I’ve been itching to build this one since I got it last year. It’s a newly reissued Heller Connie with high quality decals! I always loved Heller kits back in the day but their decals usually weren’t very good even when new. No more of that. These are top notch. The KLM livery is very attractive and a nice change of pace from the TWA and Lufthansa Connies that are usually modeled.

Preliminary construction shows the kit still has decent fit but will require some filling and sanding. I built a Heller Super Connie long ago and I remember it fitting pretty well. I’m going to treat this as a semi-long term project due to the large amount of filling and sanding involved and build it concurrently with some smaller projects. That said, it should be done over the next couple of months.

6 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Great to see this iconic aircraft being build, John @j-healy
It is an impressive aircraft, looking forward to your build.

Great choice, John @j-healy. This will be a great model of a really elegant plane. I have a Heller EC-121 that is near the top of the build queue, so I am ready to take notes.

Great progress, my friend @j-healy!

Already looks very cool, John (@j-healy). You are right about the amount of hurry-up-and-wait involved in this kit. I think it is a good plan to use decals for the cabin windows since masking the round windows would be tough. I would imagine it will take a lot of weight in the nose, so hopefully the nose gear will stand the strain.

Filling and sanding continues. The deicer boots are bordered by really heavy raised lines. They need to go. I also noticed something that I’ve never seen before. The plastic on the trailing edge of the right wing delaminated a bit. More filler and sanding in that area.

7 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Progressing nicely, John @j-healy
The delamination effect is pretty weird indeed but seems like you found a way to get that fixed nicely.

Brand new reissue, George. Purchased last year. First time for everything!