Valiant Wings Building the Heinkel He.219 Uhu - Airframe Constructor

[Mike]

Building the Heinkel He.219 Uhu
Valiant Wings - Airframe Constructor

Few of us can have escaped the release of the beautiful (to me at least) Zoukei-mura He.219 that was released in the back half of 2013, and is available for sale from their website here. It ticked all the boxes when it comes to accuracy and detail – boxes that the Revell version sadly didn't tick, leaving those of us looking for a cheap alternative to the ZM kit disappointed.

I'm sure that many additional sales of the ZM Uhu have been made as a result, and Valiant Wings have recognised this and come up with a modelling manual that is specifically targeted at this kit. It is not a "building the Uhu from any manufacturer" book, but entirely dedicated to this one model. With a cover price of only £13.95, it would be churlish not to possess it when you have spent over £100 on your model once the shipping and import duty has been added to the purchase price. It covers an Out of Box (OOB) build with the exception of the main wheels, which the author Daniel Zamarbide decided to replace with a set of Barracuda Studios resin wheels, due to the additional detail. I have to say, he was right IMHO.

The book starts at the very beginning of the build after a short preamble and a "build narrative", which summarises the build in broad brush-strokes before diving into the nitty-gritty. The sub-assemblies are many, and are handled in turn, and in great detail, in order to give the modeller tips and tricks on how best to complete them to the best of their ability. If you've not "gone to town" on a model before, you might find yourself buying some tools and fluids new to you, but if you can re-use those skills on your next build, it's money well spent. The build is broken down into sections as follows:

• Fuel
• Engines
• Propellers
• Weapons
• Undercarriage
• Fuselage
• Cockpit
• Wings
• Assembly
• Painting
• Details

The build unsurprisingly rounds out on the Finished Model, which will have you blown away by the quality of finish on every part, nook and cranny of this highly detailed model kit. At the rear of the book is a triplet of appendices, covering aftermarket items available from third parties for the kit at the time of publication, a bibliography for additional research, and finally a list of the upgrade parts available directly from ZM for purchase with your kit. Why the two sections are split by the bibliography is not clear, but it's not a big deal either way.

Conclusion
Daniel is clearly a highly talented modeller, and the easy fluid style of writing and high picture content should make the job of understanding much simpler than a wordy tome would, as the old adage that a picture speaks a thousand words still holds true. Some of the techniques used are probably quite well known, while others might not be, and I certainly came across a few new ones, the most notable of which was the painting of the wooden decks within the airframe. I'll certainly be trying that out the next time I need to replicate wood, although it's unlikely to be a 219 sadly.

Everyone but the truly gifted will find something of interest within the pages of this book, from the highly competent modeller through to the novice to this type of modelling. It is jammed full of attractive photos of the build and useful information to help you on your way, and should be a boon to anyone using it to help them with their build. Even to someone like myself that doesn't yet have the kit (I can dream, can't I?), it's interesting from a technical point of view, and if you happen to have the Revell kit, it's probably a good source of detailing information.

The author Daniel Zamarbide was responsible for the first book in this series that dealt with the ZM P-51D kit, so if you've seen that, you'll know what to expect.

Very highly recommended.

Review sample courtesy of