"It is by far the most fiddly model I've ever built...but also finished really well. Very interesting plane that had all the allies very keen on acquiring it post-war for tests. Just last week I looked it up and was surprised to read the pilot for this particular aircraft may have been one of Germany's best night-fighter pilots at least in the He 219. There's also conflicting information that this specific plane was destroyed in early 1944 by the 323rd and 387th BG (B-26's) so if true...I'll need to find a good 1/32 B-26 and build that as a companion.

Got it cheap at a model sale, sat on the shelf for two years and started the build in late November and I've probably put more overall hours into this build than any other. Number one reason is that it's one of Zoukei-Mura's earlier SWS kits and the fit isn't as good as their more recent IP's and there was more than usual flash on a fair number of the smaller parts. They also use a building technique where major components are built and then fitted w/other major components and there's almost zero tolerance...I made a LOT of mistakes on this: Broke the wing spar, getting glue and crap on the canopy 3 times and having to sand it back to something resembling clear, breaking a dozen parts I had to fix or hide, alignment issues between the cockpit, the main fuselage, the canopy, etc. and had to force things together because of those mistakes. That and there are dozens of external parts to add and if this thing lasts a day or so before I accidentally break something it'll be a miracle.


By the end it came together nicely

Tamiya and Mr. Color paints, 1ManArmy stencils, several ZM add-ons, a shout-out to Airframe Constructor's "Building the Heinkel He 219 'Uhu' build book by Daniel Zamarbide (really good), some dubiously accurate DIY work, and a lot of time."