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Hi All, this is my last off the bench for 2017; Heller's 1/72 Me-163 Komet with Scheuch-Schlepper. The Komet seat is a resin addition originally for an Fw-190 and the pitot is Albion Alloys tube. In other respects it is as Heller intended. Paints are Lifecolor finished with Xtracrylix satin varnish and the decals are the kit's own, with the exception of the swastikas. Happy modelling.

Heller Gloster Javelin T.3, in the Heller/Humbrol box. Looks like I paid about $10.00USD for this, probably in the late 80s. I think I thought I was going to build a bunch of trainers, since in the same stash box that I hadn't looked in for years I found an Airfix Bulldog, a T-38, L-39, Alpha Jet, CT-114, etc. Guess I better get at it now!

My Heller Bloch 174 arrived today, just in time to join in. This is a big departure for me as I've been building far more modern jets in recent years & I've been spoiling myself with mostly newly tooled kits. This kit has quite nice finely raised detail, but I will be rescribing some select panel lines. I won't be getting rid of all thise rivets. There doesn't look to be much in the way of aftermarket for it except for a few Renaissance parts, resin engines & new vacform clear parts. The kit transparencies look pretty good to me & I personally can't see what's wrong with the engine nacelles, so this looks like it will be built mostly out of the box, but the tyres look pretty featureless, so I might raid the spares box or see what aftermarket would be appropriate. Now I would be under the impression that Heller would naturally include decals for a Bloch 174 that Antoine de Saint-Exupéry had actually flown in but there's no reference to him in the decal instructions. It would be nice to build the "Flight To Arras" airframe that he flew in, but so far I haven't ascertained which airframe that was. From what I gather he flew with GR 11/33 but not sure if he flew in the airframes depicted in the decal sheet. Airframes provided are No.25 & No.53. Any help with details on which "174" airframe Saint-Exupéry's most notable for would be great as I would like to attach some significance to the build while i'm at it.

HIC SUNT DRACONES (Here be Dragons) And here is one of the two Sea Dragons, the one that -as stated in the building article- flew between Colonia (Uruguay) and Buenos Aires (Argentina) over the Río de la Plata, between 1939 and 1940. The life of the plane ended in an accident as one engine quit on take-off, but fortunately without casualties. I was fortunate (and grateful) to find this page: -see there point 5) http://aeronavescx.blogspot.com/2011_01_09_archive.html The post describes (in Spanish) the history of this airline and plane. The companion Dragon is nesting here: For more information please visit the building thread: There wasn't much graphic material regarding this subject, just barely enough to be able to build the model. The floats as you know if you have read the construction thread are the ones that come with the Matchbox/Revell Norseman, BUT they have to be modified to render a more accurate representation; as they are, they won't do (even for a regular Norseman, by the way, their shape is wrong and they lack the bottom flutes). The modifications needed to build a Sea Dragon are: 1) Getting or fabricating the floats, either EDO or Fairchild, depending on what subject is being modeled. But there are no accurate options for those in the market, so you have to adapt/modify what there is available. 2) Modification of the bottom of the engine nacelles, fairing the location of the landing gear according to photos. Beware that these modifications differed from one another, depending on the float used and particular machine. 3) Reshaping the fin extending it as per photos. 4) Researching and fabricating all the associated float struts. 5) Adding a mirroring door on the other side. 6) Deleting/painting over back windows, depending on photos. 7) Reducing the number of seats. 😎 Modifying exhausts to match photos (they vary) 9) Modifying props as needed (some were Fairey-Reed, others seem to be wooden ones of a brand I can't tell) Now, wouldn't you like to have an accurate set of EDO Yd 6470 / Ya 6235 or Fairchild 5500 floats available as a conversion set, for this and other projects? (Aftermarket industry: wink-wink, nudge-nudge?) The venerable Heller kit was used, and decals as usual were commissioned from Arctic Decals, that delivered an excellent product. Uruguay and Argentina have a common historical root, but have evolved in slightly different ways. It could be said the Uruguayans are better Argentineans 😉 Shuttling between the countries across the Río de la Plata is extremely common, and many aviation companies throughout the years have provided that service, since the beginning of commercial aviation in those countries. If you would forgive the mention of personal experiences here, one of the reasons I chose to build this Uruguayan example is this: as some of you know, I was born in Argentina. I went to the neighboring Uruguay many times, always being treated splendidly and enjoying my visits very much, as the country's hospitality, good manners, and calm demeanor are legendary. I went the first time as a kid on a school trip, and stayed at the house of a fellow primary school student. His father was a teacher, his mother a loving hostess, and that family was extraordinarily kind to me. Pity I don't see fellow BMers from Uruguay here among us. My first airplane travel to Uruguay when I was 2 or 3 years old was in a Vickers Viscount. A project for another day. I hope you enjoy this little known piece of South American aviation history, and a Dragon in an uncommon guise.

Hello everyone... Im not at a loss for builds right now with five on the go. Crazy me... Ive gone and decided to add a couple of new ones. The first one will be an old Heller 1/72 Bf.109 B/C kit built as a Swiss Dora, hopefully this one. https://www.asisbiz.com/il2/Bf-109D/SAF/pages/Messerschmitt-Bf-109D1-Swiss-AF-Uberwachungsgeschwader-J-307-WNr-2302-Duberdorf-Switzerland-June-1945-01.html Started off by painting and assembling the interior, how original. 😉 This will make my 3rd or 4th Heller kit ever. I have another going in the Nordic group build a Curtiss Hawk 75. I still have two more kits, one each of both the 109 and Hawk 75. These are of course set aside for the Heller group build in October. Questions, comments, and or thoughts ? Dennis

Hi All, I bought this from evilbay back when the French Fancy GB was approved; quite a while ago. Since then it has been sitting in the stash while I built up my courage to attempt it. In the end I decided to just do an out of the box build. I ended up doing a few a few bits of detailing. some of which were pointless. This kit has recently been re-released and I believe may be had from the Big H, but I really hope they have cleaned the moulds up. Somewhere here on BM is a thread where someone said they couldn't find the cowling gun fairings. That really isn't surprising, this is what they look llike on the sprue: Hawk guns I did some bits and bobs to the cockpit and engine based on references to make it look a little better - pointless apart from the harnesses, you can't see most of it: Hawk cockpit 01 Hawk cockpit 02 Hawk engine I tried the Hataka France WW2 Blitzkrieg set for paints. Maybe their Orange Line is OK, but the Blitzkrieg range is rubbish. If you find a cheap one on offer, ignore it! It took me two hours to do just the underside with airbrush clogging and lack of coverage, so I resorted back to Lifecolor and Tamiya for the upper camouflage. The gunsight is from the Eduard 72 403 Gunsight set, well worth the small expense with loads of options and it'll do loads of other models. The Heller decals were very thin and gripped as soon as they touched. The white was dense but the yellow was quite translucent, and the blue is more roundel blue than French blue; but hey. Here it is, finished. Hawk03 Hawk05 Hawk04 Hawk07 Hawk06 Hawk02 Hawk01 Hawk08

Good evening For this Gb I started this week end the Heller Sherman M4A2 called Brives La Gaillardes of 12e Regiment de Cuirassiers 2e Division Blndée also known as "Division Leclerc" The box art The sprues Building instructions The decals sheet and tracks I am going to build the Sherman called Brives La Gaillarde I started by painting some parts I also started to work on the turret and hull Patrice

Good evening Today I started my 4th build for this Gb the old but still very good Vampire Fb 5 produced by Heller in 1979 This build will be OOB , I will just place a pilot The box art The sprues I will use the decals from the box for this markings I started by painting the cockpit interiror in black , I placed the seat and painted the instrument panel Patrice

My first "over the Christmas break build" is this recent re-release from Heller, the Etendard IVM. Despite its raised panel lines and relative simplicity, I enjoyed building this one and making use of the superb decals included in this latest release. FredT

Hi all, Hellers little Mirage 5, built from the box. (and some of how it used to be)

Another build in my personal Obsolete GB. The Heller Gloster Javelin T3. Built oob, brush painted with Humbrol Enamels, kit decals and finished with a coat of Klear. As usual with these older kits, there are raised panel lines throughout, but nice detail as well, and certainly builds up with no major dramas. Even after umpteen years the decals behaved faultlessly and adhered to the raised lines without the need for any decal solutions. Finished as per the kit instructions, as a Javelin stationed in Singapore, at R.A.F. Tenagh with T/60 Sq. during 1963. The model was photographed on my Hunter display base, which might not make it back on. Thanks you for your interest, Sean

A project just for fun,as after the Sword kit,I left with 3 Heller kits to play! I want to make Indian Navy T60,if I find the correct numbers needed. That kit is snap-fit and with only 15 pieces with basic detail... So the ...cockpit was painted black... and started to shorten the wings and the rudder. some putty here and there... and a first primer

Hi all, another Mirage 2000 this time Hellers 1/72 version. Built straight from the box using Xtracolor Enamels. The kit is probably not that accurate but it is a fair representation of this beautiful 'Delta' Brian.

Going through an old memory card and found these buried in it. Actually had one on Photobucket, but forgot about these other ones. Heller Typhoon with Airfix Refueler and Jeep and figures from the aircrew set. Pilots from the spares and one figure from a Matchbox armour set,( he's slightly bigger than the others). Diorama made about three years ago, and still have it on display. Brush painted with Humbrol and still my favourite build. I was just returning to modelling then and was pretty pleased with how this turned out. Sean