Revell 1/32 He-162 Volksjager

[Thunnus]

I've just returned from an overseas trip and have a free weekend to get over the jet lag.  For whatever reason, I am not feeling compelled to work on the Curtiss Flying Tiger or the Aichi D3A1 at the moment.  I wanna work on something new so I'm going to start a new build.  I bought this kit used off of EBay and it included a raft of aftermarket stuff, which is what compelled me to pull the trigger on this.

 

The kit itself and most of the aftermarket products for it are either out-of-production or hard to find and the thought of getting just about everything made for the kit in one swoop appealed to me.  Let's take a closer look at the kit itself.  This is the original 2004 Revell release.  Revell re-released the kit in 2012 with new Cartograf decals but that production run ended too. Hobby 2000 recently re-popped the Revell kit but it seems to be Europe-only release.

 

The He162 is a simplified design and the kit reflects this with a relatively low parts count of 93. This is main sprue which should hold the two fuselage halves but the previous owner has detached the fuselage parts.

 

Panel lines are recessed and some of them are indistinct, so I'll have to do some re-scribing.

 

The inside of the fuselage halves includes molded details for the cockpit sidewalls.

 

There is some detail to be found but it is simplified and ripe for aftermarket upgrades, of which I have aplenty.

 

The wings were fabricated from wood so the wing parts lack any panel lines.

 

The wheels, which are similar to the Bf109, look pretty good to me and I'll probably give these a go.

 

The main gear wheel well has some nice detail but I think I have that beat within the AM stash.

 

The double rudder tail system is found on this sprue.

 

The landing gear legs are very basic with crude brake lines molded onto them.  I'll see if I can spruce these up a bit.

 

A full BMW 003 turbojet is included. I'm typically not an open-panel type of guy but the aftermarket stash includes the CMK engine so I might be tempted.

 

The clear parts were broken off the sprue with some minor damage at the sprue attachment.  Hopefully, not too noticeable.

 

I have two sets of decals to work with: from the Revell kit and a set from Cutting Edge. As usual, I will create masks for the major markings using the decals sheets as templates and try to minimize the use of decals.

 

[Thunnus]

Now a look at the aftermarket products that came with this kit.  These include:
1. Aires He162 Cockpit and Wheel Bay Set
2. Eduard He162 Interior Set
3. Eduard He162 Exterior Set
4. CMK He162 Undercarriage set
5. CMK He162 Engine Set
6. CMK He162 Interior Set
7. CMK He162 Armament Set
8. CMK He162 Control Surfaces Set
9. Eduard He162 Masks
10. Black Magic He162 Masks

 

Not everthing will be used.  There is some overlap with these sets.  For example, I'm sure the Eduard Interior, CMK Interior and the Aires Cockpit sets have the same components.  I'll pick whatever works best.

Let's take a closer look at the Aires Cockpit and Wheel Bay Set.

 

This one is fabulously cast in dark grey resin.  Aires makes some of the finest detailed resin sets I've encountered and this one is no exception.

 

Fitting of AM resin is always a crapshoot.  I've had good experiences and not-so-good experiences with Aires and it is important to check fit thoroughly before committing anything to glue.  With this in mind, I decided to test the main wheel bay.  For reference, I built up the kit wheel well first.  First sign of trouble is the comparison between the two.  The Aires wheel well is significantly shorter than the kit parts.

 

Test-fitting confirms this.

 

I decided to cut off the aft bulkhead and add a spacer make of sheet styrene.  A few hours of work and we've got a workable solution.

 

[scvrobeson]

Woohoo, another awesome project to follow! Looking forward to seeing how you fit the raft of aftermarket into it.

 

 

Matt 

[Biggles87]

Me too.

 

John. 🇺🇦

[SwissFighters]

Does the smaller internal width of the Aires wheel bay present a problem? Looks like a fairly significant step...
Tony

[Jim Barry]

I'd love to see some open panel work here for sure! It's just begging for it! 

 

 

[Iain]

Great project - I loved building this kit.

 

That replacement gear bay is very poor - resin shrinkage perhaps?

 

I think I'd be inclined to use the Aires parts as reference for adding detail to the Revell parts...

 

Iain

[Thunnus]

19 hours ago, scvrobeson said:

Woohoo, another awesome project to follow! Looking forward to seeing how you fit the raft of aftermarket into it.

 

 

Matt 

Thanks Matt!  Figuring out the fit of resin parts is always part of the fun!

 

 

18 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

Me too.

 

John. 🇺🇦

Thanks John!

 

 

15 hours ago, SwissFighters said:

Does the smaller internal width of the Aires wheel bay present a problem? Looks like a fairly significant step...
Tony

I personally don't consider this an issue.  There is usually some sort of trade-off when adding aftermarket sidewall detail.  In the case of the cockpit and wheel well sidewalls, I believe the thickness of the resin parts will be obscured by the canopy and wheel bay doors, respectively.

 

 

13 hours ago, Jim Barry said:

I'd love to see some open panel work here for sure! It's just begging for it! 

 

 

We'll see!

 

 

11 hours ago, Iain said:

Great project - I loved building this kit.

 

That replacement gear bay is very poor - resin shrinkage perhaps?

 

I think I'd be inclined to use the Aires parts as reference for adding detail to the Revell parts...

 

Iain

Thank you Iain!  I wouldn't call the Aires gear bay as poor.  Far from that, actually.  But working with resin has its pitfalls and resin shrinkage is one of them.  That seems to be the case here. One can try and scratchbuild the details onto the kit parts using the Aires part as a reference but I don't see the point of that in my case since I've made the necessary modifications to make the Aires part fit acceptably.

 

 

After the fit of the wheel bay was sorted out, I turned my attention to the Aires cockpit tub, which also serves as part of the nose wheel bay.  First, the molded detail on the interior side of the fuselage halves was grinded off and sanded.  The resin sidewalls were then temporarily placed using a couple dots of CA glue.

The cockpit tub can then be placed into the fuselage and held in place using Blue Tack putty.

The fuselage halves are then taped together to check to see if the resin components fit within the fuselage.  I've placed the clear parts to check their fit too.  Based on the gap between the port sidewall and the cockpit bulkhead, the sidewall position needs to be fine-tuned.

A check of the bottom to verify that the nosewheel bay is correctly oriented.

After a few adjustments to the position of the sidewalls, I think I'm happy with the fitment of the Aires cockpit.  I will mark the position of the sidewalls with a pencil and pop them off to make painting easier.

 

[Gazzas]

I think the resin bits look pretty good.  This is one weird a/c.  It's hard to believe it actually saw some combat.

[Biggles87]

The Aires cockpit seems to fit quite well this time, always a bonus.

I also bought the undercarriage set for mine, must check the length of the wheel bay sometime. 
 

John. 🇺🇦

[Wayne Bull]

Im glad you decided to jump into this one John as its a very intresting little aircraft .I doubt that wheel bay is shrinkage as its a huge diffrence in lenght ,which is more suggestive of an error with the masters dementions .But you show us all it is not a hard fix or the end of the world . But it has been a common theme in serveral builds you have done which does lead me to be wary of resin parts regardless of brand . Builds like this are best type of reveiw we could get so thank you that .Cheers Wayne

[amurray]

On 4/8/2026 at 2:16 PM, geedubelyer said:

On 5/9/2026 at 12:57 AM, Thunnus said:

Now a look at the aftermarket products that came with this kit.  These include:
1. Aires He162 Cockpit and Wheel Bay Set
2. Eduard He162 Interior Set
3. Eduard He162 Exterior Set
4. CMK He162 Undercarriage set
5. CMK He162 Engine Set
6. CMK He162 Interior Set
7. CMK He162 Armament Set
8. CMK He162 Control Surfaces Set
9. Eduard He162 Masks
10. Black Magic He162 Masks

 

As one who gets the shivers every time I contemplate building a kit unaltered OOB, I'm looking forward to this build.

 

To quote one of the greatest lines from a great movie:

"Think you used enough dynamite there, Butch?"  

           - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
 

 

 

[RCPlym]

On 5/10/2026 at 1:26 AM, Thunnus said:

resin shrinkage is one of them

 

Resin does 'shrink' but not by that amount. Even the worst shrinkage of 0.2% with a resin I have used wouldn't cause that. Most polyurethane casting resins have linear shrinkage of between 0.01 and 0.05% That is a design error.

 

[Iain]

1 hour ago, RCPlym said:

 

Resin does 'shrink' but not by that amount. Even the worst shrinkage of 0.2% with a resin I have used wouldn't cause that. Most polyurethane casting resins have linear shrinkage of between 0.01 and 0.05% That is a design error.

 

 

I've seen resin shrink way more than that - but usually as a result of a poor mix (uneven component amounts - or poorly mixed) - or where the resin is old.

 

Iain

[Mark_C]

55 minutes ago, Iain said:

 

I've seen resin shrink way more than that - but usually as a result of a poor mix (uneven component amounts - or poorly mixed) - or where the resin is old.

 

Iain

 

Would it shrink that evenly, though?  That cast wheel well looks quite symmetric.