The Little World

A captured Heinkel 177 ready to be flown to the RAF for analysis and test flying. The paint shop has been busy making sure the thing is both presentable and safe to cross the Channel.

The French roundels and tail flash were easy to do as one always seems to have spares of this sort of thing lying around. The invasion stripes were another matter – this was a multi-mask build to get them into the right place but not interfering with anything else. Then the business of Luftwaffe light blue and the two greens for the splinter top.

The light cloud effect is real – someone took a very detailed close-up photo of the plane in France before the flight and it clearly showed the clouds wrapping around the entire underside of the plane. They are fun to do, as long as you don’t overspray them.

Look out on YouTube for a British instructional film on flight recognition of this bomber. They made much of the shape of the tail and the two engine nacelles…I think the RAF took it more seriously than the Germans did.