Heller Revived from the Dead

[MsModeller]

I've been a massive fan of Heller for a long time. When I was in France for one of the only holidays we had as kids, I begged my parents for a Patrouille de France set after by sheer luck they flew a display at the beach we were staying near.

 

So I've always had a soft spot for Heller. As others have said their focus on rarer and French topics has been a great addition to the global modelling community. 

 

Long live Heller eh?

[stevej60]

Just found this folk's for any Heller fans new moulds on the way.

(7) Heller Product News 2023 - YouTube

 

[3DStewart]

The forthcoming 1:72 Hawkeye looks nice.

 

The new tooling emphasis seems to be on 1:24 civilian vehicles.  Not my area, but I wish them well and hope they are very profitable, as that's the best guarantee of new moulds in the future.

[Peter2]

How do you pronounce Heller? I assumed for years it was pronounced  ' L A ' like the US city, as it was a French name. Or ' EL ERR ' ? English speakers seem to call them ' HELLER ' like someone from an infernal place and the German version in the video above sounds like ' HELLER ' also. Let's find out in 2023...

[mack]

I can only hope for a re-release of the one and only Alpine A210 kit in 1/24th scale...

[TonyOD]

On 12/27/2022 at 6:10 PM, stevej60 said:

Just found this folk's for any Heller fans new moulds on the way.

 

Good to see. Still got a soft spot for the big "H". I wonder what Jean Jacques is up to...?

[TonyOD]

On 1/5/2023 at 12:44 AM, Peter2 said:

How do you pronounce Heller?

 

English speakers just say it as it's spelled, but in French it's roughly "Ell-aire", with the French "r" right in the back of the throat. I suppose their German owners would pronounce it same way as we do. (Incidentally in German it means "lighter", as in less dark.)

[Moggy]

On 24/02/2021 at 10:43, Noel Smith said:

Heller's big 100th scale Soleil Royale has had its critics with regard to accuracy and idiosyncrasies down the years, but it builds up into one very impressive eye catching model and is to date the only 16th century sailing ship model in plastic in this scale.

Soleil Royale sailed in the 17th century - it was launched in 1669.

 

The 16th century covers 1501-1600

 

Cheers, Moggy

[Noel Smith]

Did you know the Soleil Royale was an Aurora kit at one time according to something I read on some forum.

The Heller Victory Is from their own tooling and by all accounts quite accurate.

[Richard Humm]

22 hours ago, Noel Smith said:

Did you know the Soleil Royale was an Aurora kit at one time according to something I read on some forum.

The Heller Victory Is from their own tooling and by all accounts quite accurate.

Aurora reissued Heller kits in the USA in the late 1970s, but they didn't have any design influence on them. The Soleil Royale is Heller's own tooling as much as the Victory.

[Noel Smith]

Thanks for the update Richard about Heller tooling the Soleil Royale kit originally.

French company, French subject. I built one when it was first released.

Not sure if the Victory was done whilst Heller was still independent before it's tie up with Airfix and Humbrol.

A lot of Heller kits were marketed under the Airfix name as well as their own, mainly aircraft and car kits that I can remember.

Heller had quite a range of classic ships back in the day that Airfix did not sell under their name. The Saint Louis as a subject was issued by both companies but I believe that the moulds were different scales, the Heller issue being the earlier of the two going into production a few years before the Airfix one.

Ref the Aurora Soleil Royale, did Aurora issue any other Heller ship kits at the time?

[Richard Humm]

Yes, they had eleven in total - Corona, Stella del Norte, Santa Maria, Drakkar Oseberg, Bireme Imperator, Phenix, Royal Louis, Sirene, La Reale de France and Chebec being the others. They had a joint Aurora Heller logo. Scalemates shows ten of them, though for some reason the Corona is still listed under Heller even with the joint logo so doesn't come up with the others. There were also some aircraft.

 

J-C Carbonel's Heller book gives the Victory a 1979 release date, so that would be after Humbrol started British distribution, but before they bought the company.

Edited January 17, 2023 by Richard Humm

[Tiger331]

Notwithstanding 'cultural differences', I do think they could have employed someone with a little more enthusiasm to deliver the Heller news in that video .......invites direct comparison with the Airfix 2023 range launch. That said, it is great to see the Heller brand being rejuvenated. As a young teen that spent some formative years in Gibraltar, I remember Heller being a dominant brand in that small market and I enjoyed one or two of their ship kits as a nice departure from my usual aviation fare. Although I am no longer a big follower of 1:72 scale, I am really looking forward to their 'take' on the E-2C Hawkeye and especially if it features a wingfold option.       

[tempestfan]

On 1/31/2020 at 3:20 PM, klr said:

A very odd sale IMHO. It can''t have brought in too much revenue. Do Modelex have big presence in South America, or is it just Argentina?

 

I'm not sure many people have understood exactly why Heller ditched so many moulds in the 80s, not only to Crovetto/now Modelex, but also most of the Musée line to Smer and god knows how many of their sports cars to Union; possibly also some Cadet to Lodela. And in particular without any really obvious red thread regarding subjects...

 

On 2/24/2021 at 10:43 AM, Noel Smith said:

The St Louis, a 16th century ship was also the subject of an Airfix kit in their Classic Ships range. Although Heller and Airfix were  under the same holding company some years ago, I believe that their respective kits of the St Louis ship were in two different scales.

 

The Airfix St. Louis always was rather scarce, but then it's the least impressive of their large Tall Ships (together with Bounty) as a kit IMHO - that may have influenced a reluctance to reissue it. Not sure what scale the Airfix kit is (nominally), but the Heller is larger IIRC. --- Again not sure how the exact legal set-up was with Heller post of the acquisition of its assets by Humbrol (i.e. whether those assets were bought by a "new" Heller SA/SARL), but as far as I'm aware, Airfix has never been a legal entity post 1981, only a brand first operated by General Mills/Palitoy, then Humbrol via Heller and then Hornby - so to split hairs Heller and Airfix were not under the same holding 😉

[Richard Humm]

2 hours ago, tempestfan said:

I'm not sure many people have understood exactly why Heller ditched so many moulds in the 80s, not only to Crovetto/now Modelex, but also most of the Musée line to Smer and god knows how many of their sports cars to Union; possibly also some Cadet to Lodela. And in particular without any really obvious red thread regarding subjects...

 

Apparently they sold a few tools to Revell in the mid 1980s as well - the 1/150 Gorch Fock and 1/24 Mercedes 300SL are the ones I found in JCC's book - and the 1/8 Kawasaki bikes went to Nagano.

[tempestfan]

On 3/2/2023 at 9:50 PM, Richard Humm said:

Apparently they sold a few tools to Revell in the mid 1980s as well - the 1/150 Gorch Fock and 1/24 Mercedes 300SL are the ones I found in JCC's book - and the 1/8 Kawasaki bikes went to Nagano.

You’re right, Richard - Revell was also in the game - didn’t Heller also sell the Dixi?; as was Airfix with the Norton and BMW - but those deals appear to have occurred a couple of years earlier than the Crovetto and (main) Smer deals.

[3DStewart]

I had a nice surprise from Heller today.  A year ago I bought their 1:72 kit of the Safir, which had very out of register decals.  I made an online request for a replacement, but heard nothing.  I was disappointed, but given the relatively low value of the kit pursuing is wasn't a priority for me. To my surprise, today a letter dropped through my letter box from Glow2B, Germany with a replacement set of decals. 

 

I don't know what caused the delay, but I'm impressed they didn't forget.

Thank you Heller/Glow2B. 

[Rabbit Leader]

5 minutes ago, 3DStewart said:

which had very out of register decals.

 

Glad you finally received a better set of decals. From what I’ve experienced, I think Heller’s decal quality was much better before its acquisition by Glow2B. I rate their decal quality during this period very highly and on par with what’s now available within Airfix and Italeri kits. Sadly what they are offering in these yellow boxes (at least in their T-28 Trojan kit) is very short of what was once offered in both colour density and registration. Hopefully they will return to where their decal quality once was. I suspect price has something to do with it. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

[klr]

On 3/6/2023 at 8:15 PM, 3DStewart said:

I had a nice surprise from Heller today.  A year ago I bought their 1:72 kit of the Safir, which had very out of register decals.  I made an online request for a replacement, but heard nothing.  I was disappointed, but given the relatively low value of the kit pursuing is wasn't a priority for me. To my surprise, today a letter dropped through my letter box from Glow2B, Germany with a replacement set of decals. 

 

I don't know what caused the delay, but I'm impressed they didn't forget.

Thank you Heller/Glow2B. 

I have exactly the same issue with the Safir decals, and I bought four of that kit, mainly because of the generous decal sheet. At least two if not three of the sheets are seriously "off", specifically the Austrian and Swedish markings.

 

Did they ask for photographic evidence at any point? I don't see an option to attach a file in the online form.

[3DStewart]

8 hours ago, klr said:

I have exactly the same issue with the Safir decals, and I bought four of that kit, mainly because of the generous decal sheet. At least two if not three of the sheets are seriously "off", specifically the Austrian and Swedish markings.

 

Did they ask for photographic evidence at any point? I don't see an option to attach a file in the online form.

 

No, they accepted my word.  Note that the replacement sheet is nicely in register, but some of the colour density (especially yellow) is weaker than on the original sheet.

 

Edited March 8, 2023 by 3DStewart

[ReccePhreak]

On 6/13/2019 at 8:27 AM, Julien said:

CL-215

Ejército del Aire (Spanish Air Force) UD.13-13 | September 1993

Polemikì Aeroporia (Hellenic Air Force) 1045 | November 2014

Province du Saskatchewan C-FAFO | 2010

Securité Civile

I've always liked this scheme:

 

https://www.aviationmegastore.com/img/siam-scale-decals-ssn72004-hu16b-albatroscl215-rthai-navy-x47-44144_0.jpg

 

 

Someday, I need to get back to working on mine.

Larry

Edited October 30, 2023 by ReccePhreak
Post a link instead of image

[Casey]

I got one recent Heller kit which came with a surprise of paints that are having Humbrol colors but seems to be better than Humbrol Acrylics I have tried... I am amused. If only the details actually had... well, details. But it can be fun to build!

Edited February 9 by Casey

[tempestfan]

I'm somewhat surprised to see Heller still (or probably - again?) reboxes Airfix kits; they even use a kit number based on their Airfix counter part for the 00 figures (xxx09 for the 8th Army, xxx32 for the Commandos etc.). 

[Fin]

Is the Heller 1/72 Heinkel He-112 one of those molds that were sold to other companies? I was hoping it would be released again, but I see it was also offered by Encore and I think Modelex.

[Fukuryu]

On 3/31/2024 at 11:33 AM, Fin said:

Is the Heller 1/72 Heinkel He-112 one of those molds that were sold to other companies? I was hoping it would be released again, but I see it was also offered by Encore and I think Modelex.

 

It was sold but is still available from Modelex.