Ground Attack He 177 finished!- "The Greif with a Big Gun"

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

Here she is, all prettied up and ready to show off!

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/LHprs/177donesmall.jpg[/image]

First, a bit of history…

Early on it was realized the futility of using bombs on Russian Tanks, and different methods of taking them down had to be evolved by the Luftwaffe. The solution- use large-bore anti-tank cannons in aircraft. The larger the aircraft, theoretically the larger, and more effective cannon could be used. The pinnacle was reached with the addition of five He 177 ‘Greif’ bombers with 75 mm cannons (nicknamed the Stalingradtyp, I’m assuming to mean Stalingrad Type).

*The He 177 had at this time almost been eradicated of its nasty habit of bursting into flame.

This didn’t last, however. The addtion of the cannon was severly detrimental to the performance of the He 177, and firing of the cannons put very large stresses on the airframe, threatening to literally shake the airplane to pieces. The cannons were removed after a number of flights, with no kills that I know of.

The kit I used was the new Revell Germany 1/72 offering. Altogether the kit went together fine, save the cockpit. THAT was an exercise in cramming too much into too little, with expected results. The canopy was nearly opaqe, and a liberal dousing of superglue fog didn’t help things at all. Other than that, however, the kit is a breeze.

The cannon is a lenght of wire coathanger with a vacufomed muzzle break added on the end.

The scheme represents my attempt at a Luftwaffe winter camoflage. The factory applied 71/72/65 was oversprayed with water-based white, which was removed in the spring. Not only did the application of this paint get sloppier as the War progressed, it tended to wear off rather quickly. I tried to simulate this, with varying degrees of success.

Swanny has once again graceously offered to host a review of this build on his site, and I have accepted. That’s why the rest of the pics I’m not going to post here- they’re too big. (I plan to use the same photos for the review) So, keep an eye out for that!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/LHprs/177done1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/LHprs/177done2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/LHprs/177done3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/LHprs/177done4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/LHprs/177done5.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/LHprs/177done6.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/LHprs/177done7.jpg

Thanks for looking! [:D]

2

Blimey! Thats one heck of a gun on that thing! I have to say it looks good and I’m impressed with the paint scheme, its very welll done. Thanks for sharing this one with us.

Darren.

3

Great job on that plane, especially the painting. I really love to see planes with big guns.

4

Great job! Those wacky Germans. I’m no engineer, but I don’t see how that contraption could have hit the side of a barn, let alone a tank.

5

[tup] Nice job there Sir. 75mm is a big gun on an airplane, I wonder how much it affected the flight characteristics. Thanks for the history lesson.
Cheers,
Eric

6

I love it ,especially the camo.Looks like Hitler is trying to compensate for something with that big gun.Errr the canopy looks alrite to me.

7

Nicely done Mike. Great work.

Regards, Rick

8

Fantastic work on the Greif, Mike…the camo is excellent and the 75 mm is a biggun.

Regards, Dan

9

Great job Mike-- I really like these big builds of yours. This one is no eception- and I learned something to boot!

10

Great job on the 177. That thing was probably a lot like the 74mm on the B-25 in the Pacific Theater. It was devastating, IF you hit what you were aiming at. Most accounts that I have read of the 75 on B-25s, say it was hard to aim, harder to hit a target, a real b_ _ _ h to load and fire, the fumes in the cockpit were almost overpowering, etc.

Darwin, O.F. [alien]

11

VERY very nice job… love the camo. I can pictue that thing flying backwards a few feet every timn ethe gun fires.

12

Beautiful job. Very nice work on the camo. Man, that’s a big blow pipe hanging off the front! Thanks for the pics.

13

I’m liking that camo. I imagine the recoil from that thing firing would be similar to the A-10’s cannon…?

14

Well done Mike! as always I am in awe of your off beat builds! [bow]

15

another great build Mike, thanks for the look.

Jerry

16

Beautiful job on the build Mike.

17

Lucien: the speed and quality is very high, an impresive build,and unique subject.

18

Not at all. The cannon on that is a 75mm cannon. This is the same size as the earlier barrels found on Shermans and other tanks.

The cannon on an A-10 is more of a machine gun and has much, much smaller rounds.

Big cannons never worked well on planes because of the reasons that yardbird said, and that they would fly like a brick.