Again, many thanks to Mr. Hideyuki Shigeta for honoring me with the privilege of building the Super Wing Series He 219 Uhu (Eagle Owl) model kit for public review as an IPMS Reviewer Corps representative. I am deeply appreciative of the trust and confidence shown in me by both Mr. Shigeta and the IPMS Reviewer staff. I am delighted to report on the next stage of construction: the main wings.

Overall Impression

This next construction section has only 65 parts and 8 subassemblies! I encountered very few problems. However, I will reiterate my earlier caveats again: this is a very precisely made kit, and all parts need to be exactly aligned, fitted, or in some cases lightly sanded. After completing a lot of very beautifully engineered subassemblies so far, I think I can say that you are not just building a superb kit, you are building a watch! I hope the SWS design and development staff will appreciate that this is a very positive statement on the way the kit goes together. This kit is an experience unlike any I’ve had in my modeling career. The chapter completes the main wings. I did not paint the panel interiors that were to be closed. I used the suggested paint colors.

Construction

After reviewing the whole sequence of assemblies while considering the final configuration, I varied a little bit from the instructions and closed up all of the panels. But as said before, with all of the interior detail you could produce an amazing “opened up” display. I don’t regret covering the “hidden” detail that was ultimately not seen beneath the panels. Every bit of the inside parts provided me with an excellent appreciation and overview of the Uhu’s capabilities.

When you start to prepare the parts, pay attention to trimming on the main wing spar, and don’t nip off needed attachment points. These are shown in the instructions. I love the idea of a one-piece wing spar and the skinning approach. That seam-popping flex that has plagued me in the past was a non-problem on this kit. Make sure you get the super charger intakes (parts F-50 and 47) in place before you install the engine panels (B-8). I tried dry-fitting the pipe into the supercharger and left it unglued into the engine; doing this allowed me to slide it around a little to fit better. I am a little surprised that the intake screen on the supercharger pipe isn’t more finely detailed, but a little weathering or black detail wash popped the details. There is no other PE for the kit, so I am not sure adding a PE fret for this detail would justify the expense.

I mounted the engines after the upper engine nacelles were attached to the wing spar. This allowed me to ensure good line-up with the other nacelle panels. I veered from the instructions and buttoned up all of the access panels since they will not be open when finished. Many of the wing panels are scheduled to be added in later steps. The armament is awesome. The ammo chutes and boxes look just right and fit perfectly into place with little clean up. Sadly, they are now hidden, but a diorama of an Uhu undergoing loading or maintenance could be stunning! Extra gun barrels are provided if you wish to show the complete gun assembly off the gun.

The wheel bays are thoroughly detailed and consist of several floors and bulkheads. Remember that part G-58 slants backward. The “step” of the top well bulkhead onto the engine firewall, which is in turn stepped over the wing spar, makes for a very solid attachment point for the main gear. Be certain to make sure the upper nacelle is properly positioned across the top of the wing spar. The beautiful Daimler-Benz motors from the first chapter are mounted into very solid recesses. I cleaned out the mounting points thoroughly, since alignment here is critical. Not surprisingly, the engine is covered by four panels, two of which are placed in this chapter. I found that some of my imperfect alignments in building the motors in chapter 3-1 came back to haunt me here. The exhaust shrouds and ports installed way back in step 3-1(J) were not correctly positioned by me, and I had to remove them and realign. Once I got them correctly positioned there were no further problems with getting the engine panels in place. If you wish to show the motors/engines exposed in a diorama, you will have no difficulty leaving the panels off, exposing those gloriously detailed inverted V-12s!

Following the motor mounting, the directions call for skinning the wings. The inner wings panels fit with very little cleanup, if any. At this time I noticed an important feature to be very careful of. The wing spar is a single piece. At this point in wing construction, with the complete nacelles and the start of wing panel attachment, much more weight and torque is being applied to the single central wing spar piece. That section of the wing spar is very thick and fits snugly into the fuselage, but even so I found myself being very careful handling the wing. The interior wing panels fit snugly, with leading edge inserts for the supercharger intakes. The outer wing panels fit equally well. There is an add-on resin landing light that fits into the leading edge of the port wing. It is not referenced in the instructions I have, but is included in the pouch with the decals. It, too, fits snugly with little cleanup under a well-fitting clear light cover, although assembly is not called for until step 3-7 (L).

Conclusion (for this review)

As before, I continue to be delighted at the quality of fit, molding and ease of assembly, and the clarity of instructions. I really like the detailed assembly of the wings. The assembly approach of skinning a detailed wing spar make for a very interesting and enjoyable build of this subassembly. I am looking forward to the next assembly chapter, Teil 3-5: Rump und Flügel, where the wing assembly is mounted to the fuselage, with only 12 parts!

Again, my sincerest gratitude to both Zoukei-Mura, Inc. and IPMS/USA for providing me this kit for review. It is a great privilege, thank you.

Additional information for photos below:

• Main wings backlit trailing edge
  • Backlit view showing typical trailing edges on flying surfaces. Very thin!
• Main wings forward center spar
  • View of center spar and engines before seam work and touch up painting
• Main wings nacelle detail bottom
  • Bottom view of nearly complete nacelle, before seam work and touch up painting. Note the slight gap on the exhaust shroud from my mistake on alignment in chapter 3-1.
• Main wings nacelle detail top
  • More engine detail, before seam work and touch up painting
• Main wings spar and skin
  • Wing ribs and spar provide great rigidity to wing
• Main wings top
  • Full view of the wing top, showing locations of installed access hatches before seam work and touch up painting
• Main wings wheel wells and center spar detail
  • View looking forward showing center of wing spar where the fuselage will fit, before seam work and touch up painting