The Heinkel He 219 'Uhu'
A Detailed Guide
to the Luftwaffe's Ultimage Nightfighter

by Richard A. Franks

Valiant Wings Publishing
Airframe Album No.1
Second Edition

Reviewed by Graham Carter

This is an updated edition of a book first available in 2012 and consists of146 pages of semi-gloss high quality paper are enclosed in a card case-bound cover with a nice rendition of an He219 A-0 of 3./NJG in 1945 specially commissioned from Jerry Boucher on the front. The paper enables excellent reproduction of images both in colour and B&W and drawings. It follows the familiar format for this series of books from Valiant Wings and actually set the scene for all of this series when first available as Airframe Album No.1 in 2012. The update uses more recent images of the work on the NASM example and new kits, references and accessories now available.

The volume is divided into 4 sections plus three Appendices. It begins with a sixteen-page Preface/Introduction giving a history of the development and operational use of Heinkel’s advanced night fighter.  A brief treatment is also given to the captured ones in Britain and the USA, all illustrated with a selection of useful photos.  Brief mention is made of the two aircraft that ended up in Czechoslovakia after the war and survived until 1952!

Section 1 covers a Technical Description in sixty-nine pages full of excellent, well-annotated images from contemporary manuals and the sole surviving example held in NASM at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles airport in the USA. These modern images are in colour and are very useful. The nine elements of the aircraft treated are the Fuselage ( including the cockpits),  Undercarriage, Tail, Fuel, oil, oxygen and de-icing systems, Wings, Engines and nacelles, Weapons , Electrical Systems and Miscellaneous things like access panels and covers.

Section 2 covers the evolution of the type from Prototype, Production and Projected Variants in 34 pages. These are covered by the usual 3-D isometric renderings with annotations for specific features by Jacek Jackiewicz, updated in this edition by Juraj Jankovic. There are the usual weird and wonderful projects here, covering prototypes, engine and weapon test-beds, radar equipment and extended wing high altitude versions that never got beyond the drawing boards.

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Section 3 is a fourteen-page coverage of  Camouflage and Markings. The section covers a variety of aircraft from the pre-production examples through to the captured ones at war’s end with both photos and nice side views in colour from Richard Caruana . A single page shows the location of stencils in 1/72nd scale. There is also coverage of the Czech and RAF examples.

Section 5 is a single build by Libor Jekl of the Dragon 1/72 He219 A-2 and one by Steve A. Evans of the 1/48 Tamiya kit over a dozen detailed pages with ample photo coverage to inspire the modeller in either scale.

The book is rounded off with three appendices :

• a single page of kits available in all the major scales from 1/144 to 1/32,

• three pages of accessories in resin, PE, masks, and decals, and

• a full page bibliography of official documents, publications, and periodicals.

Valiant Wings have updated an excellent book for the Luftwaffe modeller and one that will appeal to those working on any of the scale kits that are available, and it comes highly recommended. There is plenty of inspiration to super-detail one’s model and to answer questions about aircraft features and different variants.

Thanks to Valiant Wings Publishing for the sample.

Review Copyright © 2021 by Graham Carter
This Page Created on 9 November, 2021
Last updated 9 November, 2021

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