Heller 306 Super Étendard ***FINISHED***

[PeterB]

Hello again.

 

When I first started this GB I thought I had just 3 eligible kits, and then I remembered the Heller AMX 30 tank kit. Now I have realised that the Airfix reboxing of the Super Étendard is also originally a Heller moulding first produced in 1984, and therefore eligible, as confirmed by Wez.

 

Back in the mid to late 1990's my then teenage son was showing an interest in aircraft kits, so on a visit to Cardiff we went into the local Beatties (long gone of course) and picked up something to build. To avoid repeating existing kits I had built, we went for a batch of French postwar jets, and you can see the Mirage F1, IIIE and 2000 that we bought that day in a pic on my Mirage IVA thread. I also wanted an Étendard IVM but could not find one. Unfortunately my son soon lost interest as he has hand-eye coordination problems due to a medical condition.  I never did get an Étendard IV but many years later I bought this 2013 boxing of the Super Étendard and here it is with decs for French and Argentinian machines.

It is moulded in the soft grey plastic Airfix are fond of, with fine raised detail and some darned silly sprue gates - long flat ones that are a PITA. It is also a rather weird moulding, though I gather the Heller Étendard is exactly the same - the fuselage joint is horizontal and the one piece wing has to be fitted in before closing up. The nose looks decidedly bent but that is apparently deliberate and might be one of the reasons they moulded it that way. The mouldings are pretty clean with just a little light flash.

 

Anyway, the cockpit tub is moulded into the lower fuselage and you are provided with a seat, stick and an IP (plus decal) and that is all you get but as it is all painted black according to the instructions not very much will be visible anyway.

Unlike the Mig-19 I am building in this GB, you do at least get a tailpipe to block off the rear, but the intakes are once more wide open so as you can see I have put some card in behind the 'pit to blank them off. Also, although the fuselage doors for the main gear are moulded closed, there is a small gap where the bay moulded in  the wing joins the fuselage so I have put some small plastic tabs in to block that off. Now I am ready to start painting!

 

Here is my usual brief history on a plane I knew very little about and don't have any books on, so I am relying on Wiki - feel free to point out any errors or add anything useful.

 

Following the Korean war, both France and its Nato allies expressed an interest in a new lightweight and inexpensive fighter. Dassault offered them two versions of a design they called the Étendard II and Étendard VI - Étendard means “Standard” ie flag I guess. Neither the French Air Force nor its allies went ahead with it, but the French Air Force did express an interest in a larger, more powerful version which Dassault christened the Mystère XXIV. Once again there was no further progress but the Navy were interested in a navalised fighter bomber version which became the Étendard IV, purchasing 69 IVM fighters and 21 IVP recce planes.

 

In the 1970's it was intended to replace the Étendard with the navalised Jaguar M but that was cancelled and the Navy started looking at both the A-7 Corsair II and the A-4 Skyhawk, but according to the article on Wiki,” Dassault pulled some strings with the French Government” and persuaded them to buy instead an improved Super Étendard which would be all French and cheaper! With new wings and engine the Super Étendard is not actually much of an improvement on the Étendard IVM but has better avionics. It was originally intended to buy 100 initially with more to follow but budget cuts reduced the order to 71, the first of which flew in 1973, with deliveries starting in June 1978. It was operated both from carriers and shore bases. The non afterburning SNECNA Atar 8K-50 engine delivered 11000lb thrust giving a top speed of around 750mph and a range of around 1100 miles - somewhat less when carrying a drop tank and Exocet missile.

 

1n the 1990's 48 were fitted with upgraded avionics including a new radar with twice the range, and in the 2000's they were again upgraded with a new inertial navigation system linked to GPS, improved ECM and the ability to use night vision goggles. As well as the 2 built in 30mm cannon, the Super Étendard had 6 pylons, 2 under each wing and 2 under the fuselage, and was capable of carrying the usual range of bombs and rockets, free fall nuclear bombs and later Laser Guided bombs and the ASMP nuclear stand off rocket, but is most famous for its use by the Argentinians who bought 14 and fitted some of them with a single Exocet anti-ship missile during the Falklands War. In French hands they participated in a number of conflicts such as Lebanon, Afghanistan and Libya before being replaced from 2016 onwards by the Rafale.

 

So this time it actually was brief, unlike most of my other rants!😄

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[TonyOD]

Going to tag along for this one. Going to do the Argentinian version for the Falklands GB when it eventually comes round.

[PeterB]

Interior parts painted, IP decalled and both the stick and the IP glurd in - seat to follow once fuse closed as it interferes with the fit because of my blanking plates. I managed to get 3g of lead right in the nose so that should be mor than enough.

Bit blurry but you can see more or less what I am up to. Did a bit of touching up, stuck in the jetpipe and it is now together.

I filed the wing joint down just a little and the fit is pretty good - at least this method means that the anhedral looks after itself pretty much. I will leave that to dry overnight and then do any tidyingup before fitting the flaps and tail.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[Rob S]

Hello Pete : 

 

PM sent. 

 

Best Regards 

 

Rob 

 

[JeroenS]

Hi Pete, good luck with this one, I've removed the other post. 

[PeterB]

The fit of the parts seems to be pretty good - I was impressed by the way the tail unit slotted together and into the fuselage. I have used a little filler on the intake lips and the front fuselage, and no doubt once I prime it there will be more work to do. However, as seems normal with older kits (and some new ones) there is always one part that is the exception, and in this case it was the canopy. With the bottom edge resting on the fuselage sides, the top was well over 1mm too high - usually this is due to a misalignment of the fuselage halves but in this case the design means that I could not possibly have got that wrong as the upper fuselage is in one piece! I had 3 choices-

1.Reduce the height of the cockpit sides under the canopy.

2.Sand down the canopy to make it sit lower, but that could have made it look too shallow.

3.Do a bit of both which is what I ended up doing, and the fit is now pretty good.

Curiously, I neither had to reduce the height of the cockpit sides under the windscreen nor sand it down, though I did have to adjust the "rake" at the back where it met the modified canopy. This seems to suggest that the problem is a badly moulded canopy, not the fuselage!

You can see what I mean about the drooping nose - presumably to give the pilot a better view when landing on a carrier. This is a simple kit and having glued on the intake lips, splitter plates, flaps and air brakes the only parts left to fit are the undercarrige, the odd aerial and the underwing load of 1 drop tank and 1 Exocet which seems to be common to all the boxings of this kit. I have got a range of other suitable AM weapons available but with no detailed info the pylons would be a problem so I will reluctantly stick with the kit load-out. I did make one mistake - the splitter plates should go quite far back into the fuselage, but having mounted my blanking plate too far forward I had to shorten them - easy enough to do and not very obvious!

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[TonyOD]

This is the fastest build I've ever seen!

[PeterB]

So, having masked the canopy I gave it a blast of rattle can primer and once that had time to dry I brushed on a coat of paint.

Heller/Airfix suggest Hu 114 "Medium Grey" but my source suggests FS*5237 Dark Blue/Grey, and as luck would have it I bought a tin of that in Xtracolour enamel by mistake a couple of years ago - I should have bought Dark Grey/Blue for early WWII USN planes which is much bluer. I can see one or two places where a touch of filler is needed before the second coat. After that it has the darker grey pattern painted on the upper surfaces when I have worked out exactly what to use - Hu 125 Satin US Dark Grey as per the instruction or perhaps FS*6270 Neutral Grey. The main gear legs are on, but I have left off the nose one as it has the wheel moulded on, which I have yet to paint!

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[PeterB]

7 hours ago, TonyOD said:

This is the fastest build I've ever seen!

Hi Tony,

 

As I have said before both my wife and I are retired and for medical and age reasons have not been out very often since March. There is a limit to how much decorating we can do, and the weather and time of year mean the gardenening season is pretty well over, so to keep us occupied I build kits and my wife is currently going through a baking and jigsaws phase - sad! Actually, other than the canopy it is a pretty easy kit so far, which helps. If I had been using acrylics instead of enamels, it would be ready for decals by now😄.

 

Pete

Edited December 4, 2020 by PeterB

[TonyOD]

Funny you should say that @PeterB, my wife's got into jigsaws recently too! Different stages in life innit... while I still work we're in that magical window between our kids and our kids' kids and having the time of our lives (though our daughter's just got engaged, so...)  I'm fortunate to be in pretty good shape for an old crock of 51 and spend as much of my time as I can in the great outdoors, so I don't actually give that much time to modelling in the scheme of things at weekends at least. This accounts for the glacial pace of my builds, well that and the fact that I only use enamel paints and have to wait for everything to dry!

 

I'm enjoying seeing your Super Etendard together and I'm sure I'll be referring to this WIP for tips'n'tricks when the time comes to do mine.

 

 

[JOCKNEY]

Great stuff Pete

 

My Humbrol version of this only came with the French markings, were they all like that ?

 

Looking great mate

 

Cheers Pat 

[PeterB]

Still as fair bit of touching up to do but here is my take on the colour scheme.

I looked at a few pics/films and went with the Hu 125 for the darker of the greys - may not be exactly right but looks good enough to me - as ever the colour changes depending on the light, and the pic looks rather "bluer" than it does on my desk at the moment - bit like extra dark sea grey - but then perhaps that is correct for a maritime plane. It will no doubt change again when varnished!

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[mike romeo]

Hi Peter,

 

The SEt is completely outside my era of modelling interest and I haven't any special affiliation to French subjects. 

 

So, why when I see your build do I get a yearning to build one?  You're a bad influence, sir . . 

 

Nice scheme , btw!

 

Rgds

 

Martin

[PeterB]

And this is what the paint looks like in hazy sunshine.

The nosewheel is another of Heller's ruddy butt fits so I will have to be careful not to knock that off. @AV O kindly sent me a link to a beautiffuly detailed build of this actual kit, and it seems that the nose door, which is not yet fitted, is in fact incorrect as Heller copied the one from the Étendard IVM apparently!

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[PeterB]

Most of the touching up done so I will give it a coat of gloss varnish and start on the decs.

It is really quite small, for all the big box it came in, but rather elegant. For the record Airfix/Heller say it is a machine of the 17th Flotille of Aeronavale in 1989, so it is too early to be the Super Étendard Modernisée or "SEM". I mentioned earlier that it has only one drop tank and one Exocet and that it looked like all the other boxings were the same but I might be wrong - Heller did mould locating holes for the outer pylons which I have filled in. Whether or not they ever supplied then and something to go on them I have no idea.

 

cheers

 

Pete

[PeterB]

I have made a start on the decs but a lot of stencils etc still to go on.

Airfix provide both red and black stripes for the Exocet - in fact enough for 2 although there is only 1 in the kit. Pity they ar 0.5mil short!

 

Pete

[PeterB]

The decs are finally on so on Saturday I should be able to finish the construction.

It's not a bad looking little plane.

 

Pete

[PeterB]

Everything is now on so like my Su-9 for another GB it is waiting for a finishing coat of varnish.

Except for the cockpit canopy the fit has been pretty good, or at least until I got to the main wheel doors - very vague and as with a number of other kits I have built they make it difficult to get the tank/missile on the underwing pylons - maybe the pylons are a bit too far inboard?

 

There actually is no anhedral on the horizontal tail - that is down to the camera angle. I have seen neither this nor the Mirage IVA in the flesh as it were, but for some reason the pics and videos I have seen of them left me with the impression they were somewhat bigger that they actually are, assuming Heller got it right! This is a very attractive looking plane, but boy is it small compared say with the A-7 Corsair II they were apparently thinking of buying, and I suspect its usable payload is somewhat less as well.  It is in fact about the same size as the A-4, but with a much shallower fuselage. Still, it is all French and that was important to them, and maybe their carriers at the time - Clemenceau and Foch - could not handle anything much bigger?

 

Anyway, this is the last of the Heller kits in my stash, and it is nearly done.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[mike romeo]

Nice job, Peter.  I like the colour scheme and the elegant shape.  I really should buy one of these.  It would be rude not to.

 

Rgds

 

Martin

[alt-92]

11 hours ago, PeterB said:

and maybe their carriers at the time - Clemenceau and Foch - could not handle anything much bigger?

Yup

Also the reason you don't see two-seater Rafale Ms. Having twin tubbers would mean extra living quarters for the GiBs* and there's not enough space on their carriers for that.

 

 

*_{guys in back}

[RidgeRunner]

I love it, Peter. A wonderful plane and you’ve captured the look of her perfectly

 

Martin

[PeterB]

I know it probably does not look any different but I have finally managed to get a coat of satin varnish on.

I am calling this one done, and once we get a little sunshine I will post some pics in the gallery.

 

It was an enjoyable build and brings my participation in this great Heller Classic GB to a close. Good luck to the rest of you with your builds and thanks to the organisers.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[TonyOD]

That is a great build of a classy aircraft. 

[RidgeRunner]

Nice one, Peter! 

[Johnson]

Super job Pete!