Roden – 027 – Heinkel 111E “Emil”

Description:

Heinkel 111E
“Emil”

Unassembled plastic model kit in 1/72 scale of a German WWII medium bomber Heinkel 111 introduced in 1935 and retired by the end the war, with over 5.000 units produces. Same airframe was used post waar in Spain to produce the CASA 2.111 under license.

E variant served during the Spanish Civil War, in this conflict the defensive armament of the Heinkel 111 was enough for the Republican side fighter aircrafts so learnings did not mean any improve in this armament, and error that later was revealed especially during the battle of Britain.

Kit was released in the year 2003, updating with new parts for the E variant from previous releases, being the main tooling from year 200. Kit consists of about 162 parts including clear parts and a decal sheet with 3 markings for:

1. Heinkel 111E (GC+GE) of unknown training or transport unit which was used rescue operation during final stage of Battle for Stalingrad (winter 1942/1943). Note that aircraft is equipped with external containers under the fuselage.
2. Heinkel 111E (V4+AB), Kampfgeschwader I/KG 1 “Hindenburg”, Polish Campaign, early days of September 1939.
3. Heinkel 111E “black 25-92”, Kampfgruppe 88 “Legion Condor”, Spain, 1937-1938.

First Look Review

Kit consist of six sprues, one of them of clear (transparent) plastic parts, decal sheet and instructions sheet. All the sprues are framed and the attach of the parts to sprue is good, joins are not very tick and they don’t ruin any detail of the parts. Except seven parts, all the rest of the parts included are used to build this variant.

The instructions are split in 35 steps, each step with few parts which make assemble easier. Paper is of quality enough, they are just black-and-white but they are clear and well printed, in three languages, Russian, English and German.

Below general images of the sprues and box content.

Detail pictures below expose some of the flaws of this kit, mainly the bigger parts has a small amount of flash and edges are not well defined in the casting process. Most of the small parts are more clean and defined but edges on the main fuselage and specially wings may require some clean. Clear parts are perfectly casted and decal sheet looks good and quality printed.

The kit has a good amount of interior detail, not always common in the small scale but specially the wings and some other parts looks like a real challenge to fit.

Conclusion

We have not build the kit, but noticeable problems in the casting of the main parts ensure that fit of these parts will require clean up, filling and sanding in a good amount. This Roden kit, the series of Roden Heinkel 111, was tooled in the year 2000 and next years, adding new parts for the different versions and after it, other Heinkel 111 had been tooled, Hasegawa (2004) and Airfix (2015). The Roden kit has a quite good interior detail and in general a good accuracy and detail, but casting problems make it a kit for, an at least, intermediate/experienced builders and not for beginners, who should choose Airfix or Hasegawa options (or the older Italeri) but for those who can take a challenge, this kit is more detailed although requires more work.