This 1/72 scale kit comes from the all-mighty Revell. The pros for this kit are as follows: You have two paint schemes to choose from and the one I did is on the cover of the box known as He 177A-5, F8+KP, 6. /KG 40, Bordeaux-Merignac, France, June 1944. The other one is He 177A-5, Werknummer 550131, 6N+DN, 5. /KG 100, Aalborg 1944. You have the option of either having two bombs or three Fritz X guided bombs in which I chose the latter. Other options included having the landing gear in the up or down positions as well as open or closed doors. In my case I had the landing gear down with open doors. The cons for this kit are as follows: I found out that the assembly of the aircraft especially in the cockpit area to be quite brutal. In other words, almost nothing fit as well as I hoped. In the end there were cracks in certain places on the aircraft which required various forms of putty to fill them. Another problem I had were the decals themselves, fortunately none of them ripped for me. However, there many tiny decals that they should have combined into one, especially the red dotted ones on the top fuselage. In conclusion, I give this kit a rating of 4 stars out of 5. Revell if you’re reading this I highly recommend that you should go easy on the instructions and decals. For everyone else, this is a good kit to build with lots of options. At the same time, I wouldn’t recommend this one for a beginner or a semi-pro modeler as their first project.

The Heinkel He 177 Greif was a the only long-range heavy bomber flown by the Luftwaffe during World War II. The introduction of the He 177 to combat operations was significantly delayed, by both problems with its engines, and frequent changes to its intended role. The Kit: The detailing is everything one has come to expect from Revell of Germany over the last few years. It is superb. There were a few sink marks in some of the thicker pieces and a few ejector pin marks on the usual gear doors, gear struts and the like, but they are easy to clean up. The sprues were in three separate bags, one of them for the clear bits, one for the wings and one for the rest of the pieces. The instructions for building the kit are clear and flawless. This kit comes with two armament options: 6 x 500kg bombs or 3 Fritz X guided bombs. The decals are excellent, they even thought of two spinner spirals. And there are two painting options. Overall, this kit is a real value. Where else can you get this quality for this low a price? This is a kit with 224 parts, and due to the myriad of small parts and the involved construction, this one has to be left to those possessing pretty high skill levels and is not recommended for the 'slap together' crowd. This one is at the top of my list of Luftwaffe kits I Made till now (of some 70). Highly recommended.