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In 2003/4 (!) I started two Heller 1/400 Illustrious kits: one as Illustrious in January 1941, and another as an Indomitable 1942 during Operation Pedestal. I finished neither - partly because I'm a slow builder, partly because I lacked 1/400 Sea Hurricanes for Indomitable and partly because, as time progressed, I fully expected a 1/350 scale new tool kit. I still can't source 1/400 Hurricanes and a 1/350 new tool Illustrious has not materialised (1/200 would be even better), but both unfinished kits continue to wink at me in their cases on my shelf of doom, so 16 years after I started them, and 10 years since I last touched them, I thought I'd try and finish Indomitable at least. It is unlikely that a new tool 1/350 or larger Indomitable will be produced (I'm still hopeful for an Illustrious/Victorious), and the conversion was quite demanding, so I'm not sure I would do it again even if a new tool Illustrious materialised. In the intervening decade, I've discovered more information about both ships and there has been significant revision to Royal Navy WW2 colours. My Illustrious is sitting resplendent in old WEM medium grey 507B and light grey 507C finish and Indomitable in a MS2, grey B5 and MS4A finish. Both will need repainting with new NARN Colourcoats in more likely camouflage colours. Originally, the progress of my Indomitable build was documented on the Model Warships, but this seems to have disappeared years ago, so I thought that I'd recap here before continuing. The main changes to the Heller Illustrious hull, for the Indomitable conversion were: 1. Added scale 6ft above the upper deck, to create an extra galley deck as in Implacables. This involved re-arranging the position of the boat decks aft. 2. Altered the deck and hull contours aft to increase the useable flight-deck length and reduce the round-down. The shape was altered too to produce a narrower and more squared-off round-down, compared with as built Illustrious/Formidable/Victorious. Indomitable as fitted had an extra 50ft of usable flight-deck as per the modifications to Illustrious, Victorious and Formidable when re-fitted in the US. 3. Reduced the depth of the rear gun sponsons. This is a unique distinguishing feature of indomitable. On Illustrious/Formidable/Victorious, the gun sponsons were all the same depth. Indomitable was the reverse of Indefatigable/Implacable, which had shallow forward gun sponsons and deep rear sponsons. 4. Increased the length of the quarter-deck and (eventually) provide eight openings. This is another unique feature of Indomitable, until the quarter-deck length was shortened later in service (1944 US refit/repair) 5. Flight-deck modifications: moved the forward lift scale 16ft aft and increase forward lift width to scale 33ft wide (from 22ft), moved the aft lift a scale 24ft forward. The work in this area is made more difficult by some accuracy problems with the Heller kit. Neither lift is the right size – even for Illustrious, Victorious or Formidable. The forward lift is too narrow (which the conversion to Indomitable takes care of), but the rear lift is too wide. The flight deck shape forward needs to be modified and the catapult and reinforcement plates to port added. 6.The sponsons for the rear HACS at galley deck level were lowered, and their shape modified. The HACS directors were Mk V, rather than the Mk IV fitted to Illustrious/ Formidable/ Victorious. 7. The oversized cut outs in flight deck were reduced and shape modified and the overhang of the crane/boat deck altered 8. The solid sponson for the bow search-light platform was modified as it had an open structure. Here are photos of the basic conversion (with some comparison photos of Illustrious - itself heavily modified from the Heller original) :