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My first “work in progress” here is the Heller 1/72 Nord 2501 “Noratlas”. The Noratlas is a French military cargo plane from the 50s, including the German and Israeli air forces had placed orders. The later version Nord-2501 Noratlas looks similar to the Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar. The Noratlas wil be build in the colors of the Luftwaffe. What attracted me were the versions with a white roof. A mix of the standard green-gray camo, orange and white panels, resulting in a striking color palette. Something like this example from FSX Flight Simulator: On youtube there is a corny instructional video "Sicherheit im Lufttransport Noratlas". You can study the Nora from all sides despite the black and white images. A device with registration GA + 253 or 252 is in my opinion possible with the decals. The Luftwaffe decals I have purchased from “HaHen Aircraft Accessoires”. http://www.hahen.de/ Within two days they were already here. Properly packaged in a sturdy cardboard envelope. It is Immediately a bit of an unusual story because it is my 2nd attempt to build this nice beast. In the end phase of the previous one the paint job protested by many difficulties and side effects.So I decided to start all over again. Some components of the first attempt can be reused. An example is the engine with the propellers. So the second attempt begins with washing the sprues. The cargo plane has a lot of length behind the main landing gear. From experience I know that a lot of weight should be mounted in the nose section. The 20gram as shown in the construction manual seems too little to me. But there is also little room for the placement of weight in the nose. In my sprue spare box I found a box that fits exactly between the two partitions. Which is filled with lead and closed with styrene. The last time I had filled the wheel bays with tin cubes. These blocks are now clamped next to the wheelbay. In case of emergency I can always later fill the wheelbay. In front there is a 2nd box filled with lead. And the total looks like this. 60 gram weight in the nose section. Three times as much as the instruction recommend. The doors are precisely aligned with the outer side and fixed with additional styrene. The access stairway door is filled with styrene to eliminate a seam. And under a colour coat it looks already quite different. Thanks for watching.

Société Nationale de Construction Aéronautique du Nord, Noratlas N2501, pics thanks to Ruari.