Yesterday, I posted pictures of the old Heller SA-315B Lama. Today, I am following up with is contemporary cousin: the 1/48 Se-313 Alouette II (Heller #80479). The kit is widely available for as low as $10.00. Don’t let the price fool you; in my opinion, you can make a great looking kit with this Alouette II. To enhance the overall appearance of the helicopter, I use fine mesh to replace the engine filter (provided as clear parts in the kit), and I replace the various rods in the main rotor assembly with finer metal rods (because I find the plastic parts for the rotor to be too big). Also included in this Heller kit is a long piece of fine metal to depict the antennas.
Decals are provided for a single version of the French Army (a.k.a. ALAT for “Aviation Légère de l’Armée de Terre”). Note that the Alouette II is very significant in helicopter history. It was the first mass-produced turbine-powered helicopter. It held various records. It was in use (and in some instances is still in use) in a large number of countries (Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Brazil, Israel, Pakistan, etc.)
Note that in the blog, we discussed various helicopters related to the Alouette II:
- The Lama available from Heller (#482 in 1/48 – 1/50)
- The Alouette III available from Fujimi (#20 in 1/48) [An Alouette III was also produced by Heller in 1/48, but it looks awfully big; more like a 1/32 model, and in my opinion is not as good as Fujimi’s]
- Heller 80479
- Scale : 1/48
- Availability: Excellent
- Status: In Production
- Estimated Street Price: $10
What I like about this kit is that even though the 315B Lama kit is very rare and hard to find, this kit can easily be modified to be a 315B Lama. Too bad Heller doesn’t add parts for the 315B Lama option. As per your photos of both kits, It wouldn’t take much since it clearly is 99% the same tooling.