Tamiya's 1/48 scale
Heinkel He 219A-7

by David W. Aungst

Tamiya's 1/48 scale Heinkel He 219A-7 is available online from Squadron

I am not really a "prop guy", instead preferring the smell of burning kerosene. But I do have a few favorites that are prop-types. The He 219 "Owl" is one of them.

The wide wing cord with the slender fuselage width is a combination that I really like.

To say I was waiting impatiently for someone (anyone) to create a 1/48th scale kit of an He 219 "Owl" is an understatement.

After the disbelief wore off that Tamiya was going to finally do it, I could just not wait to get one in my grubby hands. I made certain that I was on the list to get one of the first arrivals at my local hobby shop and was finished building the kit three weeks after I got it. I did not get too elaborate, but I could not just build the kit out-of-the-box. I did the following to the basic kit:

• I added seat harnesses using lead foil and Waldron seat belt buckles.

• I opened the boarding ladder well so the kit provided boarding ladder looked better when dropped open.

• I scratch built a new FuB1 2F antenna (blind night landing) under the rear fuselage (the "towel rack" antenna). Tamiya provides this (incorrectly) as a long blade antenna.

• I added the IFF antenna under the rear fuselage.

• I flattened the tires to represent aircraft weight.

The camouflage on the model is painted using Floquil Military enamel paints. The camouflage is the "standard" Gray-Violet (RLM 75) splotches over Light Blue (RLM 76) on the top surfaces. I've recently been convinced that the camouflage may actually be RLM 75 with RLM 76 squiggles painted over it on some machines, but that is not what I did on this model. The bottom is painted black. I actually used Floquil's Black-Gray (RLM 66) for the bottom color. It made a good "scale black". Most of the rest of the colors are Model Master enamel paints.

The decals come from various sources, including the Tamiya kit decals and SuperScale. I did not like any of the Tamiya decal options, so I built a nondescript aircraft from 1/NJG 1 that I found a camouflage / markings diagram for in an old Koku-Fan magazine. Also, since W.W.II is not my real passion, I had no proper sized white crosses for the fuselage sides. Since the Tamiya ones allowed the black / gray color demarcation to be seen (through the decal), I opted to mask and paint the white crosses on the fuselage sides.

For weathering, I used my typical style of thinned down enamel paint washes and air brush shading. I finished the weathering with some dry brushing to pop out the surface details. For a more complete discussion of what I do to weather my models, see my posting on "Weathering Aircraft".

This posting is a "re-run" with new images from an earlier article on HyperScale. I was able to shoot better images with my digital camera (Canon PowerShot G2). I sold this particular model to a guy in the Great Lakes area last year. I really want to build another, but as long as this one was sitting on my shelves, I would never do so. Now I have an open hole for the next "Owl" (whenever I get to it).
 

 

Additional Images and Project Summary

 

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Project Statistics Completion Date: 17 December, 1997 Total Building Time: 45.6 Research: 2.3 Construction: 12.3 Painting (includes creation and printing of custom decals): 24.9 Decals / Markings (includes creating and printing custom decals): 2.2 Extra Detailing / Conversion: 3.9

German Night Fighter Aces of World War 2 Aircraft of the Aces 20 Author: Jerry Scutts Illustrator: John Weal US Price: $19.95 UK Price: £12.99 Publisher: Osprey Publishing Publish Date:  June 5, 1998 Details: 96 pages; ISBN: 1855327147 Shop Buy it from Osprey Publishing

Model, Description and Images Copyright © 2004 by David Aungst
Page Created 29 August, 2004
Last Updated 29 August, 2004

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