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My contribution to the Group Build is Heller kit No.150, the Messerschmitt Me 163 "Komet" in 1/72 scale. I have an original 1977 boxing that I bought for £5 about 25 years ago from a stall at the Duxford Airshow. Since then it has been been shuffled around the back of my stash waiting for the right moment. This GB has provided the prefect opportunity/motivation to finally build this kit, the Soviet BI-1 rocket plane I built during the recent Blitzbuild is also looking a bit lonely and could do with a fellow rocket powered friend too.

£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….

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!

Let me entertain you with my other build, which took some 6 months to complete - I give you the Autobus parisien by Heller! Few words on the kit itself. It's quite big, as you can imagine, with a ready model 40 cm long and 10 cm wide. What's more impressive, some parts of it go in one piece - it's not every day that you detach a detail of whopping 40 cm length from the sprue. That comes at a cost - numerous push marks are everywhere. Heller engineers did their best to cover it up, but at certain areas it really spoils the visual with chickenpox, especially on the passenger compartment roof, that initially got a nice wooden texture. Some marks even go to the clear parts of the driver cabin, making it really unacceptable. Well, challenge accepted, so it turned out to be my most heavily modified model so far. Balsa ceiling, pneumatic brakes, wooden handrails, workable driver doors, windshield wipers, cornucopia of nuts, bolts, and rivets everywhere to mention a few. The kit is rich in years and it feels, with door handles and wipers made as a bumps on clear plastic and the manual giving you advices to fix the end of the bar with hot knife. Another issue - unlike the Citroen HY this kit decals are much more disappointing, mismatched sizes and overall pretty dull. So I took an opportunity to replace each and every, moreover adding some floral pattern to the walls. So there's little to nothing from what it meant to be out of the box. But don't get intimidated, this kit is a perfect canvas to paint your dream model on! The scale allows you to modify and upgrade without stretching your skills to the max. It's really very friendly in terms of assembly, since the whole passenger compartment is assembled as a separate capsule to be mounted on the chassis at the finishing stage. I especially enjoyed the ingenious solution of the roof - it's double in fact, first you attach the inner roof of passenger area and then you cover it with an outer roof, that closes the whole length of a model. That really simplifies the matters, Heller engineers did their best to assist. The model was painted with Alclad II enamels and Vallejo acrylics, all airbrush. Details highlighted with oil-based markers and Quinta studio rivets really saved me a lot of effort. Now, with all the modifications I can go on and on with recollections, but what speaks better of itself than the photos? Here they come and I do hope you will find it interesting. Cheers! Some images before the thing was completely covered: And a tiny bonus, brief history of Paris buses in 20th century:

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).

Greetings builders of vehicles! I've wandered into this part of the forum to share my latest finished project and part of the 'Give peace a chance' Group Build. For something different, I built Hellers Ferguson TE-20/FF-30 although both are built as the TE-20. Build log is here: As my first Heller kits, I found them nice to build, and as always subject quite enjoyable. The only problem was ejector pin marks in the wheel arches and some minor fit problems. I added some extra details - fuel line, battery and ignition leads for extra interest too. So, on with the pictures: Thank you for looking! Comments are welcome, particularly as this isn't my usual kind of build! Keith ☺️

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…

Hi. This is my first time posting something here so i will try my best to follow the rhythm of the forum. I am currently waiting for a B-17 to arrive from Poland so in the meantime i bought the cheapest Zero i could find, which would be this A6M5 by a local brand called Modelex. Modelex basically uses old Heller tooling and is as good (bad) as you might expect. Even so, i have already built the SAAB Draken by them and i did quite enjoy the build, so i ended up buying their Zero just to have some fun, experiment without feeling the guilt of doing such in an expensive kit, and also to learn how to use the forum. 👨‍🦲 I will be updating this thread for as long as it takes me to finnish it, which shouldn't be long. Let's take a look at the box and whatever is inside of it. The kit: To be fair it looks quite alright, the part count is kind of low but it doesn't matter. There isn't as much excess plastic as one would expect and the details are alright besides a few minor roughness in the underside. Overall it's ok for the price (12000 ARS), although i will only find out if the fitting is proper when i start assembling it. The Instruction sheet: Nothing to say besides the fact that its quite poor, but it works since the assembly is so simple and the part count is so low. I didn't bother to take a picture of the paint instructions because they were so low res that it was not even worth it. The kit itself comes with only one possible scheme which is just your average green with gray underside A6M5. The Decals: The decals are what is commonly known as garbage. they look quite bad (although robust, so i dont think they will crack or dissolve), they are stained, and there is like 10 of them in total, of which most are for the meatballs (thank god) and the small tail markings in white text that read 3-114 (which does not match with the code shown in the box). Even so, i wont buy any aftermarket decals because they are expensive and i do not want to wait months for them to arrive, so i will use the ones Modelex provided, along with some heavy masking tape + thin paintbrush work, to get this to look as decent as possible The Plan: So as you may have noticed the title of this thread is A6M5 (or A6M2??) and that's because i plan on converting this model to an A6M2, just because i wanted to build a white/light gray zero but this is all i could find. It shouldn´t be too hard and the kit was pretty cheap so i wont feel terrible while toying with it. The biggest difference there is (atleast in a scale this small and with this level of detail) is the engine cowling, which i will try to modify by sanding and by making the air intake with leftover burnt plastic. The paint job will be done by brush, and i bought a thinner brush to be able to paint the markings that did NOT come as decals. I am currently trying to find an A6M2 with white tail markings so i dont have to use some leftover decals for that too, but for now, i will probably end up making it quite similar to the "51" from carrier Junyo. Paint scheme was found in this website about japanese aviation. It goes without saying, but even though i will try my best, historical accuracy won't be the strongest point of this build. If i fail to convert it to A6M2 i will keep the build as an A6M5 and paint it green, as God (Modelex) intended. For now i will focus on doing the primer base and painting the cockpit and other minor details. I will keep you updated. -Ramirez.

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

So, here's the placeholder for my entry for this Groupbuild, which is definately non military and very peaceful: A double kit with a flimsy bit of plastic that counts as the 'diorama', which I might see about casting in plaster using the said 'diorama' as the mould. I'm not sure yet if I'll build just one or go for both as a side by side build, but this will depend on time available. Anyway, should be fun to build..... he says optimistically! 😬 Keith ☺️

Good afternoon, dear fellow modellers! Here I would like to introduce a rather nice model by Heller, an iconic Citroen HY van. The kit itself is a fresh repack of an old Heller model (which is sadly common with this brand that definitely used to know better times), still the quality of the sprues is great and there were no major issues with the assembly itself. The only doubtful decision of the manufacturer was to make half of the parts in clear plastic - that is if there's a small window in the back door, the whole door will be clear. Same goes to the front doors and even the engine compartment. Probably that was made on purpose, to make engine and cargo bay visible, still, a bit of a headache with masking comes along. Yet it's possible and thus little to complain of. On the other hand I would like to praise the Heller for their effort with the kit itself - it comes in a colourful box, with a great model catalogue inside, individual packaging for every sprue and even a nice add-on of a door knob sign, showing "Do not enter, model assembly in progress!" on one side and "Come in, let me show you my models!" on the other. A small thing but it somehow adds to the general value. But the best part comes with the decals, which are present in 2 variants: Citroen service center and a Bakery van. So both variants aren't taken out of the blue, those are real companies, present nowadays, so in case one opts for a diorama or a reference, both can be found on the web and checked for inspiration. It varies greatly from the common attitude of Chinese model manufacturers, who tend to add utter nonsense for decals without any idea of historical reference or common sense so far. Heller got a whole chapter in my good books for resourcefulness. Now, this model was my first experience with airbrush painting, so I had a time of my life experimenting with masks and colours. The vehicle turned out to be a bit on the exuberant side, but I'm pretty happy with the results. I've used premixed airbrush paints of a local manufacturer (Skull color) that turned to be really good. Had some trouble with yellow colour, which is really tricky to get a thick layer of (turns out one has to arrange white or pink base coat for it to get the convincing results). Otherwise it was a bliss and a pleasure to work with, ended the model by adding some cargo to it (mostly handmade) to bring some life to the scene. Hope you will enjoy it!

Всім привіт! У цій команді ще один танк🙂. Купував цю модель на вторинному ринку. Перший власник почав її складати. Я хочу побудувати ранній Н-35.

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.

Still no Heller 2025 catalogue but at least some news. A/c new tool kits programme for short - a beginners series, all in 1/72nd: three military & two civil. Confirmed Grumman E-2C Hawkeye (expected in March - thread) followed by C-2 Greyhound (thread) and a rumoured Sud-Aviation SA.342 Gazelle (thread) kit. And that's it for the moment. Source: https://www.facebook.com/heller.fr/posts/pfbid0328AB1serdT91Dv2HUC5dv44VjpqWrxNLuXjbY2727RFaGDgM1QQAvNqcHYm1T2L8l To be followed V.P.

Hi folk's,well first for the year in RFI is Heller's Tempest built for the Classic GB not long started on the forum,it's the Smer boxing which had three nice schemes including this D-Day period offering.Many thanks for taking the time to look.

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.

Heller Gmbh is to release - probably in 2026 - a new tool 1/72nd Sud-Aviation SA.342 Gazelle kit Source: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235133543-172-grumman-c-2-greyhound-by-heller-gmbh-in-project/#findComment-5143493 V.P.

Hi everyone, I now intend to bring this Breguet 693 to completion. It was started in a previous Heller GB, and is still nowhere near the 25% threshold. So here it is. Some photos of the kit; Since then, I managed to get a PE sheet so full of small parts I am not yet sure where they all go. Bottom line I spent time on the fuselage inner structure possibly for nothing as everything is on the PE fret. Oh well. So little of it will be visible when the half fuselages are glued together that nobody will ever see my shoddy job. So here we go, another kit to finish in 2025. Very possible, as I am only entering three GBs this year. It has taken me a long time to finally understand what had to bee done. Have fun with Heller kits!!! JR.

Looks like after its still future E-2 Hawkeye (thread), Heller Gmbh is to release a 1/72nd Grumman C-2 Greyhound - ref. 82303 et 56303 (with brush & paints) Source: https://www.master194.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1652352#p1652352 V.P.

Hi everyone, For the umpteenth time, I am entering this great kit in the KUTA. Even the kit is embarrassed to be dragged once more in front of everybody. Only today have I made any inroad on my Airfix GB Spitfire... less than 2 weeks before it finishes... No pressure. So advertising this Etendard is preposterous. But nothing will be started in 2025 until it is finished. OK, I've said it. Just a few photos to show that it is not far from completion: Anyway, there you have it. A superbly beautiful plane. So this model deserves to be finished. Not to mention that @JOCKNEY, who offered it to me eons ago, is now sending me threatening messages. Is that what the British call "peer pressure"? Enjoy your KUTAs. JR

Hi all, this will be my entry for the 2024 Xmas Blitzenbuild GB, the venerable Heller 1/72 Hurricane Mk.IIc. Obligatory shots. This original 1977 release is now looking, shall we say, a little foxed: Although, in the words of the late, great Sir Terry Pratchett, it may well have been badgered, wolved and quite possibly beared as well. The contents were still sealed! 🦭 Let's have a look inside the plastic bag: Standard Heller instructions, a sheet of surprisingly healthy-looking decals, a nice transparency sprue with separate windscreen and canopy, and a shrivelled glue capsule with the kind of health warning I thought we only had in more recent years. Perhaps idiocy isn't such new thing after all..... Typically lovely Heller mouldings on four sprues: Raised panel lines, of course, but look at just how fine they are! The exhausts, however, are quite horrible This will be a completely OOB wheels-up build. I'm not even going to replace the exhausts because then I'll be tempted to "improve" other aspects like the cockpit, that's not the purpose of this build. I'm not interested in the dimensional accuracy of the kit. This will be a nostalgia build, a model like it would have been in my yoof (although I never built this kit "way back then"), just hopefully a bit tidier! The subject will be the all-black 253 Sqn scheme, Z3971/SW*S - I'm not heading down the markings rabbit hole, either! My airbrush is off-limits until my new hobby room is fixed up, so I'll be off to my LMS on Saturday for a selection of rattle cans to paint the thing once it's assembled! Cheers, Mark

One day long ago, a friend called me who, while on a business trip in border town, came across a here rare old Heller box. From behind the counter, he called me and said that a stunningly beautiful Polish plane is available, which you can't miss. At the same time, I googled and agreed and asked to buy it. pretty soon I felt a strong desire to build it. Part detail set is included I like Poland:) ps. the machine guns will have to be replaced at some point here.

Hello, a late entry here with quite an old kit: I have an Heller Mirage III which I tried to build in a previous GB as a 5BA but was aborted due to horrendous distorsions of the fuselage plastic. Now, after several months of treatment, I managed to reduce the issue to a manageable size and started the build a few weeks ago to see how stable would be the plastic ( I got some worrying cracks which I would like to repair BEFORE the painting stage 🙂 ). I also needed some references for the scheme I chose in an equally old Modeldecal sheet, see here my successful search: So, now I think I'm ready to do some real progress in this build. Thanks for looking!

hello guys. here is my last ( painful ) work job. So many pieces to re built and replace. This kit is a mess...never buy it. It was a poisonous gift from my "best " friend... anyway i did it !. My reference pic : My model :

This is the old and simple 1/72 Heller kit of the Mirage III, built once as Mirage 5 BR recce variant, and once as Mirage 5, both in anniversary markings of Belgian squadrons. I did not care about improving the kit details, since for me, they simply were the canvas for the gorgeous paint schemes, the "Mephisto" and the "Blackbird". The decals came from Daco and were old as well. Rather thick, they needed massive decal-setting employment to be convinced to settle down. That all decals had to be applied twice, the first time in plain white as a base, then the real coloured ones, so that the black paint base would not tone down the colours, did not make it easier. Especially the long and thin stripes on the "Blackbird" took some time and concentration to be well aligned with their white base decals. This were also the first models I used an airbrush on upon restarting modeling last year. I thought plain black could be no problem, well, it could. I was unable to prevent silvering on several decals, and trying out liquid masking on the canopy of the "Mephisto" resulted in a debacle. Somehow, the liquid did not protect the canopy from the paint, resp. it did not really come off the plastic, so I desperately scratched off some, but then I gave up. Meanwhile, I use masking tape. Marcus