The Heinkel He 219 ‘Uhu’
A Detailed Guide Of The Luftwaffe’s Ultimate Nightfighter

by Richard Franks

Valiant Wings Publishing
Airframe Album No.1

Reviewed by Brett Green

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Heinkel commenced work on a purpose-built night fighter as early as January 1942.

The Heinkel 219 V1 flew for the first time on 15 November, 1942. The road to production was plagued with supply problems and interference by the RLM. Only 320 He 219s had been delivered to Luftwaffe units by the end of 1944.
 
Nevertheless, the aircraft was by far the best production night-fighter the Luftwaffe could field. Even equipped with its massive offensive firepower of four 30mm MK 108 cannon, two 30mm MK 103 cannon and two 20mm MG 151 cannon, it could still attain a top speed of 416mph. Its flight characteristics were forgiving, and it proved to be easy to maintain under operational conditions.

Valiant Wings Publishing's fourth title is a close-up examination of the Heinkel He 219. This is the first in their "Airframe Album" series, reflecting the focus of the book.

The backbone of this title is the series of detaied colour photos of the National Air and Space Museum's Heinkel 219 before, during and after restoration. The images all sorts of nooks and crannies that would normally not be accessible, let alone to modern digital cameras. These include the cockpit, the fuselage interior, fuel cells, under the fuseage skinning and much more.

The book also includes many illustrations and scrap view drawings from the original 1944 Flight Handbook.

Further hepful images are provided by Jacek Jackiewicz with his progressive 3D isometric views of all variants; plus 15 colour side profiles and camouflage detail by Richard Caruana.

This new title is rounded out with a summary of available kits, accessories and decals. This section includes three pages analysing the new Revell 1/32 scale kit, plus photos of Dieter Wiegmann's built and painted example.

Captions throughout the book are detailed and useful.

Dedicated references for the Heinkel He 219 are fairly scarse, and Valiant Wings' latest book has been timed perfectly just before the release of not one, but two 1/32 scale Heinke He 219 kits (from Revell and Zoukei-Mura).

"The Heinkel He 219 ‘Uhu’ A Detailed Guide Of The Luftwaffe’s Ultimate Nightfighter" is a very useful pictorial walkaround of the Heinkel He 219 that offers many unique insights into the detail and colours of this famous Luftwaffe night fighter.

The inclusion of scrap view illustrations, the progressive development drawings and colour profiles also make it an ideal format for the modeller; not surprising as the Author and Publishers are modellers themselves.

Highly recommended.

Thanks to Valiant Wings Publishing for the sample.

Review Copyright © 2012 by Brett Green
This Page Created on 24 September, 2012
Last updated 24 September, 2012

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