Hi,

I was at a hobby store today and saw they had three of the Heller Renault R35 plus 25mm AT cannon kits. I know that the Heller kit is old and the only game in town vis the R35, but what is it like detail-wise and would it ( without an excessive amount of work ) build up to be a reasonably accurate representation of the real thing?

Thanks for any advice.

TimTam27

Hi,




I've it and the cannon and the figures are very simple and poor.

The tank itself is reasonable and offer some options, and can be upgraded with a PE set and AM tracks.

HTH

There's a short article about Heller's R35 kit (with a few pics) here :
R35
...provided you know Spanish....

Frenchy

The R-35 is not bad for a 1970's kit. The tracks would benefit from replacement. The fit of the turret optics into the turret sides will benefit from some filler. The real tank hull and turret was cast, and some subtle cast texture should be added with Mr. Surfacer or something similar (don't go nuts here--French foundries produced pretty clean castings in the prewar period). The cupola needs to have the top cap part defined with putty, as the kit is a simple smooth dome. The front visor in the cupola (which resembles an upside-down pi symbol) is anemic, and should be redone with plastic strip. The tank commander figure is pretty poor, but an aftermarket head would improve it tremendously.
The Hotchkiss 25mm antitank gun and crew is comparable in quality to Tamiya's German 37mm gun and crew released around the same time. The shield is too thick, but overall it's not bad at all. This gun was also supplied to some British units in Norway and France in 1940 to supplement the 2-pounder.

Hi,

I can echo the comment of a few other posters.... Like the H35/39 this kits drive sprockets and tracks really need to be replaced. This will result in a vast improvement of the finished kit.....

as for the figures...... the heads definatly gotta go..... you can pick up some resin heads for about 8 - 9 euros for six....

Gray

I've built several Heller 1/35 tank kits. The Souma and AMX-30. I found both to be decent builds, but overly engineered. They must have a company motto, "Why make in it 3 pieces when we can do it in 7".

I can't speak as to accuracy issues since I have no real knowledge of French armor.

Thanks guys for the help.

It looks like with the addition of Modelkasten tracks and a bit of extra detail work it will make into a pretty decent model. Even though it will end up costing a little more than the Tamiya Char B1 ( including the track purchase ) your comments and advice have given me the confidence to go ahead and buy the kit.

Cheers,
TimTam27

Hi,

Glad to hear it..... post some pics when it is finished.

You can find some great ref pics here.


Gray