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Heinkel He.111Z-1 Zwilling (48260) 1:48 ICM via Hannants For much of the late 30s and well into WWII the Heinkel He.111 was pretty much the largest bomber in the German arsenal, as they had pinned their colours wholeheartedly to the fast bomber getting in and out without being molested by fighters that could barely keep up with them. This wasn’t the case by the time hostilities broke out, and as this became apparent with mounting losses, the Heinkels were sent out with a swarm of fighters protecting them from the Hurricanes and Spitfires of the RAF over Britain. In a parallel track the Reich had some positive experiences with using gliders to take troops into combat, which led to the designing the massive Me.321 Gigant (pronounced Geegant in German) glider that was capable of carrying a huge amount of hardware and manpower within its voluminous interior. They needed a towing aircraft, and initially used a trio of Bf.110s, but it was difficult to synchronise their activities to maintain thrust and directional control. This led to the bright idea of attaching two He.111s together with a new central wing panel to reduce the engineering load of designing a whole new airframe for the purpose. They took the fuselages of two He.111H-6s each with the port or starboard wing removed outboard of the engine mount-point, and a new aerofoil linking them housing an additional engine, in order to give extra power to the twinset. Zwilling is German for twin, so you can see where the Z came from. Later on, it occurred to the RLM to use the same airframe as a long-range bomber, and even as a reconnaissance aircraft to take advantage of the additional fuel load it could carry, as their front-line airfields were pushed further back by the advancing Allies. The Kit Starting in 2017, ICM have been bringing out a new range of He.111 kits that we have reviewed over the years. One such boxing was the He.111H-6, which is the basis for this kit, although there are a lot of additional parts in this boxing, both in duplication of engines, fuselage, tail planes and landing gear, but also the main plane between the two fuselages with three new engine nacelles and a giant flap at the trailing edge. The spars have also had to be revisited to adapt to the flat plane of the central section, so as you can imagine there are a lot of sprues in the box. The box is long and large, with a painting of the aircraft on the front in a winter distemper, and when you cut the tape holding the lid on, there is an immediate surprise as two parts trays drop out, with the usual ICM captive lid on each one. The parts are spread between the two trays, and you have twenty six sprues in grey styrene, four in clear, a long decal sheet, and the instruction booklet that has colour profiles at the rear for painting and decaling. Construction for most of the build follows the building of a single kit…. Errr, twice. The bit in the middle is completely new of course, so that’s where we’ll concentrate our attention. It starts with the two asymmetrical spars, which consist of two lengths separated by the boxed-in wheel wells and a walkway part. One is left-handed, the other right with the two horizontal lengths making the basis for the centre panel. It is worth noting that although the majority of the centre panel is horizontal, there is still dihedral on the section between the wing and first inboard engine to reduce the changes needed to the wing root. Small parts are added to the pair of fuselage frames along the way, and these are joined by a mid-upper gun mount and accompanying seat that is fixed to a length of floor behind the wings that leads to another smaller bulkhead toward the tail. Two cockpit floors are assembled in tandem with the pilot’s precarious frontal position and controls attached along with rudder pedals and comfortable-looking armoured seat. The four fuselage halves are prepped with wing root internal skins, windows and small exterior inserts, then a long rack of ammo for the mid-upper gun, the gun itself with dump-bag, and more glazing in the gondola. Each airframe half still runs on its own main gear and tail wheels for weight distribution, the latter being made up from a large leg, retraction jacks and a two-part wheel with integral hub that slips between the fuselage halves before closure. Each spar/cockpit assembly is then slid into the starboard fuselage half and once the radio gear is installed in the port side near another MG, the fuselage is closed up, another seat and the pilot’s control column are fitted in the forward compartment. The rudder is glued to the moulded-in fin with an actuator, and the bomb bay sides are slid inside the fuselage, then the assembly is flipped over to add the mid-upper insert with turret framing added above and below the aperture. The elevators are separate from their fins, and an insert is placed over the bomb bay, which includes raised portions for the carrying of bombs that is, for this version at least, a vestige of its original role that is reused to extend the aircraft's range. The cockpit’s three-part asymmetric nose glazing is joined together using a non-hazing cement with the same glue used for the overhead panel, which has its own decal like the other panels in the cockpit, then it is added to the nose along with the roof opening panel that slips into the frame provided. By this stage you should have two almost complete fuselages and a hankering to join them together! Each one has an underside skin added between the fuselage and the inner wing, then the main lower wing panels are added left, right and centre, giving you the first indication of how big this model is going to be. There’s no going back now though! Five engines are built up from a good number of parts each, then they are mounted in their firewall positions on their four bearers. The centre engine has a new panel slotted into the gap between the two spars, then all five engines are cowled up and have their radiator scoops added in a step-by-step manner, then covered up by the wing root panels and the three main upper wings plus ailerons, of which there are only two. That must be one long control wire/rod. The cowling is finished off over the next few steps with the exhaust stacks, another intake on the topside and the two hemispherical nose gun glazing parts. Everything happens in multiples on this kit, which is a good test of your production-line skills. The next line includes making up the four main gear legs and two-part wheels, the two front and rear gondola glazing parts with their guns in each section. Additional leg supports are added once they are secure in their bays, then the semi-flush pylons under the bomb bays are decked out with a pair of fuel tanks each, using two sway-braces on each one to hold them steady during flight. Main gear bay doors are fitted in four pairs, then you’ll need to get a friend to help you flip the airframe over to add the props, which are made up of two part spinner and a single three-bladed prop, plus a choice of mid-upper glazing in the open or semi-closed position. Add some aerials and pitot probes and then it’s time to realise your spray-booth isn’t big enough for the task. Oops. Markings There weren’t many of these built, but two of them have made it onto the decal sheet, with schemes as different as chalk and green splintered cheese. Look below if you can’t understand a word of what I’m talking about. From the box you can build one of the following: He.111Z-1 Eastern Front, Winter 1942-1943 He.111Z-1 Eastern Front, Spring 1943 Decals are printed anonymously, but it looks like a DecoGraph affair, with good register clarity and density of print. Conclusion I’m beyond excited about this release. I’ve no idea why, but I have a fondness for the Zwillings and to have one of the He.111 in 1:48 in injection moulded styrene is an awesome thought. The ICM He.111 is the new gold standard in 1:48, so two of them joined in the middle is just gravy. Super-dooper highly recommended. Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd. Review sample courtesy of