Heinkel He 111 aerials

[Starfighter]

Hi everyone,

I've just started building the ICM 1/48 Heinkel He 111H, and it is an excellent kit, but there would appear to be an ommission in that the trailing aerial fairlead which projects from the gondola is not included . My question is this : Did all He 111's have this fitted, or was it retractable, as all the photos i've seen have this fitted ?

hopefully someone with more knowledge than me can help with this query.   

[72modeler]

3 hours ago, Starfighter said:

Hi everyone,

I've just started building the ICM 1/48 Heinkel He 111H, and it is an excellent kit, but there would appear to be an ommission in that the trailing aerial fairlead which projects from the gondola is not included . My question is this : Did all He 111's have this fitted, or was it retractable, as all the photos i've seen have this fitted ?

hopefully someone with more knowledge than me can help with this query.   

IIRC it was retractable by means of a reel located inside. I would imagine it would be retracted unless in actual use. I am just guessing that since it was retracted pretty  much all the time, there would possibly no reason to remove it, but I'm not a Luftwaffe "experten," so I'm betting someone will be along shortly with the answer. I did find a site that had photos and description of the radio fit, including the trailing wire antenna; from the description it appears the antenna was wound in and out electrically by a motorized reel. Since the fairlead or fixed fairing for the antenna is pretty visible in photos, I would hazard a guess that if the antenna was not fitted or had been removed, then there would be no reason for the fixed  fairing. Just my uneducated guess, please understand.

Mike

 

http://www.ab4oj.com/1st/fug10e/main.html

Edited February 12, 2018 by 72modeler
added link

[Starfighter]

Thanks for the info, 72modeler. It looks like I might have to scratch build the fairing, which shouldn't be too difficult, but I just wondered why ICM have left that out, given that the rest of the kit is pretty well detailed.