1/72 Heinkel 277.B7/R1

Gallery Article by Andre Mimizu on Aug 18 2016

 

      

While surfing through Google, I found an interesting site about Heinkel 177 variants. Subsquence searches resulted in variants of 277B?/R?, 277V?, and 274V?. All were four engine bombers. 

So, with all the variants, I decided to build a He-274 V1R1. The main addition to my 274 V1R1 is the four HL131 guns in the tail turret.

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Additional research showed that two 274 prototypes were being built in France.  They were abandoned to the approaching Allied armies in 1944. The French took control of the planes and did some test flights after the war. As for the 277, prototypes were built and tested. In mid 1944, orders from the top stopped production in favor of other projects.

Two He177 Airfix models were purchased on Ebay for about $20. Parts from my scrap heap were used for the main landing gear and tail section. The most difficult part of the build was the wings. I had to extend the wing, with engines, as to have them identical to each other. To assist, I printed the internet drawing to use as a template. A tail gun turret was added to give it the R1 nomeclature. Besides, it looks cool. Perhaps not practical, though. Germany did build and test different gun turret types. The turret on my model, however, would not swivel fast enough to be effective.

As in my previous models, the colors were from can spray paint. Clay was used to create the scheme on the plane body. First, apply a light grey skin, attach the clay patterns, then spray on the darker color. Next project, maybe another jet fighter or perhaps, a hybrid bomber.

Andre Mimizu

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Photos and text © by Andre Mimizu