By today’s standards, the Heller Frelon (“hornet” in French) is an extremely minimalistic kit. The kit depicts a prototype, and I do not believe the Frelon ever entered service. The Super-Frelon, an improved version, did enter service with the French Navy, Israel, and other countries, and is even produced in China under license (as the Z-8).
Heller does also produce a Super Frelon kit in 1/35, which has nothing in common with the kit reviewed today.
Assembling is easy, however the kit is plagued by a number of issues: lack of details, huge pin mark in the clear cockpit window, which itself is extremely thick (like the Puma’s).
A number of years ago, I assembled this kit (granted, my skills were very basic at the time). The lack of external resources (aftermarkets and references) makes turning this kit into a show piece rather difficult! Please, feel free to send me an e-mail if you know of beautifully assembled Frelon, and I will post the links on this blog. AGAIN! This kit has nothing to do with the Heller 1/35 Super-Frelon, which is supposed to be very good (so don’t send me incendiary e-mails if you’re referring to the later. For another example of beautifully assembled 1/35 Super-Frelon, see this thread on Arc Forums).
Funny detail about the Frelon (and Super-Frelon) is that these helicopters were powered by 3 engines, a relatively rare configuration (other helicopters with such configuration are the AW101 and CH-53E).
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- Note the pins on the cockpit windows.
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- Decals are provided for a single prototype.
Kit Summary:
- Heller Frelon #325
- Scale: 1/50
- Availability: Very Poor
- Status: Out Of Production
- Estimated Street Price: $50.00
I have one of these with a motorized internal assembly and a base with room for batteries (the battery was very non-standard). The Heller Sprint. Unfortunately, it is lacking the side ‘floats’ for some reason. Any idea where I could pick up another model like this? I would like to have a complete version. This is unassembled and mostly sealed.