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Completed this in time for Telford & will be a contributor to the Mirage SIG. The initial intention a couple of years ago, was to build the A&A 1/72 kit & use one of the Syhart specials but that kit & I didn't get on. I was shocked at the amount of filling & re-scribing I would have to do in order to bring that up to a decent standard. I have been known to be a bit mad, so I might brace myself & tidy it up at a later date! This Heller 1/72 kit was actually built & primed over a year ago then sat on the shelf of dusty doom. It has fine raised panel lines which I thought could be well presented with some artistic technique. After painting the green & grey I lightly ran a AK black pencil along the panel lines. The paint is Hataka extra dark sea grey & Ammo Mig FS34079 which is their equivalent of RAF dark green. For the pre decal gloss I used for the first time the VMS XXL Gloss which I find is the best acrylic clear gloss I've ever used. Very likely will never use Klear again after using this stuff. It is absolutely brilliant & I did use a tad of their acrylic thinners in it. The decals were pinched from the A&A kit including the recon pod. I don't know how accurate the A&A decal instructions are, but I just went with their decal instructions. The kit then had a full overall coat of VMS XXL Matt. Info of the aircraft according to A&A. Apart from the decals I also pinched the MB.4 ejection seats & the recon pod from the A&A kit. Dassault Mirage IVA No.43 BP Escadron de chasse 1/91 Gascogne 1980 Thanks for looking! Martin

Heller is back with a new tool aircraft kit! Announcement with 3D renders (Kinetic looking...) 1/72nd Grumman E-2C Hawkeye kits. Three boxings are already scheduled: US Navy, Japan/Taïwan and French Navy. Source 17.59' :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5qG8llYFqY First boxings - ref. 82300 & starter kit with paints - ref. 83300 - Grumman E-2C Hawkeye - US Navy Sources: https://www.glow2b.de/view.php?sku=1000823000 https://www.glow2b.de/view.php?sku=1000583000 V.P.

Hello all. This will be strictly out. of. the. box. No rabbit holes allowed. I need to finish my GB Hurricane build before I pick this one up, so it may be while until my next update. Nice crisp mouldings, though I can't help feeling that the plastic should be the dark green that I associate with Heller kits. I'll be doing the scheme with the blue spinner on the left.

If only I'd known then! This could've been in the Heller Classic GB but I'd thought it save it for this one, only to have the wild-card of the Tamiya GB come along and the even wilder card of deciding to move, which is now scheduled for the end of October🫣. But you have to play the hand your dealt and I got this.... Suitably simple and 'of it's time' Long perished cement and equally unusable decals, but the joy of General Aviation is you can do your own thing! And multi-lingual instructions Aside from packing up a house and an over-loaded workbench what a possibly go wrong? It should work as long as I don't do anything silly like think about the interior!

#16/2025 After some pause, my dad added another subject to our Algerian War theme. Used the old Heller kit, thinkit´s the 1989 edition, the base kit itself dates back to the sixties. You could detail a lot, but my dad only added some to the engine with lead wire and EZ Line for the "connectors" between the main rotor blades. The antennas on the canopy top are scratch. Painted with AK RC (old ones) Dark Olive Drab 41 (ANA41), French roundel decals from the sparesbox. Seatbelts done with masking tape, except the front shoulder ones with PE parts. Well, all in all not 100% correct for an early Alouette II but it looks ok. Build thread here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235156052-guerre-dalgérie148-150-sud-est-se-3130-alouette-ii-armée-de-lair/ The Alouette II was used by the French Airforce and Army in different configurations and variations during the Algerian war. DSC_0001 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0002 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0003 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0004 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0005 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0006 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0007 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0008 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0009 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0010 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0011 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0012 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0001 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0013 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0014 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr and the whole Algerian War collection so far DSC_0015 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0016 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0017 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr

After my dad abandoned and didn´t start the Fujumi Wasp, he gives this one a chance. Don´t know yet which scheme DSC_0005 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr

Hello all! It's been a while, but now I'm back - at last with a new model. It's the Heller (ex-Occidental) 1/48 Fiat G.91 'Gina'. I used the decals from a Revell kit - itself an ex Italeri - ex ESCI kit - as the Heller kit didn't have the sharkmouth - and that's the one I wanted to make. Cockpit is from Neomega - and this kit needs some refinement in that area. Paint is from Hataka Red Line. Enough chit-chat - let's bring on some pictures: I've wanted to make this plane ever since I was a kid, and now it's done! - And I like it! Now all I need is a Jaguar to place next to it! Cheers Hans J

While waiting for some decals to finish another build, I thought I'd make a start on the Bentley that I never got round to doing for a classic GB last year. Kit has done the rounds with various manufacturers over the years, but still going together fairly well at the minute, even if the instructions are a bit vague in places. Ian 😀

Eyes of the Fleet E-2C Hawkeye (2153) 1:72 Eduard in conjunction with Heller Following WWII, the development of radar detection of enemy maritime assets continued apace, and the use of these devices in aircraft became known as Airborne Early Warning (AEW) because the aircraft carrying them could patrol a substantial distance from their home base, which was usually an aircraft carrier in the middle of a carrier group. As development progressed, adding a radome to an existing aircraft became less desirable, and the size of the radar unit with attendant radome grew to accommodate the need for greater range to protect the vulnerable (and expensive) carriers. The US Navy released a requirement for a carrier-borne aircraft that was designed from outset to be capable of carrier take-off and landings, to act as both an AEW platform and a command-and-control base away from the tactical systems onboard their carrier. Grumman were chosen for the task, and during the early part of 1957 their W2F-1 design was selected, soon to be renamed as the E-2 Hawkeye. They were required to operate from the relatively small WWII era carriers that were being modified to fly jets as they became available, but the specification was still restrictive enough to affect the aircraft’s flight envelope during the take-off and landing phases. An initial prototype was completed and flown at the start of the new decade, bereft of the technical equipment that would eventually fill the available space, taking another year to fly with its operational load of electronics and radar gear. Early computers ran hot, and even when it was cleared for service in ’64, they were prone to over-heating and random shut-downs that were only some of the issues that led to the halting of production in 1965 with fewer than 60 airframes manufactured. A huge amount of work was done very quickly to create the substantially improved E-2B, but it was still prone to failure, leading to the E-2C that was instigated as a batch of new-build airframes to augment the existing fleet, re-engineering the As to C standard in due course. By then the Navy had realised its potential, and were keen to have a reliable and fully functional Hawkeye on the decks of their enlarged and improved carrier fleet, which were akin to small cities in size and crew numbers by then, representing a huge investment that was also a powerful tool for self-defence and projection of military power around the world. The march of technology allowed the upgrade to succeed, first flying in the early ‘70s, resulting in orders for Group I and Group II specification machines to supplement and replace the As and Bs while they too were upgraded. By the end of the 90s, all active squadrons were equipped with Group II airframes, followed by a Group II Plus that concentrated efforts on modernising the cockpit and avionics to modern standards. At the turn of the millennium, the Hawkeye 2000 project overhauled the main equipment fit, replacing outdated computers with more powerful units, and bringing a glass cockpit to the flight crew, followed in 2004 with the new Hamilton-Sundstrand carbon-fibre props with an increase in blade numbers, but the ability to remove them individually for maintenance or replacement, whereas the original props had to be removed as an entire unit, leading to more downtime. The latest upgrade was the E-2D that again tore out the electronics to replace them with new equipment, first flying in 2011, taking part in the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) evaluation process, with a projected fleet capacity of 50 airframes, and by 2016 mid-air refuelling capability was added, fitting a long probe above the cockpit. The Kit A recently reinvigorated Heller announced they were tooling a new 1:72 Hawkeye for release, and this is a collaboration with them, adding a little Eduard know-how into the mix. The kit arrives in a large top-opening box, and inside are five sprues of light grey styrene, a clear sprue in a separate heat-sealed bag, three Ziploc bags with masks, resin wheels and Photo-Etch (PE) inside, plus two large decal sheets, partly due to the artwork often applied to the “dinner plate” radome that sits atop the Hawkeye. The package is completed by a stapled instruction booklet that is printed in colour on glossy white paper, with decal option and separate stencil profiles on the rearmost pages. Detail is good, with fine engraved panel lines and some riveting on the exterior, a well-appointed cockpit, and detailed gear bays throughout. Construction begins with the cockpit, which comprises a one-part tub into which the centre console, instrument panel, two seats and two control yokes are placed, along with a rear bulkhead. Once painted, the panel and centre console have a total of three dial decals applied, plus seatbelt decals for the crew, and under the floor of the cockpit will be found the nose gear bay. This is fitted out with a two-part gear leg, plus twin styrene tyres that can be replaced by resin parts that are included in the Eduard boxing to improve detail. The side consoles are also detailed with decals, two per side, then unusually the attention changes to the tail feathers of this quirky aircraft. The elevator panel forms a V-shape, with a rudder at each end, all of which are made from two halves each. There are two additional smaller fins inboard that slot into the upper surface of the elevators, cutting the chunky static-discharge wicks from the flying surfaces of the elevators and rudders, to replace them with finer PE parts, totalling eight, which might be better off installed late in the painting process. Continuing the unusual build order, the centre wing panel is made from upper and lower surfaces next, with a choice of retracted or deployed flaps by using different parts at the trailing edges, and a choice of extended or folded wings that require different inserts, so make your decision early whether you intend to pose your model ready for flight or not. The fuselage is prepared by drilling two holes near the cockpit for three of the decal options on the sides, plus installing an entry way in a cut-out further aft on the port side, then applying a decal to the forward wall of the insert. In readiness for installing the cockpit, the arrow-shaped overhead console is painted and has three decals applied to the surfaces, siting it in the roof of the cockpit after painting the interior a grey shade, using their preferred Mr Color codes as reference. Three clear windows are inserted into the starboard side, which have a small tab to the lower edge that should make gluing them in place without affecting clarity of the parts a breeze, even if you use traditional glues rather than PVA or GS-Hypo cement. A small insert is painted and prepared with a pair of clear lenses that are glued in over chrome paint, adding it to the nose along with the cockpit assembly, and a small triangular insert at the rear that later houses the arrestor hook. A rather sceptical-looking bunny cartoon to the left warns you to remember to add some nose weight to the model before you close the fuselage, although it doesn’t specify suitable numbers. After closing the fuselage and dealing with the seams in your preferred manner, the tail and wing centre sections are fitted to their recesses in the top of the fuselage, adding a hatch behind the wings, and a heat-exchanger box to the starboard side, making it from three segments and fitting PE detail parts to the intake and exhaust sides. Making the intakes for the two turboprop engines involves joining two halves together around a representation of the front of the engine, plus a further two mesh parts in the chin intakes of the nacelle parts, with a choice of two styles, followed by a cooling door that is posed open in the instructions. The wheel bay roof is glued into position, adding an exhaust and a cowling insert on both sides, mating the halves after building the landing gear and sandwiching it between the halves. The main gear legs are chunky parts that are made from three parts, plus another three for retraction jacks and other details, and these locate in recesses within the bay sides, one per nacelle. Four bay doors are shown being added along with the new resin wheels in the following step, although these are best left of until the majority of handling is over with, then the nacelles are joined with the underside of the centre wing portion, installing a forest of antennae along the belly, plus three PE tie-down loops under the nose and tail. In addition, a pair of PE appliqué plates are fixed under the outer end of the underside of the wing panel after removing the moulded-in details that aren’t required for this boxing. The nose gear bay is finished with three doors, the forward door secured with a pair of retractors, adding a sensor fairing under the belly for one decal option, removing a small protrusion for the other three, and adding a clear lens behind the nose gear bay, moving aft and fixing the arrestor hook, tail-bumper and two more small parts around the rear of the fuselage. Flipping the model right-side up sees installation of a pair of PE windscreen wipers on the lower sill of the canopy panels, but these iare probably best left until after the windows are fitted later. The entry hatch on the port side is shown fixed open, adding a pair of steps to the curved inner face, and a retraction jack to one side, with a PE handle on the outer face. This can presumably be fitted in the closed position if you prefer, but test-fitting would be advisable before applying any glue. The outer panels of the wings are prepared differently depending on whether you are folding the wings or not, cutting a small tab off an add-on part if you are extending them, and fitting a bulkhead at the inner end if you are folding them. Additionally, you have the choice of deploying or retracting the flaps by cutting off the extension arms for the retracted option. The ailerons are also separate parts that are made from two halves like the flaps, and these can be posed deflected if you wish. They have four static wicks per side, which are trimmed away to replace them with PE parts, best done later in the process. Attaching the wings extended is a simple job of feeding the inner end of the wings over the short spars that were fitted to the centre section earlier, while fitting the folded wings have attachment points folded out near the tips, allowing them to fit against the rudder panels to keep them stable when folded. A retraction jack is also added to the break-point between the wings at this stage. Now we get to the part of the build that marks the Hawkeye out as something a little different from the norm, the large radome, which consists of two large dished halves, plus a choice of two top-caps, and a central spindle that runs from top to bottom to keep the structure stable and allow it to fit on the support, which is the next assembly. This is made from two halves, plus an additional two legs at the front, the bottom ends of which should locate in recesses in the spine of the fuselage, adding a two-part intake cowling just forward of the wings. The cockpit is a bit breezy up until this stage of the build, and the windscreen consists of six individual panes, plus a further two roof lights, which may worry some modellers that aren’t fond of gluing glazing in place. Use of PVA or GS-Hypo should simplify this without marring the clear windows, and the same method can be used for the clear cover for the recessed landing lights in the nose. Another forest of antennae are fitted around the rear of the cockpit, plus a pair of loop antennae on the sides for some decal options, and another pair of parts on the nose. The last choice is whether to use the old four bladed props from two-part bosses and four individual blades, or the more modern eight-bladed Sundstrand prop, which uses a different and more rounded two-part boss, inserting the individual blades, taking care to align them correctly for your needs. The last task is a PE antenna affixed to the nose bay door, differing between markings options. Markings There are four decal options included in this boxing, all seen between 2004 and 2018 with a common pale grey base coat under their airframe specific markings. From the box you can build one of the following: BuNo. 163693, VAW-123 Screwtops, USS Enterprise (CVN-65), October 2005 BuNo. 166503, VAW-120 Greyhawks, NAS Norfolk, United States, May 2010 BuNo. 161346, VAW-121 Bluetails, USS George Washington (CVN-73), February 2004 BuNo. 164483, VAW-124 Bear Aces, USS George H. W. Bush (CVN-77), May 2018 The decals are printed using a digital process and have good registration, sharpness, and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut loosely around the printed areas. This means that the carrier film on their decals can be coaxed away from the printed part of the decal after they have been applied, effectively rendering them carrier film free, making the completed decals much thinner and more realistic, and obviating the need to apply successive coats of clear varnish to hide the edges of the carrier film. It’s a great step further in realism from my point of view, and saves a good quantity of precious modelling time into the bargain. Supplied on a sheet of yellow kabuki tape, the pre-cut masks give you with a full set of masks for the individual canopy panes, with compound curves on the observation windows handled by using frame hugging masks, while the highly curved gaps are in-filled with either liquid mask or offcuts from the background tape. In addition, you get a set of hub/tyre masks for the wheels, allowing you to cut the demarcation perfectly with little effort, plus masks for the portholes and nose-mounted landing light cover. Conclusion An interesting new release from Heller, and the extra Eduard parts and decals add a lot to commend the model to those of us that generally build in 1:72, or are perhaps a little short of space for anything larger. Detail is good out of the box, and a choice of four airframes with their Bu.Nos will make researching the finer details a little easier. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

No attractive box, unfortunately, I seem to have lost even the instructions... but since the middle sprue is marked "249", the sprues must be from reissue 249 (which does have an attractive box) of the old 099 Heller kit. Judging by the decals, I think this is a reissue by Směr, kit no. 154. So, a reissue of a reissue. I will try to boost things with an instrument panel from Yahu (also shown) and possibly a pilot I may have lying around, we'll see. Two aircraft inspire me, one from an experimental flight for camouflage testing that had no national markings or numbers (except perhaps on the bottom of the wings), or one of the ex-Mandchurian wiggle-over-silver/grey machines found during the German onslaught. Looking forward to starting this old kit from the bottom of some dusty box of ziplocks!

Its been quite a while since I posted something. Work and life kept me from being too much online and on BM. Modelling came also a bit shorter than usual. I have a lot of models finished late 2024 but still not photographed and posted. They will appear in a while... This one was done earlier this year and was a pretty much straight forward build. More or less built oob ,the only thing I enhance a bit was the cockpit... not much can be seen of it now...🫤. I always wonder why I keep on detailing cockpits or other parts of a model,when I know pretty well,that not much,if anything,can be seen in the end...must be some kind of modelling stubborness😉😊. This is my second Heller 707 and as the previous one,its a troublefree build. It looks very good but for its size it could do with a bit more details,still it builds into an impressive model of this classic jet. The decals are from 26 and are of the usual good quality. Simbair was a subsidiary of East African Airways,a joint venture between Kenya,Tanzania and Uganda,as can be seen from the livery. Cheers Alex "Lions" also appear sometimes on the Nairobi apron...May I introduce "Speedy" 😉

Gently throwing my entry into the GB. Yes, yes, I have KUTA thread that I almost gave up on but at least ADGZ one is done. Not really a fan of Heller, but there are some subjects that I like. Some of them fly, others crawl or ride, perhaps float in some cases. This one happens to fly. Some of you have seen it, others sat in a passenger seat or perhaps quite a bit forward - a pilot seat. Some of you know much more than me about it and someone else might have stumbled on it just now, but we can all agree that the plane looked good and was equally good at doing its job. It was from time when design was beautiful and tech had style, time when sleek curves of a car were matched only by... khm I am not writing that... but rather the daring boldness of its creator who may have had slight disregard for safety. Anyhow, this was a product of its time and one of the last of its kind in a country over the pond. One of last civil aviation ventures of still existing corporation... guessed it? Of course it is our Lockheed C121-A Constellation! In MATS livery to boot. Heller kit №80382, original mould 1982, re-released in 2020-something. Supplied in atrociously thin cardboard box with only protection for sprues being a box and some paper. I first need to unpack it all and count pieces that have not fallen off a sprue or came in multiple parts instead of one. How do I know they did? Because I repacked it after receiving in mail. Likely no aftermarket parts unless you count some paints and (unless I forget, which I shouldn't) some finishing touches borrowed from my other hobby/trade/whatever-you-call-it that are still to be delivered. @2996 Victor this one would like to be included in participant list please. @Mjwomack @Snafu35 new entry to the club, a small constellation of Constellations.

With the Frog Squad II GB going strong and a Classic Airfix GB on the way, I reckon it could be time for a Heller Classic GB II. What does everyone think? I'm minded to follow the parameters of the last Heller Classic GB, so anything from Heller prior to the Humbrol years would be admissible for this GB. This means any Heller-produced mould originally released prior to 31st December 1985. It doesn't have to be in a Heller box as Heller kits were released by many other manufacturers. Airfix, Buzzco, Encore, KP, Lodela, Revell and SMER are examples. Scalemates is your friend here. Heller also released kits from other manufacturers in their boxes, Airfix for one. These would not be eligible. Who else is up for this? 1. @2996 Victor Host 2. @JOCKNEY 3. @CarLos 4. @klr 5. @Corsairfoxfouruncle 6. @Richard Humm 7. @Wez Co-host 8. @TEMPESTMK5 9. @Doccur 10. @Mjwomack 11. @vppelt68 12. @psdavidson 13. @jean 14. @Max Headroom 15. @theplasticsurgeon 16. @Rafwaffe 17. @Rabbit Leader 18. @Bertie McBoatface 19. @Pig of the Week 20. @IanC 21. @bianfuxia 22. @silverfox63 23. @Marklo 24. @Karearea 25. @stevehnz 26. @Jinxman 27. @Alex.B 28. @RidgeRunner 29. @Giorgio N 30. @fightersweep 31. @Romeo Alpha Yankee 32. @MrB17 33. @UberDaveToo 34. @zebra 35. @Enzo the Magnificent 36. @davecov 37. @Ray S 38. @Old Man 39. @AdrianMF 40. @Modelling Masochist 41. @Bjorn 42. @airfixpeter 43. @Listel 44. @stevej60 45. @wimbledon99 46. @alancmlaird 47. @Threadbear 48. @Dermo245 49. @paul-muc 50. @Illusive 51. @marvinneko 52. @silverfox63 53. @Chris A 54. @erniewise 55. @srkirad 56. @ColonelKrypton 57. @Zephyr91 58. @PhantomBigStu 59. @Nick McV 60. @Redstaff 61. @PLC1966 62. @George Norman 63. @hakkikt 64. ? Who's up for this? Cheers, Mark

I don't have many Heller kits in the stash but I've dug out this one; I think I've seen a couple of other Rapides already here! A later boxing of the 1979 kit and this is what I got in the box; three sprues of silvery plastic goodness, some pretty good looking clear parts, basic instructions, and some rather mottled looking decals. Fortunately, tucked into the box with all of the above was this Arctic Decals set for Rapides operated by Railway Air Services Ltd. As a West Country boy it will have to be the "City of Bristol" option (although as a Bathonian I will also feel slightly dirty for this choice...). Can't remember when I bought them but current me is grateful to past me. The decals look "gert lush" and with the included masks and chrome window frames I'm nearly afraid to use them for fear of getting something wrong and wasting them! There's even a diagram included showing all the errors in the Heller kit; I'm trying hard to ignore it as I'm not feeling up to any major surgery which it seems is what would be needed. What's in the box will be close enough for my purposes. Right, time to get cracking! Cheers, Richard.

Hi all and here's a latest finish, Heller's Mirage IV A for the Classic Heller GB here. Short build thread is here Kit: 1/72 Heller Mirage IV A Build: OOB, tape for belts Paints: Mr Hobby, Tamiya, Klear, W&N Satin varnish, 2B pencil Decals: From the kit Extras: Scratchbuilt nose probe as I lost the original to the carpet monster. Thanks for looking and happy modelling! Dermot Heller_172_Mirage_IV_done (1) Heller_172_Mirage_IV_done (5) Heller_172_Mirage_IV_done (17) Heller_172_Mirage_IV_done (3) Heller_172_Mirage_IV_done (4) With an Airfix Super Mystere Heller_172_Mirage_IV_done (13) And Heller Fouga Heller_172_Mirage_IV_done (11) Heller_172_Mirage_IV_done (12)

Hello everyone, I hope that you are all having a nice day or evening. I had hoped to build the Heller 1/72 scale Dewoitine 501 as a Lithuanian D-501L. However I ordered a conversion set from LF / Kora store a few weeks ago; but unfortunately the set is still on back order from Kora. It has been almost a decade since I built a kit, so I wanted to build something all one colour 😁 . Thankfully an old loosely bagged kit came to my rescue 👍 I have a Heller Morane-Saulnier MS-230. It was loose in a zip loc bag, with no instructions or decals. However EBay to the rescue, with a set of decals from the SMĚR boxing of the kit. Scalemates to the rescue with instructions. Therefore I will be building a Czech version of the MS-230 👍 If anyone has a PDF of the SMĚR instructions, I would be very grateful. However I think that I can muddle through with the resources that I have here. My lighting conditions are a little questionable, but I will do my best to create bright photographs 📸 Here is what I started with: I hope to use the vac form canopy, from the Falcon Canopies set in the photograph. I printed out the older Heller instructions, in truth they are the right ones for the old kit that I had in the bag. Old, crisp Heller plastic. I like the detail and plastic of the old Heller kits. Just a starting post. Tomorrow I will wash the parts, as they are quite shiny. A little wash might help primer to stick to the surface 🙏 Just like the originally planned D-501L, this aircraft is in just aluminium/silver dope finish. If I’m feeling brave, I might airbrush the final colour. However at this stage, I’m erring towards caution and think that I might brush paint the model. Let’s see how it goes 👍 Thank you for reading. Please feel free to grab a comfy seat. Tea, coffee and biscuits are by the hatch at the back of the room. Help yourself to a newspaper, enjoy the relaxing music (currently Neil Young -“Harvest Moon”), and normal service will be resumed as soon as possible 🛋️ ☕️ 🍪 🗞️ 🎶 TonyT91

I bought this kit just this morning, part of a very big stash cull. My initial plan was to replace one of two Smer reboxes in my own stash with this kit, to avail of better decals and paint scheme options. While I will be offloading one of the Smer boxes as planned, I have decided to build this kit straight away, I didn't realise that no-one else (as yet) is building it. I have never built this kit before. This boxing is from the 1990s, but of course there have been others before and since: Parts: Instructions and decals: The two subjects. The box artwork is at odds with the instructions in showing the wheel covers fitted to the camouflaged subject (which is what I will be building: First task: Pick the best colour matches. The instructions for the "current" release (which Scalemates has mistakenly linked to this) have different paint recommendations to this release. I'm not convinced by either. I will be building another aircraft with this scheme, so at least I only need to research this once. If memory serves, the observer's gun mount is overly crude and/or thick, but I won't get to that for a few days.

Recently finished up the Heller F-84G for the Heller Classic GB, WIP is here. The kit was a 2014 re-release, the decals were from a Bestfong set, and the paints were Vallejo metal color and Tamiya acrylics. Overall, the kit was very nice - very little flash and great fit, not a whole lot of filler needed. Most issues were user error. The decals were also of excellent quality - thin but quite strong, no tearing and almost no folding in on themselves. They were also very responsive to Micro Set and Micro Sol. As an added bonus, here's a video I found with a lot of great footage and photos of RoCAF F-84Gs.

I’ve always wanted to build one of these an to be it epitomises quirky French engineering and the range of off beat subjects Heller have produced over the years. I know I have at least one other Heller kit in the stash but I’m pretty sure there are more, I seem to recall a mirage of some type, so time to scour the stash…

I really wanted a Heinkel He 112B in Romanian markings and I put a lot of effort into this model. Unfortunatelly this is the best I could do. I started with a RS models kit, gave much attention to the cockpit, battled very hard with the poor fit of very much every piece and other defects and innacuracies, including a bad warp where the fuselage meets the cabine and wings. I got to the no way to properly fit the cabine to the fuselage and ready to start painting when I finally realized that fixing the mentioned warp distracted me from properly aligning the wings and fuselage resulting in a slight X instead of a cross which once noticed could not be unnoticed. So I gave up on it, entered several auctions and finally managed to buy a Heller! The Heller kit is very pleasant to assemble, with an almost perfect fit and I think it is also better than the RS Models kit in portraying a He-112B overall. On the downside it has raised panel lines and no walls for the wheels bay area and needs detailing in certain areas at least. It turns out that addressing some of these things (rescribing the whole plane in particular) got the better of me and while I improved some skills (and got some better tools too), this happened at the expense of this particular model. The He 112 is an important plane for the Romanian airforce being the first relatively modern fighter entering service in significant numbers before the start of the war in Europe and flying the number 4 pictured here, Teodor Moscu destroyed two I-16s in the first day of the war, these being among the first victories of the Romanian Airforce in world war 2. It`s also a beautiful aircraft in my opinion and the austere one grey colour inside-out looks striking with the colourful and large Romanian roundels and tricolor painted rudder. I chose an early 1940 scheme, before Romania entered the war, when it only had national identification markings. I based it on this photo (which comes from a Romanian forum that now appears defunct): and a lot of conjectural research. The text on the photo places the ceremony at Campia Turzii (Transylvania) in 1940. Before Romania entered the war and before the Second Vienna Diktat that awarded large parts of Transylvania to Hungary, the Hungarian air force kept flying reconnaissance missions over Romanian territory with Romanian fighter aircraft having no luck intercepting them. On 27 August, flying a He-112B, future ace Nicolae Polizu intercepted a Hungarian Ca-135bis and downed it. Various Romanian and Hungarian sources differ as to where the incident occured (in Romanian or Hungarian airspace) and the consequences of the attack (crashed in Romania, crash landed on the Debrecen airfield, landed largely safely at Debrecen airfield etc.). The plane Polizu flew, the number of which I could not find, would have looked much like my model, my building mistakes aside. Now, for who is interested, the kit I`ve used is the Heller Humbrol 80240, the overall RLM 02 paint is LifeColor UA071 and this is a list of modifications and aftermarkets I`ve used:

I remember back in the 1990's, going round Beatties in Cardiff with my son looking at kits., and almost buying an Etendard kit, but for whatever reason bought something else instead. Since then I have almost bought the kit several times, and did eventually buy and build the Airfix reboxing of the Super Etendard, but it was not until last year that I eventually managed to pick up an Etendard for a reasonable price. I decided to wait for this GB before having a shot at building it - the original 361 new tool boxing was released in 1984 but this is the later 1986 Heller-Humbrol 80361 boxing. Pete

SAAB Sk35C Draken F10, Angelholm, Sweden, 1980s Heller 1/72 conversion The Heller Draken kit contains a Danish two seater option so I initially thought I could produce the Swedish version without too much work - I was wrong! The Swedish version is based on the early Sk35A airframe which has the shorter rear fuselage compared with the later versions. I tried just cutting off the rear fuselage, but finished up rebuilding the whole area aft of the rudder hinge with Milliput. There are all kinds of other differences, such as a single centreline drop tank compared with two and a totally different fin tip.. The kit I used had a lot of plastic shrinkage on wings and fin so I started with a Milliput session and rubdown, followed by a lot of panel line scribing. At the same time I removed the control surfaces from the wings and repositioned them drooped as seems to be the case as the hydraulic pressure bleeds away. Also completely refurbished the cockpit interior and seats. Decals became a bit of an issue but I found numbers and Swedish crowns from the decal bank and made up the stencils from a combination of hand painting and donations from various Superscale sheets. The final result is small but colourful!

The kit is from 1978, my boxing from 1979. It was a present of colleagues, when I left the firm in 1984. I wasn't very interested in this type of car as I prefer classic sports cars in an attractive design. So the kit rested in the stash. But at the moment I am reducing the stash and this is the opportunity to build the car. DaveCov has built this model in a former Heller groupbuild in classic black. I have studied his buildthread if there are any traps that I may avoid. So here are the sprues. I want to go with a colour scheme in green and dark green that I have seen some years ago at a meeting of vintage cars on an 11 CV. The interior will be in beige, medium brown and dark brown (from top to bottom).

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.

£2.99 on Kingkit but….missing the fuselage sides. However not impossible to fix, the plan is to CAD and prints a replacement otherwise the kit will be pretty much oob. Solidworks time….