GMC Truck Heller 1/35 June France 1944

Here the GMC CCKW of Heller; really, a poor kit. Very fiddly, and the shape might be a bit off. But anyway, I pulled it through and made some nices pictures of it. Yes, I succumbed to the standard green, but couldn't find anything else and for once I went with the simple version. Last pic was difficult to get; I threw sand dust while my brother took the pic in burst-fast mode. The result is impressive, possibly my most realistic model kit movement pic.

WW2 French Chasseurs Alpins 1/35 figures Heller model kit built & painted

Here are these Chasseurs Alpins from Heller. I bought them in a small toy shop, which had them for years. At first I thought they were some kind of parade unit,I just learned afterwards their history! painted a good few years back, but only did pictures of them today. Rather straightforward, changing a bit the poses. and printing a "Le Figaro" newspaper for one of them :) . I have another set of them, which I am between trading away or building in other poses...

New additions; 1/72 Revell Sopwith F.1 Camel + Somua S.35 Heller

 A few kits I have photographed recently ;) . 

ROLAND C11 Airfix / Heller 1/72 Finished Model Kit World War I

After a long time without posting, here I come back to post something. This is the Roland, I got this from the Heller release, bought in an model kit exhibition. My father built it and I painted it along my brother. The purple camo scheme was the most eye-catching, so we went for that. A very unusual model, one worthy to build;

Review; Heller De Havilland Dragon Rapide 1/72 Model Kit WW2 Aircraft Biplane RAF airfix dominie

The Box 

A rather unexpressive box, with a version shown which I don't care for too much. The artwork is well made but it isn't not in thrilling action or being exceptionally imaginative.

A much improved version in my opinion, making a good use of the perspective.

Not bad, with a very 1950s looking style, even if rather unmilitaristic for my taste.

The Kit 

A very fine kit, at least in it's first Heller releases. No flash to speak about, and very fine parts, everything fitting together nicely and tidily. The interior is a bit basic, and the chairs and other apparatus looks smaller than 1/72. 

The wheels and propellers can be made to turn perfectly.

But albeit looking like a very fine model, I consider in overall it looks wrong. I always thought it was quite a stubby airplane, and I was surprised to see that it was so small and thin in all aspects. Although the measurements are ok, I am nearly sure that the thickness and width of the wings, fuselage and motors should be much greater, it simply looks strange when compared with real photographs. It's a kind of overall feeling, but I can say that at least the engines should be wider and the wheels bigger in overall. I am not picky usually with this kind of small inaccuracies, but in this kit they have built up together to combine in a very perceptible problem.

                                       The Verdict

I would say search for a alternative model kit or wait for a new release, as this kit will possibly leave you unconvinced, at least it is for me. You can always try to fix all the small inaccuracies, but being a problem of overall dimensions you will have a hard time in doing so. The model kit in itself can be slightly hard to find, but nothing that 20 GBP cannot buy.

My version

I was a long time researching information for this kit, hoping to find something to find something truly exciting and operational. I was attracted by the Lithuanian version (which I struggled to find good images) but the overall dullness of the dark green put me off, it wasn't thrilling enough. I googled, googled and googled again, and finally found something new and unusual. Having read that some were delivered to Nationalist China, I googled in that direction, and finally found two pics of those airplanes. The first shows the aircraft in use as aerial ambulances, which isn't very combative and similar have been seen before, but the second one is really different. It shows how it has received markings from the Nationalist Air Force, received the colours in the tail fin and what apparently looks as a sort of camouflage (definitely, not plain white!). I couldn't resist to such an obscure version. I interpreted it as the Nationalists ended up using the ambulances as military transport, or simply camouflaged them as the Japanese weren't respecting too much their air ambulances (as you can see, there is still the red cross on the fuselage). I considered for the upper wing the markings would have been added too, and that it would have been painted green and the wear will have shown the white underneath.

I built this model some time ago, and nowadays I think that perhaps the green would have been applied rashly over the white as a camo, and not painted completely on top of it and later worned off. Maybe the green should have been darker.... anyway, there is plenty of room for interpretation, as the rudder fin looks very worn and faded off.

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Heller Airfix AMD Dassault MIRAGE 2000 1/72 Model Kit Review Jet Aircraft

Happy carnival to everybody! today we'll celebrate along the Mirage 2000 (an aircraft still in use with many air forces of the world) of Heller;

Boxes; The first box is good and looks modern, but the jet gives a rather chunky impression. The Heller Humbrol is very interesting, as it seems the drawing of a model kit! the last, the Airfix one, which is the one I bought, gives a nice sense of speed. 

THE KIT - 7.5

It's not a bad kit, being made in 1979 is quite good. And probably if you build the original Heller release, everything will fit quite nicely, instead, in the Airfix version you have to sand a bit here and there to make pieces fit, nothing too important but present.

The worst flaws comes with the machine guns under the pilot, which are, to put it simply, missing. You are forced to believe they exist inside the small holes, but in truth they stick out and should be seen. Besides this, the undercarriage lights are a joke of a part, being just two transparent squares together, when the real thing has no similarities.

Finally, the undercarriage is very fragile and quite unaccurate too. It is one of those models to build in flying position.

But everything is not bad. It has nice panelling engravings, the cockpits fits very nicely and is very detailed, and with a good sense of sanding you won't need to use putty to fill gaps.

PRICE-VALUE RATIO - 9.0

Having been substituted by kits of the other Mirage versions, this kit is now quite cheap on selling platforms like eBay. 


 Overall;

Nowadays this kit is just a cheap alternative to the Italeri one, much better detailed and made all around, just a bit more expensive. In my case, I bought it along other kits in a lot and I decided to keep it and build it, as I always wanted to have a Mirage, although my favourite period is WW2.

So if you really want a Mirage 2000, get the Italeri. If like me you are just slightly interested on the subject, the Heller one is good enough, or maybe, as the Mirage has quite a lot of interesting camo schemes, the way of making without spending so much or just for a change.


If you have enjoyed this review and want to say thanks, the best way is to click in one of the advertisings in the blog. Every little help will be appreciated. 
This is the example I built, I went for the most colourful and weird "camo", this tiger camo was used by the NATO. Note that I included an Atlantic figure as pilot, as the kit doesn't provide one.;

And yes, this camo does exist, here is the proof :) ;

Here you can get inspiration on other builds, gathered from the net;

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next battle!