39 - 1/72 Heller Alouette III – In a Rhodesian K-Car scheme
My dad was part of the Rhodesian bush war and loved the Alo III. the K-car was a gunship conversion fitted with a 20mm MG151 cannon. Inside was the pilot and gunner in the armoured seats and the Fire force commander who sat on a home made armoured seat on the floor in the front. The gun was scratch built for me by a friend and the layout changed to match the K-car.
The kit was if I can put it bluntly - AWEFUL, the canopy fit was terrible, I spent 2 days just trying to get it on, superglue, sanding, trimming, cutting, plastic glue, elastics, pressure, everything I could think of.
I've come to rename this brand HELL-er now.
You can see the build progress here - https://imodeler.com/groups/helicopters/forum/topic/1-72-alouette-iii-customised-to-a-k-car/
Heller have made kits of wonderful subjects, but they often need a bit of TLC to complete them, you’ve made a great model out of this one.
Thanks so much George @chinesegeorge, I absolutely hate HELLer - but like you said they do some things that no one else does - hopefully now that they restarted they will update the molds and redo all the models with better quality
Sounds like you had your own little bush war with that windscreen/canopy.
All's well that ends well, Anthony. Nice looking chopper.
Ah it was a war indeed George @georgeswork, I nearly defeated it by brute force but managed to get it in at the end and still have a 100% completed model record intact.
Thanks so much.
Great that you finished it, Anthony! Looks superb!
Thanks for the encouragement as always Spiros @fiveten.
Well - ended up looking nice in the end! I'm finishing up a Heller J-29 kit now - they always need some updating and TLC, but sometimes they are the only game in town for certain subjects, especially in 1/72!
Hi Greg, thanks a lot, year thats the problem, so few other manufacturers make these kind of kits so we stuck, hopefully they upgrade them all now.
Nice work, Anthony! This is one that I’ve always wanted in 1/48.
Thanks John, @j-healy - also not great options in 1/48, I built the Fujimi one a while ago and it was ok. Nothing great.
Even though this kit fought you a lot, your persistance resulted in a nice looking Alouette III, Anthony @anthonyricco
Very nice conversion, especially in this scale.
Thanks so much @johnb. Yeah I'm glad I could get it done. The conversion part was the fun part.
@anthonyricco - Very cool piece Anthony. The canopy turned out great for the amount of stress it caused. The camo 'X' pattern is fantastic. I can see that pattern being applied in the field for sure.
Hi Brian @brithebuilder, thanks so much, yeah the x camo is very cool. Thanks a lot for the compliment on the canopy, absolutely disastrous.
Excellent work on a difficult kit.
Thanks so much @Christopher
Great story to go along with a great model. Nice job, Anthony (@anthonyricco). I have the 1/48 kit running around somewhere, and I am still trying to get the courage to tackle it.
Hi George, @gblair, Which 48th kit have you got? Ah these things you just have to stop being nervous about and just launch into hey. Otherwise they will sit as an idea on your shelf forever.
Hi, Anthony:
It is a Heller kit, although I think it is an Alouette II. I have some photos of all-red paint schemes for this helo that I want to do. I think there was one from Argentina and one from Switzerland, but I would have to find the photos to be sure.
Ok nice, the Alo II's are also cool with the uncovered back.
A very good result with a "not easy" kit and history I wasn't aware of. So a "double 10"
Thanks so much Tom @tcinla, much appreciated, yeah it has quite an interesting history.
Nice job on this build...not all Heller kits are pleasant builds.
Thanks ob @v1pro - I think you meant HELLer, haha, and I think you meant all HELLer kits are unpleasant builds, just kidding but this kit has definitely made me steer away from Heller now.
Hi, Anthony (@anthonyricco):
Here are the the Alouettes that I have. Both of them are IIs.
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
Very nice @gblair, hopefully the larger scale means the fitment is better.
Awesome job on a tough kit! My dad also has some great stories of the SAAF & Rhodesian K-Car's. Great subject!
Thanks so much Neill, was your dad part of the bush war too? Was he in the Rhodesian army?
He was indeed, served in the SADF. My best friends father was in the Rhodesian SAS too. Has some tales! He had a few ops in the K-Car and actually Parachuted out a Canberras bomb bay!
Hey Neil @neillroos - sorry I missed this - thats so awesome - those Rhodesians did some mad stuff.
Great effort in braille scale, matey! Takes me back to my days back in nam, Hoednam.(Hoedspruit)
Serviced the 20mm cannons and 1947 vintage .303 Brownings used on the Allou's.
Nice man - thats an interesting job man. Glad you like it was an absolute horror of a kit. Glad I managed to finish it.