Scale Model Brands: Heller SA

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Heller SA (Maquettes Heller) is a French manufacturer of plastic scale model kits, the company produces aircraft models, scale cars, ships and model accessories. Heller was founded in Paris in 1957. Its first model kit was a 1/100 scale Sud Aviation Caravelle, produced the following year. In 1963, a production facility was established in Trun, Orne.

Heller was acquired by the Hobby Products Group of Borden, owners of British model company Humbrol, in 1981. In 1986, rival kit maker Airfix also joined the group. Production of Airfix kits, already in Calais, would subsequently move to the Heller factory in Trun. Heller, with the rest of the Group was sold to an Irish investment company, Allen & McGuire, in 1994. In 2005, Heller was the subject of a management buy-out. However, the following year, the company went into administration. The effect of Heller's problems was to bring Airfix into financial problems and with them the rest of the Humbrol group.

Heller Model Product Line

Heller made kits of the Citroën 11CV, the WWII-era front wheel drive sedan, in 1/43, 1/24 and 1/8 scales. There was a series of 1/24 old cars and small trucks including golden age European types—Delahaye, Delage, certain Bugattis, the 4.5-liter "Blower" Bentley, and others that were not, and have not yet been, kitted by other manufacturers in that scale. These were sophisticated kits for their time.

The early Heller aircraft line - predominantly 1/72 - contributed more in the way of selection than sophistication. There were pie-plate rivets, thick canopies, nonexistent cockpit and gear well detail, but nowhere else could a modeler find old Bloch and Potez twins, Ouragans and early Mysteres, certain Saabs, and the big French transports, the Noratlas and the Transall. As the product line expanded over time, the quality improved. Notable later kits were the PZL-23, the Morane-Saulnier 230, and the SBC Helldiver biplane.

Still later, Heller's Constellations, DC-4s and DC-6s were welcome additions to the 1/72 multi-engine flightline, along with the striking Canadair 215, a purpose-built fire bomber.

The early 1/50 helicopters were crude and questionable as to scale fidelity, but here again, they were unique subjects: Frelon, Puma, Alouette, Gazelle, Llama, etc. "It's like a French Aurora kit," quipped a seasoned modeler in 1969, examining the Alouette for the first time.

Heller contributed to the vast universe of 1/35 armor: lend-lease jeeps and deuce-and-a-halves, a Panhard armored car, and a squad of Chasseurs Alpins. Heller produced a grand 1/35 Super Frelon, one of the first aircraft kits scaled to support the armor culture. And there were ships, again unique as to subject. A large, sophisticated kit of the HMS Victory is arguably the centerpiece of the ship line.

Scale Model Brands: Heller SA
Source: www.scalemodelmuseum.com