COBI Messerschmitt Bf 110C Set 5777

COBI's Messerschmitt Bf 110C is a 1:32 model built from 578 blocks, 37.5 cm long with a 50 cm wingspan. The propellers spin, the landing gear retracts on rubber tires, and the cockpit opens for two Luftwaffe figures — a pilot with two interchangeable headpieces and a gunner. The fuselage carries the ladybird emblem of 2./ZG 76. A black display stand with transparent supports shows the aircraft in flight, plus a white brick information plate. No stickers.

The escort that needed escorting

The Bf 110 was built to be a Zerstörer — a destroyer — a heavy twin-engine fighter that would range ahead of the bombers, sweep the sky clear and go deeper than a single-engine fighter could. Göring took a personal interest and staffed the units with hand-picked crews.

Then it met Spitfires and Hurricanes over England. Two engines and a second crewman make an aircraft heavy, and a heavy fighter cannot turn with a light one. Bf 110 losses in the summer of 1940 were severe enough that the Luftwaffe began assigning Bf 109s to protect them — single-engine fighters escorting the heavy fighters that had been built to escort the bombers.

When the Bf 110s formed defensive circles, each covering the tail of the one in front, they stopped being any use to the bombers they were with.

It found its job in the dark

The qualities that failed by day suited night fighting exactly: range to loiter for hours, a second crewman to work the radar, and space in the nose for the aerials and the guns. From 1941 the Bf 110 became the backbone of Germany's night defence against RAF Bomber Command, and it stayed in production until 1944 — around 5,760 built, in variants from A to H.

Specifications

Pieces: 578 · Figures: 2 · Scale: 1:32 · Age: 9+ · Display stand and plate included · No stickers
Model dimensions: 37.5 × 50 × 8 cm (14.8 × 19.7 × 3.1 in), 14.5 cm high on the stand