The deadly He 219J-5

[matrixone]

After the Junkers Ju 388 nightfighter was canceled the Luftwaffe needed to quickly to come up with a suitable nightfighter to combat the growing strength of the RAF, Heinkel submitted a redesign of the He 219 and the RLM agreed to allow its construction and development, this new version was the He 219J-5 and had a single fin and rudder, slightly shorter fuselage, and uprated engines. Testing of the prototype was very successful and pilots liked the flying qualities of the airplane so mass production was ordered A.S.A.P. and even older He 219's were rebuilt to the J-5 configuration. Once the He 219J-5 reached the frontline in numbers RAF Bomber Command started to suffer huge losses. The Me 262B nightfighters took care of the RAF Mosquito threat while the He 219J-5 equipped units carved up the bomber streams.

On to the pics...








This model was built with parts of the very old 1/72 scale Revell He 219 kit and some leftover Ju 88 parts...this model was a lot of fun to make and was a good use of an older kit, the only problem was the radar antenna which was added early on in the build and was a real P.I.A. to work around when painting and finishing.

Matrixone

[Sticky Fingers]

Made me look twice, then re-read the text! Wonderful build, that!

[Allan]

Hi Matrixone
all I can see are the dreaded red exxes
Allan

[matrixone]

Thanks Sticky Fingers!

Allan,
I can see the pics now, not sure if they were somehow off when you tried to look at them.

Matrixone

[Cobra]

Awesome Job the Photos have a 'War Correspondent' feel to them.  Keep up the Great Work Dan

[matrixone]

Thanks for looking Cobra!

The pics are okay but they are not really what I wanted to do with this model, I have very limited good lighting outdoors this time of year making it difficult to get decent model pics, not only are the days short with the low angle of the sun but my house sits in a small valley which really makes good lighting scarce.


Matrixone

[pyro-manic]

I do like that. I like the pics - they look like period colour photos, sort of washed-out. I assume you've done some post-processing to get that look. What's going on with the swazzies on the tail though? Never seen that before.

[matrixone]

Thank you pyro-maniac!

I like to ''age'' some of the pics...b/w pics are easy to do but aged color pics are more difficult.
The swastika was the ultra late war style and they were painted with stencils (on the full size aircraft), other aircraft that sometimes had stencil applied swastikas were the Me 262B nightfighters, Fw 190's, and even a very few Bf 109's. Not only are the swastikas different on my He 219J-5 the fuselage cross is also non-standard in size and color...I had to paint those on since I had no decals that would have the non-standard look to them for my model.

Matrixone

[RussC]

Great build and photos once again !   

[Army of One]

That is a fantastic build.......again complemented by awesome backstory and pictures.....always look forward to all three from you.......hat being tipped at the mo...... .......H

[NARSES2]

Lovely build 

[matrixone]

Thanks for the feedback Russ, Army of One, and NARSES2!

Can't wait to show you guys the three models I have under construction now, two old kits and one new one. This year I am trying to get rid of some of my really old kits by building them.

Matrixone

[pyro-manic]

Interesting, thanks. Looking forward to more top-notch stuff from you.

[Army of One]

Matrixone........if there was a praying smilie here....it would be here.....with 'Finnish Ta152' after it......

[lancer]

Bloody hell Matrix, you've taken one of my favourite nightfighters and majorly improved it, it really looks gorgeous. I salute you sir!!