Heller L545 Bloch MB.210 French Medium Bomber — 1/72 Scale Vintage plastic kit

Manufacturer: Heller

Kit number: L545

Subject: Bloch MB.210

Scale: 1/72

Type: Static injection-moulded plastic aircraft kit

Country of origin: France

Original issue: 1967

Series: Heller Musée

Box art: Paul Lengellé

Status: Vintage/discontinued tooling/reissues

Skill level: Approximately intermediate

Known later reference: Heller 545
The manufacturer — Heller

Heller is one of France's historic plastic-model manufacturers.

The company developed an extensive range of French aircraft during the 1960s and 1970s, covering subjects that were often ignored by the large American and Japanese manufacturers.

This included aircraft from:

Bloch;

Potez;

Amiot;

Morane-Saulnier;

Dewoitine;

Breguet;

Loire;

Caudron;

Farman;

Dassault;

Sud Aviation.

The L545 Bloch 210 belongs to this particularly interesting period of Heller production.

The company's Musée range was notable for concentrating on historically important French aircraft and other subjects, and the Bloch 210 is one of the more unusual aircraft in that collection.

The original kit is documented as appearing in 1967.
The kit

The L545 represents the Bloch MB.210, a large twin-engine French bomber of the 1930s.

For a 1/72 kit of its age, it is a substantial model.

The original kit was moulded in the characteristic Heller plastic of the period. Surviving examples are encountered in different colours depending upon production run and reissue; an early example is documented with an unusual greenish plastic, while a later L545 box was moulded in more conventional grey Heller plastic.

The kit provides the major components necessary to build the aircraft, including:

fuselage;

wings;

twin engine nacelles;

propellers;

tail assembly;

landing gear;

cockpit and crew-area components;

defensive gun positions;

clear parts;

decals.

Because this is a vintage tooling, the engineering is much simpler than modern Heller or contemporary Japanese kits.

There is consequently considerably less internal detail than would be expected from a modern 1/72 bomber.

That is normal for a 1967 kit and is part of its historical character.
Scale

The scale is 1/72.

The real Bloch 210 had a wingspan of roughly 22.8 metres, which would give a finished model wingspan of approximately:

316 mm / 12.4 inches

That makes it a reasonably substantial twin-engine aircraft while remaining compatible with the standard 1/72 aircraft collection.
The real aircraft — Bloch MB.210

The Bloch MB.210 was a French twin-engine bomber developed during the 1930s by Société des Avions Marcel Bloch.

Marcel Bloch was an important figure in French aviation.

His company would eventually become Dassault Aviation, making the Bloch 210 part of the long historical lineage leading from inter-war French aircraft to modern Dassault combat aircraft.

The MB.210 was developed as a successor to the earlier Bloch MB.200.

The two aircraft looked substantially different.

The MB.200 was a high-wing aircraft with fixed landing gear, whereas the MB.210 was a low-wing monoplane with retractable landing gear.

This represented a significant step forward in French bomber design.