Can anyone tell me which Eastern European company produces the 1/35 figure and diorama sets using the old Heller molds?

I remember buying the (former Heller) Sahara diorama set produced by SK Model. It's nowhere to be found today.
Does any other manufacturer use these molds?
I've heard that Smer uses Heller molds but haven't been able to locate any of the 1/35 stuff.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Jeff

Last I heard, Italeri owns some of them. They reconfigured the modern (well, 1970's) French uniforms (halfheartedly) to depict US troops in WW2, and substituted US helmets and weapons. There was a stretcher party and some others in that series. The weapons sets have also reappeared in Italeri boxes on occasion.
I believe Heller/Humbrol held onto most of the French WW2 sets--the Hotchkiss machine gun and the 25 mm antitank gun reappeared within the last decade or so. Haven't seen the French Alpine troops or the North Africa sets in 20 years, though (a shame, since they were among the better proportioned figures--the early ones were similar to the Tamiya doll-like figures from the rearly 70's).

Jadar Hobby online shop is showing some of the SK sets as in stock
http://www.jadarhobby.pl/sk-model-c-17_44_764.html

Hi Bodeen,

I love also the old heller sets, because nobody else does such subjects, although they are very interesting. I've bought once the tirailleurs sénégalais from SK at this frenc online hobby shop. If you are interested in French subject they do have figures the owner scuplted on rare subjects
https://specialeast.com/index.php?cPath=43_44_200&osCsid=16da3de02e3da1bb3fbb9565b624d00a
or Jadar model in Poland does them
http://www.jadarhobby.pl/sk-model-c-17_44_764.html

Best,
Julien

At the last few shows I was at, a few traders were selling some of these sets unboxed in polybags. They seemed to have fairly big quantities of them but I'm not sure of their origin.
Also if I'm not mistaken, I think the anti-tank gun was included in the last release of either the Hotchkiss or Renault tanks.

Thanks Gentlemen,

Thanks for the responses, I know these sets are rare but I'll keep looking.

Exer..thanks for the Jadar link..I'm going to order the Shara set!

Julien I used to live in Pirmasens, Germany..my German friends and I would visit the old working Maginot Line fort in Bitsche, France. There was a very good hobby shop there that stocked all of the Heller line. I bought the European set (with the machine gun, anti tank gun, and Gnome Rhone) as well as The Koufra (sp?) Saharan diorama sets there.

Unfortunately when I got divorced and left Germany my ex-wife decided to give all of my models (built and unbuilt) to my 'friends"!

We used to have Red Star Models here in the Pittsburgh area and he sold all of the SK stuff and I was lucky enough to obtain a few sets before he went out of business.

I also think that the subject matter and poses of some of these kits are amazing. The camel and rider in the Sahara set are fantastic. There are not enough French WWII subjects out there and Heller/ Italeri/ SK would be wise to clean up the molds and re-release ALL of these kits.

Jeff

Yo Bodeen,

I've experienced divorce recently, and there was one thing that she cannot touch : my models...
I've bought the Sahara pair and I still have a project to upgrade the camel and the cavalier with magic sculpt to represent "Méhariste". I've got loads of pictures on Méhariste if you are interested, taken at the musée des troupes de marine in South of France. The saddle of Méharistes is very complex and rich in colours..
I agree the pose are nice, but unfortunately not up to the today's standards. But if you want a mousqueton (french small carabin) for example, that's the only kit offering them (I've discovered recently that with some work, you can use zvezda mountain troop carabin)
Bref, lastly the first diorama I made when I was 12 was the Koufra (correct spelling :-)) diorama set of Heller, and I want to do it again now I'm a confirmed modeller
Best,
Julien