***C'est magnifique!!!*** Heller Classic GB 2025 Chat

[2996 Victor]

Hi Jeff @MrB17 and Dave @UberDaveToo, please head on over to Martin's Les Français en Afrique GB proposal and get yourselves signed up!

 

Cheers, 

Mark

[UberDaveToo]

2 minutes ago, 2996 Victor said:

Hi Jeff @MrB17 and Dave @UberDaveToo, please head on over to Martin's Les Français en Afrique GB proposal and get yourselves signed up!

 

Cheers, 

Mark

Maybe someone with a little more mojo than I have can move my reply over there...

[Enzo the Magnificent]

8 minutes ago, UberDaveToo said:

Apparently not, you'd think they would, since the French flew them for about 20 years after WWII ended. Anyway I was replying to RidgeRunner, who asked if I'd join his French North Africa GB proposal...

 

It would help if I read the post properly...  

 

[UberDaveToo]

1 minute ago, Enzo the Magnificent said:

 

It would help if I read the post properly...  

 

I don't mean to cause confusion, but somehow I manage to do it well...

[Ray S]

Sign me up please! I have the Javelin T.3 in a Humbrol box, and have started the 1/100 Le Soleil Royal (purely for medicinal reasons) and I am pretty sure it will still be less than 25% completed by the time this GB starts. 2,300 parts, 756 of which are for 108 cannons, 7 parts each. It is testing my eyesight, and will test my knot-tying skills as there are lots of dead-eyes in the kit too, which I have never dealt with before. You never know, it may even still qualify for Heller Classic GB III in 2028! I am away from the bench a lot at the moment, and started LSR as a way of taking my mind off things.

 

Ray

[2996 Victor]

27 minutes ago, Ray S said:

Sign me up please! I have the Javelin T.3 in a Humbrol box, and have started the 1/100 Le Soleil Royal (purely for medicinal reasons) and I am pretty sure it will still be less than 25% completed by the time this GB starts. 2,300 parts, 756 of which are for 108 cannons, 7 parts each. It is testing my eyesight, and will test my knot-tying skills as there are lots of dead-eyes in the kit too, which I have never dealt with before. You never know, it may even still qualify for Heller Classic GB III in 2028! I am away from the bench a lot at the moment, and started LSR as a way of taking my mind off things.

 

Ray

Consider it done, Ray, glad to have you along!

 

Cheers, 

Mark 

[vppelt68]

SO glad to find 'Eller BG now in the Future GB:s! I'm going to pick up https://www.scalemates.com/kits/heller-074-messerschmitt-109-k--143921 from my post agent today

[2996 Victor]

11 minutes ago, vppelt68 said:

SO glad to find 'Eller BG now in the Future GB:s! I'm going to pick up https://www.scalemates.com/kits/heller-074-messerschmitt-109-k--143921 from my post agent today

Nice I had a Mirage F1 arrive a few days ago.

[vppelt68]

Gotta love this golden oldie 💛 

I remember the boxart from late 1970's Heller catalogues. I still think it's quite spectacular. Now the box is a bit bruised and battered but the plastics are not. I forgot the tiny decal sheet - I've seen larger stamps - inside the box. I will post a pic of it later, if I only remember... 👴

[Enzo the Magnificent]

41 minutes ago, vppelt68 said:

Gotta love this golden oldie 💛 

 

 

Absolutely!    

 

I intended to build this kit for the first Heller GB but didn't get around to it.  It's one of my candidates for this time round.   

 

There is a story attached, as I related last time round.

 

About three and a half decades ago, I was in the RAF.   I had joined the modelling club at the unit where I was posted.   

 

I bought a Heller Bf 109K from the local model shop and built it in a scheme from 3/JG1 which had been featured in a colour profile and supporting photos in a copy of Scale Models a few years previously.  Given that the aircraft was photographed in early 1945 when resources were slim for the Luftwaffe, the aircraft had a number (probably the last three of its Werk Nummer) crudely handpainted on the fuselage side. 

 

I carefully recreated the handpainted number and proudly displayed the model at the next meeting of the modelling club.  The officer in charge was not impressed.  He loudly told me "Matrix, old chap, that is not the standard we aspire to in this club.  Could you not have found some suitable decals for it?  It just looks scruffy."   I tried to explain the situation, but he wouldn't have any of it. 

 

Well, it's been thirty five years or so, but I've finally found some decals.  So this one is for you, Squadron Leader Henderson, you patronising...  erm...  officer!   And guess what?  It's still going to look a bit scruffy!    

[Graham Boak]

I think you ought to put the K in inverted commas, as it is their G/F with the tail reshaped but not heightened.   I have a story with it too.  A few years later I was in Paris with my then fairly new wife.  Obviously I visited the model shops and picked up magazines in the kiosks.  One of them had an advert from Sirocco, for a new retooled Heller 109K,  One day to go before returning to England in the evening  Back across Paris to Sirocco, did they have?  They had one, in the new black boxes, I looked at it and it was outstandingly good (recall what the alternative 109s were like!)  I wanted more -  they could get them the following day.  Back in the UK some time later these black boxes appeared in local shops,  Joy - until  I got home and they were the same old ...  I wrote one rather snotty letter to Humbrol, who were then importing Heller and got a rather more polite and somewhat apologetic letter back.   Later there  were more black boxes but these had the swastika on the tail blacked out and were the real thing, presumably continental stock re-directed.

[Col.]

41 minutes ago, Enzo the Magnificent said:

 

Absolutely!    

 

I intended to build this kit for the first Heller GB but didn't get around to it.  It's one of my candidates for this time round.   

 

There is a story attached, as I related last time round.

 

About three and a half decades ago, I was in the RAF.   I had joined the modelling club at the unit where I was posted.   

 

I bought a Heller Bf 109K from the local model shop and built it in a scheme from 3/JG1 which had been featured in a colour profile and supporting photos in a copy of Scale Models a few years previously.  Given that the aircraft was photographed in early 1945 when resources were slim for the Luftwaffe, the aircraft had a number (probably the last three of its Werk Nummer) crudely handpainted on the fuselage side. 

 

I carefully recreated the handpainted number and proudly displayed the model at the next meeting of the modelling club.  The officer in charge was not impressed.  He loudly told me "Matrix, old chap, that is not the standard we aspire to in this club.  Could you not have found some suitable decals for it?  It just looks scruffy."   I tried to explain the situation, but he wouldn't have any of it. 

 

Well, it's been thirty five years or so, but I've finally found some decals.  So this one is for you, Squadron Leader Henderson, you patronising...  erm...  officer!   And guess what?  It's still going to look a bit scruffy!    

An officer who's arrogance was surpassed only by his ignorance - how usual

[JOCKNEY]

A bit of inspiration 

 

 

Cheers Pat 

[RidgeRunner]

With a 1984 release date I guess an Etendard IVM 1/72 (of course) would be okay?

[Wez]

6 hours ago, RidgeRunner said:

With a 1984 release date I guess an Etendard IVM 1/72 (of course) would be okay?

 

Most definitely!

[RidgeRunner]

3 hours ago, Wez said:

 

Most definitely!

I'm now looking out for a Freightdog Etendard IVP conversion set!!!

[Wez]

43 minutes ago, RidgeRunner said:

I'm now looking out for a Freightdog Etendard IVP conversion set!!!

Of course!

[Old Man]

Don't know how I missed this one....

 

Heller made great kits, and I've some on hand.

 

Count me in.

 

 

Jamea

[2996 Victor]

7 hours ago, Old Man said:

Don't know how I missed this one....

 

Heller made great kits, and I've some on hand.

 

Count me in.

 

 

Jamea

Consider it done! Welcome aboard the Good Ship/Plane/Vehicle* Heller!

 

Cheers, 

Mark

 

*delete as appropriate

[2996 Victor]

7 hours ago, Old Man said:

Don't know how I missed this one....

 

Heller made great kits, and I've some on hand.

 

Count me in.

 

Jamea

I meant to say I still look back at your YP-37 build in awe - it's my all-time favourite plane. Just wish there was a good 1/48 one available.

[Mjwomack]

This is the moment where I finally get round to building a Connie, but should it be a KLM one, because I have Dutch ancestry, or go totally French with the Air France version? Or maybe I wait and see what's left in KingKit when we get closer to the date?🤷‍♀️

[2996 Victor]

13 minutes ago, Mjwomack said:

This is the moment where I finally get round to building a Connie, but should it be a KLM one, because I have Dutch ancestry, or go totally French with the Air France version? Or maybe I wait and see what's left in KingKit when we get closer to the date?🤷‍♀️

KLM for me, but what would Enzo say?

[Mjwomack]

5 minutes ago, 2996 Victor said:

KLM for me, but what would Enzo say?

I don't know,  let's ask on Monday when it's April fools day, he might surprise us 

[klr]

Since I posted in support of this build back in January, my classic Heller stash has grown ... and grown. And may grow still further. Thanks of course to much of the back-catalogue that Heller still owns being reissued, and being readily available at reasonable (or better) prices.

 

I now have 3 of the Noratlas 2501, thanks to a very generously priced double-kit reissue. Likewise, I have a second Canadair CL-215, with a stunning decal sheet. I'd like to build at least one of these two aircraft for the GB. I also now have a second Ju 52, a second Lansen, and a first ever Super Etendard (joining an Etendard IV in the stash). I also bought a Hellcat to replace the one I sold, but with a better decal sheet.

[2996 Victor]

That's a brilliant selection, @klr, I'll be looking forward to seeing which one(s!) you choose to build!

 

Cheers, 

Mark