1/100 Heller Alouette III

[Blue Monday]

Despite numerous starts on various kits over the last few years, I haven't completed a model in over ten years. My last attempt was a build of an Italeri 1/72 Corsiar in Honduras colours. I was quite happy with how things were progressing until I tried to sand down the seam in front of the cockpit glazing, along the top of the engine. I overdid it with the sanding and scraping using a scalpel and I ended up with a lopsided engine cowling that was beyond recovery. It's a pity because I was actually quite happy with how the cockpit had turned out. 

 

 

This was first time using a resin item (True Details seat) in a kit build and the detail on the seat was really nice. 

 

 

A fairly simple looking cockpit but an improvement on anything I had achieved previously. Sadly, the Corsiar was not to be. I've always been a 1/72 modeller but I've started looking at the smaller scales recently and 1/144 in particular. That led to having a look at the stash to see what else might be of interest. I discovered this old kit. The Heller Alouette III in 1/100 scale. This was a kit I built as a kid, complete with slapped-on paint and glue-marred canopy.  There are some other interesting types available in 1/100 scale and Heller also have an Alouette II and SA315 Lama in 1/100 scale. They would make a nice trio to build in this scale. 

 

 

This kit dates from 1964 so it is old and far from the state of the art. The big issue with this kit is the fact the fuselage shape under the cabin is way off. The belly under the cabin should be flat, like the drawing on the box top, but the plastic actually features a gentle curve from the rear of the sliding door towards the area below the front of the lower cockpit glazing. I had considered adding on sheets of plastic card and filler and sanding to shape but the glazing marked on the clear parts are also a little off so it seems there is little point in attempting to solve one issue when it will only highlight a second one. I will simply have to accept this particular inaccuracy and move on. The main undercarriage and horizontal tail plane have a few issues too. I'll leave the tail plane issue well enough alone but I'll try to correct the undercarriage legs a bit. My plan is to build the model in the colours of a Swiss Air Rescue SA316B Alouette III. I hope to scratchbuild some snow shoes for the wheels and a winch as well as the cargo rack. These additions might distract the eye from the fuselage inaccuracies. The Swiss Air Rescue Alouette airframes appear to have been owned by the service itself but operated by a commercial helicopter operator and its seems these helicopters have at times carried the titles of Air Zermatt, Air Glaciers, Heliswiss and BOHAG. I have no decals for this model yet so I will have to find a decal maker to do up some decals for this (Paul Parkes hopefully!). I plan to finish the model with either the Swiss Air Rescue badge or Air Zermatt logo. HB-XDA flew with both logos at different times. Here it is in Air Zermatt markings. 

 

Photo: Kenneth Swartz

 

And this is what you get in the box! Like I said, it dates from 1964 so it is a little on the minimalist side!  It's not so bad though. The 1/50 scale kit from Heller features the same parts count! 

 

    

All the basics are there to build an Alouette III but that's it. The scale doesn't lend itself to super detailing but some additional detail here and there will add to the finished model, hopefully. I have a few areas of the kit I'd like to improve so hopefully I can pull it off and at the very least, complete the kit in some fashion or other. Hopefully I will have a first update in a few days. Thanks.

 

BM.

Edited February 2, 2022 by Blue Monday

[Blue Monday]

The first task undertaken was to examine the kit parts and see what I was dealing with. A few deep ejector pin marks were noted on some of the parts and these will have to be dealt with. The first ones that caught my eye were those on the rotor blades. These would definitely have to be dealt with as they are on the upper surface of the blades! I've yet to have any real success using filler so I tried to fill the circular holes with some plastic card discs made using a punch & die set.

 

I managed to find a size of punch that fitted the ejector pin marks perfectly. A touch of glue, some decent pressure to push it into the hole and some sanding after the glued had dried appears to have worked OK so far. I'll know for sure after I spray on some primer.

 

 

The leading and trailing edges of the blades were a bit rough and uneven so I sand them down a little and hopefully the blades will look OK.

 

BM.

[Blue Monday]

I found a three-view drawing online and printed it off. I used the drawing to make sure I lined up each individual rotor blade correctly. I am reasonably happy the angle between each blade is close to being correct.

 

 

 

 

I will try to impart a small amount of blade droop before I start painting them.

 

BM.

[k5054nz]

I hadn't said anything but I'm really enjoying this! I think dad built me the Lama when I was a kid, I have distinct memories of a tiny little model. Would love to track one down for nostalgia's sake.

[Blue Monday]

I'm glad you are enjoying this little build. Hopefully I'll have another update shortly.

 

The 1/100 Lama is getting rare now but occasionally pops up on ebay and I managed to get one at a good price from Kingkit in the UK. A company in Argentina called Modelex seems to have bought up the old 1/100 Heller moulds for the Lama, Alouette II, Gazelle and Puma as well as a few fixed-wing types. They are up on ebay but not massively cheap. 1/100 scale is a fun scale to build. It isn't too small for most subjects including smallish helicopters. The Alouette III or Lama probably wouldn't be worth building in 1/144 scale but 1/100th is just about right for a micro scale model of these interesting machines.

 

BM. 

[Blue Monday]

In this kit, you are provided with two bench seats that appear to resemble sofas! Maybe the prototypes had seating of a similar style but production machines certainly didn't as far as I can tell. Up front, there were usually two or three seats fitted. For HB-XDA, only one sets of flight controls were fitted for the right-hand seat while the other two seats were occupied by the winch man and doctor or other crew member. One or both of these seats could be mounted facing backwards and it appears the centre seat was usually facing forwards while the left seat was fitted facing to the rear and the winch operator could sit in this seat, operate the winch and assist anyone being winched into the helicopter from a seated position. And so I needed three seats. I expected to scratch build the front seats but I thought I might as well have a go at making the seats from one of the bench seats provided. I measured the bench seat and divided it into three, marking it with a pen. I then tackled it with my razor saw. After cutting them, I sanded down the edges to give them a rounded profile. Overall I think the three resulting seats turned out OK. One is slightly wider than the other two but isn't that noticeable and certainly won't be once viewed through the glazing. I'll fit these seats in the mixed configuration described earlier. I'll see if some kind of seat belts can be rustled up from tape or foil.

 

 

 

 

I am currently working on the skis at the moment so will report back on any progress with these.

 

BM.

[Blue Monday]

Here is another shot of the main rotor blades with the ejector pin marks filled using plastic card discs.

 

 

I didn't make as much progress on the skis than I had hoped over the weekend. One ski is more or less complete and the other two need to be finished off with the opening made to accommodate the wheels. I took a photoetched set for the Heller 1/72 scale model which features a set of skis. I took measurements and scaled them down to 1/100 scale and cut them from thin plastic card. The opening for the wheel was opened by drilling out two holes and cutting out the plastic in-between. One down, two to go.   

 

 

BM.

 

Edited February 15, 2022 by Blue Monday

[Blue Monday]

Not much of an update. I wanted to remove a portion of the raised detail on the floor that helps to position the front seats. I overdid it on the sanding with a metal file. I have tried to repair the floor with filler so hopefully won't be too noticeable when painted.

 

 

BM.

[Blue Monday]

Not much to report. I glued the rear bulkhead to the cockpit floor. The rear bulkhead on the real thing is not completely flat but has a pronounced raised section towards the centre two-thirds of the rear wall. I have tried to represent this with a section of thicker plastic card. When this painted a d dry-brushed, it might look OK.

 

 

Next, I will try to make a bench/seat attached to the rear bulkhead and I might try to make a stretcher, some medical bags and an oxygen cylinder too. Things that these helicopters normally carried. Thanks for looking. 

 

BM.