!
I bought this kit, being mislead - not to say fooled - by the new box art. It was however made with the old wornout tool from 1959! First I'll give some background info on this plane, then the problems with the kit itself.
The historical context:
1. The He 111 H-20 was built from 1943 onwards. The first ones reached the front in early 1944. Airfix has it that it was based in Bardofuss Norway in 1942!!! Apart from that it is silly to see it issued also in the Batlle Of Britain gift set....
2. There never has been a 8-/KG4 based in Norway after 1940 as KG4 by then was transferred to the Mediterrenian or the East front. The only He 111´s stationed there were He 111 H-6 torpedobombers assigned to KG26!
3. In 1943 it became clear that the use of bombers was disputable due to the menacing fuel shortage. The Oberkommando der Luftwaffe decided to assign the fuel mainly to fighter and recce units. In the meantime the last mass-produced version of the He 111, the H-20, materialised. The H-20 had 4 subversions:
- the R1 transport (to substitute the Junkers Ju 52 transport)
- the R2 for paratrooper transportation and glider tug (for the GO 242)
- the R3 nightbomber with to external SC1000 bombs (which is the subtype I built).
- the R4 with internally transported 20 50kg fragmentation bombs
So: Airfix offers two versions that are actually the R1 transporter ("Bardofuss") and the R3 nightbomber ("Kursk"). The unit 8./KG4 was by then a transport unit on the East front when the Ju 52´s were more and more replaced by He 111´s.
4. The "Kursk" version is supposed to have been based at Kursk, which is wrong, as the Soviet reconquered Kursk in ... 1943!
Mistakes in the kit:
There are two windows missing on both sides of the plane juist behind the glazed nose.
The are no mounts for the double side guns included.
The "Himmelbett" on the belly misses windows, though the were overpainted at the front.
The clear parts of the nose come in two halves: you cannot assemble them without seeing the seam. They are much too thick.
When assembled you will find that the nose is too narrow to fit the fuselage. I tried to solve that by sanding the edges of the fuselages front. You can see that on the pic:
lh4.googleusercontent.com/.../9a.jpg
The kit comes with 2 bombs. I made mysefl the transport containers that were hung underneath but didn't use them after all:
lh5.googleusercontent.com/.../24-1.jpg
The colour scheme matches the photographic evidence:
lh6.googleusercontent.com/.../1-He-111H20-KG4.8-%25285J%252BES%2529-Germany-1945-01.jpg
lh6.googleusercontent.com/.../He111H20-KG55f-s.jpg
Conclusion:
You will need a lot of time, perseverance and skill to make this one into a presentable model....
Check my building review here:
www.modelbrouwers.nl/.../viewtopic.php
In Dutch, but the pics aren't
;-)
Cheers,
Jan