HEINKEL MOTORHEAD BOMBER

Motörhead the iconic heavy-metal bands striking album artwork for their 1979 Bomber was carefully created by an illustrator. Lemmy Fast Eddie Clark and Phil Philthy Animal Taylor are shown inside the cockpit of a Heinkel in the Blitz. Lemmy himself a collector of WWII memorabilia insisted the plane be German.

The illustrator explains: I suggested the Heinkel plane. They wanted this photo-realistic effect so I designed the thing with the detached bomb coming towards you.

I worked in airbrush in black and white which I would then tint he adds. Thats why my work always looked very doomy. To get the lighting right I got a little Airfix kit of a Heinkel 111 made it up and sprayed it black. He then photographed the model to get the reflections underneath. When you work realistically youve got to have a realistic reference.

The album sleeve made such an impression the band insisted on a remarkable 40ft Heinkel replica to accompany them on stage for their now notorious Bomber tour.

Its the most famous cover i ever done

The album was released on October 27th 1979, reaching number 12 on the UK charts.

To mark the 40th Anniversary Airfix is pleased to offer a version of its latest Heinkel with the Bomber markings included and with the special Anniversary box lid.