Sheepishly acknowledge being a bit wrong. How could they get it so wrong being in France?

OK. Looked at Blitz and the Graham from Airedale contacted me.

Both have turrets, assuming both are hollow cast and the rear hatch opens.

Graham offers stowage boxes and decals but no tracks. Have sourced Fruils cheaper than I expected and the eduard set.

Blitz offers the driver mounts (I can see why) and resin tracks.

Fruil is a known quantity with tracks. Does the Fruil set contain anything else, drivers, etc?

So any reviews or general opinions?

Yes the turret is unbelievably wrong. As is the hull, but the hull is more than I have the skill for yet.

TIA,
Frank

There are normally multiple factors when things like that happen, regardless of proximity to origin of the original vehicle's creation.

Just move slow and steady with this project and you'll do well with it.

If I remember correctly the turrets, or at least the Blitz one, are semi-hollow and the rear hatch should be a seperate piece on both of them.

I'm pretty sure that you won't want to be using the decals that came with the kit, so if you can get some AM ones from Graham the I would encourage that. I would get the stowage boxes as well if you don't want to scratch them. Just of note, the boxes may be included in the Eduard PE set. I'm sure that either turret will be a significant improvement over the orginal Heller turret, just plan on using crew figures if you want the hatches open. I haven't heard of any problem with the Friuls for the S-35, and I have always had good experiences with them. Not sure what the resin tracks from Blitz would be like, but if they are clickable then they may be a viable alternative to the friuls. The Eduard set is going to provide you with a lot of little things that won't be available in any of the other upgrades, so I would encourage you to get that as well.

Just remember that the more work you do on the Heller kit gets us one step closer to getting one from Tamiya or Bronco!

The friuls are good, but they only include tracks and wire to build em. The Eduard set includes the stowage bin tops and some straps, but you may want to consider the airedale ones if you can get your hands on it, or use the "evergreen" modeler's fallback and make them yourself. Check out this Somua with Eduard PE for an idea of the end result. For some inspiration, look regularly at this page. Just scroll down a little. For some scratchbuilding ideas, check out this French build log.

This "Heller-fuercht" is what has kept me from getting the R-35 so far. The only one in plastic in 1:35, but in building scale models I don't want to be forced to look further ahead than a decade

The Airedale Models turret is not hollow cast. At least the one I have isn't. So you won't be able to open the rear hatch unless you want to hollow the turret out yourself.
In it's favour, the turret is of very high quality and I have no doubt it is also extremely accurate given that Mr.Tetley based the masters on measurements and observations he made of an actual S35.

Good lord love a duck!! I am flat amazed at the work the French chap does in the French site work log. So much detail in the bogies when they will be hidden by the armor. Astounding interior work!!! I may never touch a model again (lol)!!