Hi All,
This is my next project a Heinkel He-111 H8 with a Balloon Fender.
The basis of the kit is the Airfix Heinkel He-111 H6 model, to which I will scratch build the Balloon fender from plastic card and strip. There are some other modifications to be made which I will do as the build goes along.
My initial interest arose with an article in the old August 1975 Airfix Magazine which showed a conversion by John Burgess of the then Airfix Heinkel He-111 H20 into a H-8 variant.
The H-8 was a subvariant of the earlier H series, where a number of H-4 airframes were converted in the field, by having a large metal fender attached by booms and extending in front of the aircraft. The idea was to use the aircraft against important targets that were heavily defended by barrage balloons. The aircraft were to fly into the target area and use the fender to push aside the mooring line, which would then pass down to the wingtip of the aircraft, and the cable cut by cable cutters fitted to the tips of the wing.
To compensate for the fender equipment, some 800kg of ballast was fitted into the rear fuselage which had a detrimental effect on the flying characteristics and the amount of bomb load that could be carried.
These aircraft were employed briefly on operations, but withdrawn after a short time as not being really successful on operations. The fender equipment was removed and the aircraft then found further use as glider tugs.
At this stage I have just done some test fitting of the fuselage main components, central wing and tailplanes. I am impressed with the fit of these items, but time to remove all attachment points from the sprues is needed, the tolerances are so fine. I will be drawing on Bill's build of the Airfix He-111 P2 version, which was released before the H6 variant. Bill highlighted a few minor points to watch out for during the build and will be taking his advice.
Some pictures to start the project.
Bigkev
