80397 (Yet Another) Heller Marcel Block MB.210

[ColonelKrypton]

(Yet Another) as I see that @Marklo has also chosen this venerable old kit.

 

Heller kits for some reason have never really been common in Canada, at least in my experience. There have been times when I have seen a few handfuls on the shelves and other times none. The only Heller kit I could find at my local hobby store is a recent release of their ISS kit. I could only find a handful listed in one of the online hobby stores which I frequent and most of those were are all newer releases. with very few actually in stock.

 

After much poking around I did find a number of older Heller kits at one online store only one of which caught my eye. I wanted something a bit different than yet another Spitfire or Mustang or Hurricane or Messerschmitt or Mirage.

 

There was a Bloch MB.210 which although a bit pricey as a used / second hand / estate sale kit, caught my eye. I have been wanting to build something that wasn't olive drab, green, or brown and this Vichy marked MB.210 fit the bill.

 

Using Scalemates as reference, this is a brief chronology of the Heller MB.210 kit:

 

Heller Bloch MB.210 initially released in 1967 as kit L545. 

Subsequent release in 1979  becoming kit 80397

Released again in 1986 under the Heller/Humbrol name as kit 80397

Released again in 1996 as kit 80397

Smer has released this kit a couple of times over the years as kit 0852

 

My kit, the 1996 release in Vichy French markings arrived having had many of its pieces already removed from the sprues, quite a number of which done roughly so. A quick glance showed that there were a few pieces missing altogether but nothing that can not be sorted.  The decals are showing their age and handling and may not be all that useable; however the colour scheme is simple enough and should be easily masked out in lieu of using decals.

 

 

I have been looking forward to the beginning of this group build and am now counting the days and hours til I can start gluing bits together.

 

cheers, Graham

 

[2996 Victor]

Welcome to the GB, Graham! What a great subject this is, and the Vichy markings certainly add a splash of colour!

 

Cheers,

Mark

[Wez]

A flying art deco conservatory with added stripes!  Parfait!

 

Good luck.

[ColonelKrypton]

The Heller Classic Group Build is off to a running start. There are so many interesting builds in progress that I can't keep up.  I tried but have failed miserably.

 

Not only that but all the activity has been distracting and keeping me out of the workshop.  The weather of late hasn't helped either.  Morning low temperatures have been a bit colder than -20C and after running a few errands and tending a few chores I am chilled through and need of a warm up usually resulting in my no longer having any desire to sit in the cool workshop. It has been sunny however so I have been able to suck up some vitamin D.

 

In all of that I haven't idle however.  First task was to have a real close look and take stock of that used, previously loved, seconds hand, Heller Bloch 210 kit. Turns out that there are a number of missing bits.

 

There is one missing engine insert, you know, the bit that shows the engine cylinders through the opening through the front of the engine cowling. And, one wheel was missing although I could have sworn that there were two in the kit when it arrived.

 

Easy fixes, make up a couple of quick molds and make some copies.

 

For the engine I found a better detailed engine in the Sword Models Re.2000 kit. interestingly, this aircraft was powered by a twin row 14 cylinder radial engine of Italian manufacture which was a licence built copy of the French Gnome Rhone 14k twin row 14 cylinder radial engine which powered the Bloch MB.210 and numerous other French designs of the 1930's and 40's.  How fortuitous a choice that was. 

 

I cleaned up the one wheel I had in hand and made a master from which to make a mold. 

 

Simple jobs, molds made, and parts cast and wouldn't you know it, there were two wheels in the kit but for some reason I had put one aside for safe keeping. After I had made my copies I found it, right were I put it taunting me.. Doh!

 

 

Now I can get on with some interior paint and sub assembly work.

 

cheers, Graham 

[ColonelKrypton]

Work continues on the MB.210, slow but sure. 

 

I fussed far too much on trying to decide what colours I should use in my build.

 

Knowing nothing about Armee de l'air colours I must rely on whatever I can find online and in the instruction sheet of this kit. The original instruction sheet can be found on Scalemates and so to the instructions for this later issue both of which are consistent. The newish Azur Ffrom 1/72 kit of the Bloch MB.210 is quite helful in this regard but has also been a source of confusion.

 

The Azur kit is of the early model of the Bloch MB.210, in fact a couple of different versions. Colour call outs are reasonably consistent with the Heller kit except that where Heller notes the interior fuselage colour to be a tan or light brown whereas Azur notes it as a blue grey.  Both Heller and Azur call out the interior of the nacelles to be tan or light brown so I have assumed - yes, dangerous that - that for pre war Armee de l'air bombers a tan or light brown coloured paint/primer/protectant was the choice. After far too much indecision I settled on tan or light brown for both the innards of the nacelles and fuselage adopting the KISS ( Keep It Simple Stupid ) approach.

 

Putting my ruminations over colour to shame, I spent even more time on fussing over the landing gear. 

 

I like things like landing gear that can be plugged in after larger module assemble so that I can paint the bits and pieces more easily. I found the landing gear of the Heller kit is not so easy to assemble - two hand and 10 fingers just didn't do it. After several attempts to make a DIY version of the landing gear which I could plug in later after the nacelles had been assembled and finished I finally channeled my inner KISS and reverted back to the original kit pieces requiring some cleanup and fettling. Fitting the curved nacelle wheel covers to the back side of the main gear from proved frustrating; the instructions were anything but clear which required some twisted 3d thinking, finger fumbling, and fettling but I finally had it sorted but whether I got it correct or not I do not know. 

 

I did cut off the kit parts axles and drilled through so that I could finish the tires separately which can then be assembled post paint.  

 

 

those nacelle bits do not fit so nice together and will require some fettling to clean up the seams and joins. Now, I must be careful that I do not let my heavy handedness break off those somewhat spindly landing gear bits.

 

All in all, had I attempted to build this kit when a young teen I may not have been able to get all my fingers working the correct unison to the thing assembled.  I should have been easy, perhaps it is just my over thinking the problem that caused me so much grief.

 

Wings and empennage have been assembled and now assembled nacelles test fitted on said wings testing alignment and fit. 

 

 

Several steps forward after several frustrating steps back and forth and I can start to see those bits and pieces coming together as they should.

 

Frustrations aside, I have been enjoying this build. There is a certain perverse pleasure is fussing over some of these old kits which have their warts fit wise.

 

cheers, Graham

 

[jean]

Hi Graham,

This was one of the best Heller kit in 1/72, so that is a good start.

Your resin engines and wheels are impressive. Congrats!

Enjoy your build.

 

JR

[ColonelKrypton]

On 1/31/2025 at 3:29 PM, jean said:

This was one of the best Heller kit in 1/72, so that is a good start.

Overall it is not that bad a kit.  Most of the fit issues I have been wrestling with are due to what seems like a very slight mould mis-alignment when this kit was made. For example, the horizontal stabilizers are moulded as one piece but the "top" and "bottom" are a bit out of alignment from each other and they do no sit flat and properly aligned on the vertical stabilizer and will need to be fettled to get them square and flat; I was fussing over that today in addition to getting the fuselage bottom and sides together and square. 

 

This is the fuselage, wings, vertical stabilizer and nacelles test fitted together just to give me a feeling of progress and how everything fits together and what and were I will need to fuss some more on fit.

 

 

The MB.210 may have been one of France's pre-war bomber designs but it was a rather good looking aeroplane for it's time. A bit squarish perhaps but it looks the part. However, aeroplane design was quickly advancing and this was quickly outpaced by newer designs and thinking. 

 

cheers, Graham

[ColonelKrypton]

Continuing on, much time was spent fussing over the fit of the vertical stabilizer, horizontal stabilizers, rudder and ailerons.

 

As a young teen I would spent some time fussing over the fit of these components and then glued them in place as best as I could using good old tube cement lining up by eye and hoping for the best.  I just can't do that now and the fit of these components needed cleaning and squaring up which takes time.

 

Furthermore, I like to pin parts and as the work needed to clean and square up these various bis needed the removal of the kit locating pins, it was only natural to pin everything together, adds strength too. 

 

 

I use brass #8 1/2" applique / sequin pins as locators cut short, pointy side out to mark matting surfaces. Pins are made from half hard silver plated German style jewellery wire.  Holes are made using a 25g hypodermic needle to make the initial locating hole and then enlarged with a suitable size drill and watchmakers four sided tapered reamer for final fitting.  

 

https://www.beadalon.com/content/choosing_the_right_german_style_wire.asp

 

All of those surfaces except for the elevators can be "posed" in other than neutral positions if desired. However, on the ground and parked aircraft usually have their control surfaces locked in order to prevent inadvertent damage. Perhaps I will pose the rudder a bit to one side and the ailerons a bit offset just to give it a sense of some life poetic licence and all that.  I thought of cutting off the elevators and pinning those to the horizontal stab but passed - hafta draw the line somewhere

 

Hypodermic needles work well as drills for styrene and resin. The geometry of the tip lets you place the very sharp point bit right where you want the hole to be with no need to center punch it first and the needle geometry cuts a round hole rather than the not quite round hole produced by a twist drill which does require a center or gentleman's parts punch mark lest the tip wanders.

 

 

All of those mentioned bits have been fettled and assemble square and I can now turn my attention to interior work. I don't plan on doing anything more than using the kit parts, maybe a few extra details bits but once the fuselage is all closed up there will be very little to be seen of the interior. 

 

I am quite enjoying this build getting to fettle, tweak, and practice good building skills.

 

Cheers, Graham

 

 

Edited February 6 by ColonelKrypton
tinger frouble

[Listel]

Hi Graham,

 

Nice start, one of my preferred bombers! Good idea to copy the Re 2000 engine as the original ones are on the poor side... 😉

 

Cheers,

François

 

[Listel]

Not sure how far you want to correct the few small flaws of the kit, but here are the most conspicuous:

> The horizontal stabilizer should be positioned a bit lower, 1mm above the fuselage.

> Wings: on the upper surfaces, behind the engine nacelles, a stiffener is missing, see pic below. Note that this stiffener is shorter than the others and do not reach the trailing edge.

> Engine nacelles: the lower stiffener can be removed. On the lower part, towards the front, the nacelles shape should be corrected so that the corners are angled slightly upwards. See picture below.

> The engine cowlings are about 2mm too long.

> Propellers are better replaced by suitable substitutes.

 

Hope this can help 😉

 

Edited February 7 by Listel

[Milan Mynar]

It is really nice building.

[ColonelKrypton]

On 2/6/2025 at 11:09 PM, Listel said:

Not sure how far you want to correct the few small flaws of the kit, but here are the most conspicuous:

> The horizontal stabilizer should be positioned a bit lower, 1mm above the fuselage.

 

I had not noticed that before but now that you have mentioned that detail it is easier to see in many of the (few) pictures I have found. At this point my inclination is to just leave it as is.  The horizontal stabilizer in the new Azur Ffrom MB.210 kit looks to be in the right place.

 

On 2/6/2025 at 11:09 PM, Listel said:

> Wings: on the upper surfaces, behind the engine nacelles, a stiffener is missing, see pic below. Note that this stiffener is shorter than the others and do not reach the trailing edge.

I had noticed something there in some of the photos I have found but I was never quite sure what it was.  I can not help but see it in those photos now that you have pointed it out.  I also see other detail on the wing upper surface; no doubt access panels and so on.  None of the three view drawings I have found for MB.210 show that stiffener or those small access panels.

 

On 2/6/2025 at 11:09 PM, Listel said:

> Engine nacelles: the lower stiffener can be removed. On the lower part, towards the front, the nacelles shape should be corrected so that the corners are angled slightly upwards. See picture below.

> The engine cowlings are about 2mm too long.

 

One my few reference for the MB.210 is Wikipedia and the remaining balance are the various pictures and drawings I have been able to uncover in my searches of various web sites. Reviewing those few pictures I have noted that there is variation in the engine cowling shape and dimensions, some being more square and can like with a moe flat profile and others with some curvature and some shorter than others. 

 

The MB.210 was powered by the Gnome Rhone 14 engine but  there were several different versions of this engine that were used. The difference in length of these different engine versions was around 5 to 10 cm ( Wikipedia being my source) which likely accounts for some of the differences noted in cowl length and shape plus there were at least two different styles of exhaust manifolds, one have multiple exhaust manifolds exiting the cowling in numerous places around the cowl rear and another having one collector ring with one exhaust exit and this two accounts for some of the noted variation in size and shape of the engine cowls. 

 

It is not clear however as to which version of the MB.210 ( early, mid, late ) these various differences belong. 

 

I have not yet decided on what I will do with the engine cowlings. They do look a bit too long and I will likely do some trimming and thinning in order to make them more presentable.

 

I am aware that there were some articles published in the mid 90's detailing the MB.210 in the French language magazine Avions but I have not been able to find these back issues. I am also aware there have been a number of good quality books published on the subject as well. It would be nice to have all of these good references on hand but the cost quickly becomes a bit too much. 

 

Limited references and uncertainty sometimes requires a bit of poetic licence.

 

On 2/6/2025 at 11:09 PM, Listel said:

> Propellers are better replaced by suitable substitutes

 

Yes, another interesting area.  The Gnome Rhone 14 engines were produced in both right and left hand rotation models.  Many twin engine aircraft will have one of each in order to balance out the torque effect of the engines.  Looking at the pictures I have it is clear that the MB.210 has this feature and the port engine turns counter clockwise and the starboard engine clockwise each requiring their own different propellers. 

 

The props in the Heller kit provide one of each and are correct in this respect. Being a bit different shape and size is another matter and since I have no suitable replacements on hand I will make do with the kit parts. 

 

cheers, Graham

[marvinneko]

Might be helpful, or not

 

https://www.cuttersguide.com/pdf/ww2/aviation Armee De L'Air - The French Air Force in World War 2 squadron signal.pdf

 

[ColonelKrypton]

12 hours ago, marvinneko said:

Might be helpful,

 

Good morning David.  I have a printed copy of that old Squadron book. Helpful enough as a general reference but as it is a general reference for the Armee De l'Air it does lack fine technical details.

 

The French had lots of different aeroplane designs between the wars, some very elegant and modern, others rather odd. Just, I think, reflective of the fast pace of changing thought, ideas, and technology of the time. 

 

Now that @Listel has pointed out the not so great propellers in the Heller kit I can't help but see the various differences on different airframes and the not so great Heller kit bits. It is interesting that we can blissfully overlook small details when be content with what we have but point out their deficiencies and we can't help but see all that is incorrect and become obsessed with finding out more

 

cheers, Graham

[2996 Victor]

33 minutes ago, ColonelKrypton said:

It is interesting that we can blissfully overlook small details when be content with what we have but point out their deficiencies and we can't help but see all that is incorrect and become obsessed with finding out more

Absolutely - it's just so easy to take a tiny step over that precipice and before you know it you're tumbling head over heels into a void of uncertainty! I'm trying hard not to succumb with my proposed builds, but it's difficult.....  

 

Cheers,

Mark

[ColonelKrypton]

Still fussin', fettllin' and fittin' bits and pieces; everyday a wee step more forward.

 

The kit's top and bottom turrets are meant to be assembled before the fuselage is all fitted and glued together; presumably to make them moveable once the model is complete. That would also require masking of those glass turrets prior to painting. As I don't need or want the turrets to be moveable and prefer not having them in place and needed masking; I cut a couple of small circles of plastic card and fitted on the inside of the fuselage. The larger bottom flange of the kit turret parts where subsequently cut and sanding off. The turrets can now be mounted from the outside after painting. 

 

I use an old draughtsman bow compass to cut these sort of parts out of plastic card. The lead in these compasses is 2mm in diameter and the cutting blades for Cricut and similar cutters being 2mm in diameter fit quite nicely in the old compass turning that compass into a nice and easy to use circle cutter. As an aside, those 2mm diameter cutting blades also fit nicely in a drafting mechanical clutch pencil which I occasionally make use when I have a need for some delicate mask cutting. This can be more easily easier to maneuver that a scalpel or Exacto knife being pencil shape and size.

 

 

ooops. Picture is upside down but in this case it only matters if being upside down is a bother. 

 

There is an elastic band on the bow compass (purple in this case) which pre-loads the adjust mechanism screw which helps prevent the compass from being too easily adjusted while twiddling round making circles.  

 

The front end of the Heller MB.210 kit does not fit together very well. It was necessary to add a thin shim of plastic card to make the join right show here after gluing but before final trim.

 

 

Getting close to being able to paint the interior and close up the fuselage at which time I will be able to start tidying up the exterior seams and joins in preparation for paint.

 

It is deep winter here in Eastern Ontario.  The weather has been on a roller coaster ride - a couple of days of bitter cold, -20C give or take over night, -10C during the day, sunny and breezy followed by a day of snow and the need to clean up - and repeat After spending several hours outdoors cleaning snow or doing chores and in either case getting chilled, I usually don't feel like tinkering in the workshop.

 

As I write this, there is a big winter storm approaching - "The Storm of the Winter" "Biggest Storm in Many Years", a real media event. There is no doubt that this is expected to be a big storm, strong East winds and an expected 40cm ( 16 inches ) of snow accumulation.  I am glad I no longer need to rise early and shovel out just to get to work in the morning. In any case it will require a couple of hours of shoveling and snow blowing to clear the mess tomorrow so I doubt that much in the way of model building get done.

 

cheers, Graham

 

[Jinxman]

Stay safe in the storm, watch your back with that shovelling!

[ColonelKrypton]

2 hours ago, Jinxman said:

watch your back with that shovelling!

 

Back is fine.

 

The snowblower does the heavy lifting but it is the cold and strain that gets into the arthritic fingers, hands, elbows and shoulders that does me in.

 

 

[ColonelKrypton]

Winter storm is over, actually winter storms.  Seems the first one I wrote about earlier was quickly followed by a second which turned out to be a bit nastier. First storm was not that windy but did dump 33cm ( approx 13 inches ) of fresh fluffy snow. Second storm blew in with a vengeance with strong gusty winds producing lots of drifting and blowing snow while dumping a further 37cm ( approx 15 inches ) of snow and leaving many snow drifts double that size.  Now it's back to the sunny but cold and frigid for a while.

 

'Tis the season

 

Getting back to the old Heller MB.210 kit. There continues to be much fittin', fettlin', and fussin; liberally mixed with some cussin' and a build breaker - well, actually two build breakers.

 

We all have them, stages in a build were a number of frustrating bits start to add up giving rise to some cussin' and the thought to the toss the dang blasted thing against the wall. Overall, I still think this old Heller MB.210 kit is not that bad but due to the age of the molds when this kit was made and the natural wear and tear on those old molds, this particular kit has provided some challenges. 

 

Having arrived at the point where I could start mounted some of the many clear plastic bits for the numerous windows, I discovered that most of those clear bits fit decently well even if the clear plastic itself was not very consistent - suitable clear but a bit wavy and distorted, kind of like looking through old stained glass windows.

 

Now, most of those clear plastic bits seemed to accounted for but I miscounted. There were in fact several of the smallest bits missing - those bits which fit in the front four windows at the very nose of the aircraft.  This was Build Breaker number 1.  You might remember this photo from an earlier post. I refer to the four square windows right on the nose, two visible on the right side of my filler shim, and two on the other side (not visible) of the shim:

 

 

What to do, what to do?

 

I couldn't, I wouldn't finish the build unless I could fit some sort of window, it just wouldn't be right otherwise. 

 

Clear epoxy? A quick test showed it would work but there were far too many tiny bubbles that I couldn't seem to get rid of. Remember, the area within the partially assembled fuselage is not very big providing it's own challenge.

 

MicroMark Kristal Klear (and similar products) ? Might of worked but I didn't have any such product on hand.

 

Rather try and find some of these other products, wait for the arrival, and do further tests I took a leap of faith and ordered some clear UV hard resin from Amazon, next day delivery being a selling point. I didn't order until I did some research on UV resins and once I felt that it was a good candidate for the job I took a leap of faith.

 

 

Smallest size bottles all seemed to be around 100g so that is what I got.  The green tape is sold as UV resin tape and is used to seal the bottom jewellery bits before filling with resin. it provides a smooth surface to the cured resin on the bottom of the bit you filled with resin.  Masking tape or similar will not work as well as it will impart and interesting texture to the cured resin.

 

I have a UV curing light that I used with Solarez UV resin products which should work well with this resin. A quick test of filling a hole and curing the resin was promising:

 

 

Flat, clear, hard - looks good.

 

In for a penny, in for a pound - on to the MB.210.  Keep in mind that the nose of the aircraft is rounded. This necessitated applying the resin to two windows at a time while keeping the fuselage rotated slightly.

 

 

Very fiddly. Tight area to get in to in order to fill the holes with resin - good old toothpicks to the rescue BUT you do need to be careful; the more you fuss and poke the liquid resin the greater the risk of introducing bubbles and what not.  I need to develop a  better technique for applying the resin in such a way to let it's natural ability to settle and fill do the job.

 

Booth sides done, Several curing cycles of 3 minutes each, remove UV resin tape and Voila!

 

 

Windows! Far from perfect  but acceptable. The bottom left one is nearly perfect while the others all have some form of bubble, void, or other bit of distortion likely a result of too much fussing and poking with the toothpick.  Live and learn. Each new attempt at using the UV resin brings better results.

 

In fact, had I some previous experience using the UV resin for this sort of thing I would have likely replaces some of those other clear plastic bits with resin. I am starting to think of many other simple applications. 

 

Build Breaker number 2.

 

Moving on to fitting the last piece of fuselage which amounts to the top and includes the large piece of clear plastic for the multiple smaller bits of windows around the cockpit area.

 

For some reason, which I am still certain why, did not fit in place as well or as easily as it did when I did much test fitting several days ago. After much fussin', fettlin', cussin', and more fussin' I finally arrived at a compromise that is acceptable ( sorry no picture - this one gave rise to the thought of tossing the dang blasted thing against the wall  ). 

 

All in all the build is getting there with a couple more steps towards the finish line all the while I am learning and developing new techniques; and that's a good thing.

 

cheers, Graham

 

Edited February 18 by ColonelKrypton