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Heinkel He 177 A-6 Greif

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Description

Backround: Beeing the only operational heavy bomber of the german reich that was built in bigger numbers, the He 177 Greif(griffin) had a special role in the luftwaffe. Although a 4 engined bomber, the greif looked like a big twin engined aircraft. The airplane had 2 DB 610 power systems, each db 610 was a combination of 2 db 605 driving one proppeller shaft. This resulted in the 2 engined appearence of the plane. This unusual configuration should allow the he 177 to dive bomb(!) , something that was found to be imposible for such a huge aircraft. The he 177 had a big bomb bay which could carry up to 6 500 kg bombs. The engined drove a 4 bladed prop , the he 177 could reach 560 km/h, extremely fast for a heavy bomber. As soon as the 177 reached production status, the 177 caused some serious problems: The db 610 power systems caused overheating, this resulted in engine fires and the 177 was quickly called reichsfackel or reichsfeuerzeug(reich lighter or reich torch). The problems could never be solved completely but were reduced over time to an acceptable minimum. The fishbowl nose of the 177 offered excellent visibility and the plane had some heavy armament: 1 machine gun in the nose, 1 in the "chin" 3 on the back another one in front of the bomb bay,firing backwars and 1 in the tail(the here shown A6 variant had a flexible turret of 4 MG 131) The 177 was a very elegant aircraft and its maneuvrability was much better than other heavy bombers of the war due to its unusual engine configuration. The here shown A6 had improved engines, better armanet and was the testbed for the Hd 131. Optional to the bombs, a fitting for either 3 Fritz X or 3 Hs 293 guided bombs could be installed. This shown A 6 had the Hs 293 glide bomb. The Hs 293 was the most sucesfull guided bomb of all time, more ships were sunk or damaged with it than with any other air to surface guided missile/bomb. The 293 could operate by a primitive fire and forget principe, meaning the plane who fired it hadnt had to fly over the target. With the Frit X that wasnt the case but the X was a bit more accurate and it had a deep penetration power. For controlling the bombs, the Kehl system was used. The he 177 is often considered a failure, but the later versions were succesful and the aircraft was much loved by its crews for its performance. The luftwaffe requested more he 177s but the greif was phased out of production in 1944. Over 1200 were built and used till wars end if fuel was available. Further development lead to the he 277 with conventional 4 engined arrangement. It isnt certain if any of those were built, some sources say 6 were built,other say none was built. Another development was the he 274 ,again with 4 engined conventional arrangement . 1 was built and used and completed by the french after the war. Today no he 177 survives.

The model kit. The kit is I think phased ou of production the catalogue doesnt list it any more. It is from revell in 1:72. The kit comes with 3 hs 293 guided bombs/missiles. Optional, the bomb bay can be filled with bombs if the hs 293 arent installed.it costs 17,99€
Detail: Very nice, the cockpit looks very good, lots of small detail in it. The bomb bay is even more awesome with many many small details. Its almost a shame you cant see the detail if you wanna install the hs 293, thats why I left the rear part of the bomb bay in open condition so you can see the bombs and some of the bomb bays detail. The rest of the plane is also done nicely,
*****
Fitting: As an older model kit I had some worries about the fitting. I built an he 177 a5 in my early years of model kit building but I cant remeber how good it fitted. As soon as I opened the box, and dry fitted the fuselage parts together, I though I would get some serious trubles because t the fuselage halves didnt fit good, they were much offset, so I had to use instant glue. But fortunately this is the only major fitting problem, the rest went fine together .
****
Functions: The kit offers awesome functions: movable gun turrets on the backand the rear, movable machine guns(even the nose mg is movable) , spinning props, the upper glass part can be removed (which I read too late and I glued it....), and movable wheels .
*****
Decals: Very nice, the spiralson the spinners look very nice, I love planes with spirals on the spinner, the rest is also well executed and in the end there are many decals left over which you can use for other aircraft. Like the box art says, the kit has a "super decal" sheet and this is true, the decals are really really nice.
*****
Extrapoints: It looks fantastic when assembled and is one of the few 177 on the german market(there are 3 other kits from mpm in 1/48 scale but they cost 100€ but given the size of tat model I think that price is worth it.). It is a very nice and needed addition to my 1/72 wwii aircraft collection and with its fine elegant lines and big props, it looks very appealing to the eye in my opinion.
*****
Fazit: I can recomment the kit, it isnt sth for beginner because it contains some very smal parts and the fitting isnt always perfect but for somemore experienced builders it is a fun and worth investation and a fine executed model kit. It hasan efficient prize and personally I could absolutely recommend it, if you are lucky enough toget your hands one one, dont hesitate, its a nice kit.
*****
Image size
3648x3360px 17.25 MB
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Comments8
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Midway2009's avatar
Quite an awesome bomber. :eyepopping: