Couzinet "Arc en Ciel" - Converting Heller's vintage 1/75th kit into a more accurate replica

(Image above from Wikipedia)

(Images below from Getty Images)

INTRO:

We scale airplane modelers obviously love planes, but perhaps not for the same reasons. Some do because of their historical significance; others for their technical aspects, their roles, their performance or perhaps practical considerations. But some of us love them just for their sheer beauty, harmony of lines, and their..."je ne sais quoi". This is an ample category that equally harbors the De Havilland D.H.88 Comet and the Farman Jabiru (beauty expressed in different forms, let's say).

We are used to hear the words "French elegance", and not without a reason. They have produced some really beautiful planes; just as an example let's remember the Farman racers of the 30s, and the subject of this endeavor, the Couzinet "Arc en Ciel" ("Rainbow", and also a word play on Avions René Couzinet). This plane is indissolubly attached to the French pioneering Atlantic crossing saga, the extraordinary pilot Jean Mermoz, and their influence in South American international aviation connections.

THE KIT (S):

Now, isn't it strange that this notable design hasn't yet received fair treatment by the hobby industry -in large part -and saved very meritorious exceptions- occupied in replicate killing machines? We have the Heller, SEM and Akatombo renditions, all in need of further improvement in one way or another. The vintage Heller kit is the one that deserves (to a point) more leniency -in spite of being the worse of them all- as it is indeed old, from 1964 according to Scalemates, 61 years to the date. And yet Heller produced more refined kits (some of which I had built with nostalgia delight), so not a free pass here. The SEM kit (resin) while having a nice exterior completely ignored the interior surface of the fuselage, which is rather crude and messy (and yet provided detail parts for it) and needs a lot of work to render an adequate inner surface and wall thinness. The Akatombo kit (also resin) is too simplified, lacks any interior detail and is expensive for what it offers, somewhat similar to the SEM kit, although there exist the known resin production reasons for that. But if you want an uncomplicated modeling life and a much speedier build, you should chose the SEM or Akatombo kits, no doubt.

I waited all my modeling life -which spans eons and geologic eras- for a nice Couzinet kit, to no avail. Some years ago, my dear friend, fellow modeler and compatriot Diego Fernetti gifted me (while smiling sardonically like the Cheshire Cat) a Heller Couzinet kit. I have looked at in despair for many a year, taking it out from where it lies, namely the darkest crag of my stash booty, caressing it for a few hours, and then returning it to that kits' twilight zone in the garage while shedding a tear or two. But I deem the time ripe -as I started to realize I might not live forever- for the Heller kit to be built.

CAVEAT EMPTOR:

One thing is for certain: YOU CAN NOT BUILD THE HELLER COUZINET KIT OUT OF THE BOX, BECAUSE YOU WILL END UP WITH AN INACCURATE MODEL THAT MIXES DETAILS OF AT LEAST TWO DIFFERENT VARIANTS OF IT. It pains me to see online the valiant and some times brilliant efforts of so many modelers that invested time and skill to bring this rough kit to better standards, only to obtain an inaccurate replica (and I am not talking about details here, but blatant mistakes on part to the manufacturer).

Friend, fellow modeler and aviation toilet lore lover Alain Bourret (of the land that President Stupid wants to appropriate and subjugate into a new state) long ago warned me of the perils, pitfalls and curses surrounding the said Heller kit. It seems that the manufacturer in its infinite wisdom, and in spite of it being itself French as the plane, conjugated different versions of the Couzinet Arc en Ciel into one, "Jungentur jam grypes equis" ("breeding horses with griffins", an impossibility as Virgil stated).

PRELIMINARY NOTES ON THE BUILD:

So after decades of gathering references that -oh too frequently- contradict each other and contain obvious and hidden inaccuracies, it is my hope that some resemblance of accuracy may be found in this humble effort.

The approach will attempt to remedy some of the kit's shortcomings, but I deem the task of fixing them all superhuman, thus I will do what I can. To start with, the decals in these kits are long gone and past their prime, and besides contain mistakes or missing graphics. I see online that modelers try to fix this by scanning them, cleaning the resulting image, redoing what they can and printing a new sheet, or acquiring the now long o.o.p. Renaissance Decals product that aims to cover -with mods to the kit- a few versions, but on whose accuracy I can't comment. I will most likely request once more the professional services of Arctic Decals, which has saved countless builds for so many modelers.

Next is the interior. Heller provides ample vacuum, in the form of nothing.

Fortunately some references can be found on the Net that can help with that. Regarding the exterior, there are a myriad of details that need addressing, but the propellers, nacelles, windows and the fuselage top -from the middle aft- are a priority.

The more you look at photos of the real plane (and be sure it is the one that flew in 1934 to South America, Couzinet 71 No 01 ARC 5), the longer the list of necessary changes and improvements to the kit grows. On that topic Pablo Picasso reputedly said that a painting is never really finished, just at certain point merely let be. I suggest a similar approach. The perfect model is the one that likely never gets finished. On the other hand it's just a bit teeny tiny lazy to build the model as it comes in the box, knowing that is literally a fantasy plane made of parts of diverse Couzinets. Another area that needs attention is the engine cowl louvers. Photos show at least three configurations of those louvers in a short period (the one that interests us) one of which shows those small triangular vents (associated with four Venturis on the left side of the cockpit):

but other photos show louvers that were similar to those on the kit (associated with three Venturi and a small rearview mirror):

(notice the slight difference in the louvers between these two photos)

You can modify the cowls and go for the triangles, that in 1/72 can be easily represented by home-made decals, or enhance a bit the kit existing louvers. Bear in mind that yet another modification (unrelated to this build) was made to the cowls with the small triangular  openings to further aid refrigeration, in the form of a transversal cut around the top of the nacelles. The kit has the fuselage nose extension, which as mentioned went together with different windows than those on the kit. The somewhat drastic modification of the fuselage aft spine section (way too squarish/flat in the kit) will need planning and care. The engine nacelles/cowls are very poorly represented, and of all the Heller kits I have built this is by far the worst.

PARERGA UND PARALIPOMENA:

I am told that Heller wanted to establish metric-oriented scales, and the 1/75th one chosen for the kit is a consequence of that. Good luck bringing the US to the modern metric age (England gradually adopted it), when in fact the government now (2025) wants to revert to the Middle Ages (not in vain called "Dark") in every aspect of society.

But in the middle of this kit's doom-and-gloom assessment, a glimmer of hope: The Arc en Ciel had a toilet!!! It was located after the pax cabin bulkhead, behind a door. 

A word now about the colors. Nose and engine nacelles were metal. The airframe color has been generally treated as aluminum paint, but other sources had it as a shade of white. If you look at good photos of the plane that show the white band on the rudder and wings you see that the fuselage is darker, and if you compare photos of the Oiseau Blanc (Levasseur P.L.8) which was white as its very name indicates, the Couzinet has a darker hue. Other photos show the airframe as being much darker than the white shirt collars or white coats of the people around it, so I am comfortable with the two tones of metal, darker and shinier for the metal parts and lighter and whiter for the frame, as French planes from the era used a whiter aluminium paint. Modelers have used both finishes. But here is a contemporary (1930) scale model of the Couzinet 33 "Biarritz" (a smaller brother) and photos of the real thing. I am personally satisfied that the "metal" paint is the finish to use:

For those brave enough to venture the drastic modifications needed, here is an article published in Maquettes Modèles Actualités of May 1997 (in French, naturellement) by P. Gourgues.

 

The target incarnation of the plane:

Well, there you have it, an introduction to kit-fixing. Or a modeling dirge, we'll see.

If you have this Heller kit, congratulations, you can likely sell it on evilbay for a profit, or show it to the kids if they misbehave to scare them, or build it if you have the necessary experience and a certain amount of modeling masochist tendencies.

As you read (or just jumped here tired of the account of the details) there are a lot of things to be done, so better we get hands on and describe them as we go. 

Another image of the plane as it is intended here. As pointed somewhere above, the louvers on the engines cowl varied a bit so pinpoint the photos to want to use as a base for your replica.

 Photo of the interior (mark the different windows than those on the kit):

Interior of the previous version (again the windows are the clue). There seems to be a crew member position under the passage to the cockpit. This in the newer version (above) seems to have moved to the extended nose with its three circular windows as the area has changed:

 

I think these inst. pan. are for the previous version, but couldn't have changed significantly I guess:

The wing structure; as that of the fuselage, an example of wood-working:

 

The slightly-recessed new windows:

Another view of the chosen version. Notice the little bumps on the wing, the change in section at the fuselage top after the windows (inaccurately rendered by the kit), and the other smaller windows, hatches and bullseyes needed to be added:

Notice the aileron horns and linkages, as well as some long covers:

I believe the date given below is incorrect, as the photo shows the 1934 version:

I think again that the date given may be incorrect:

 

The reading of these two PDFs is highly encouraged:

https://www.hydroretro.net/etudegh/arc-en-ciel_atlantique_vol1.pdf

https://www.hydroretro.net/etudegh/arc-en-ciel_atlantique_vol2.pdf

 

Here is a translation of what I consider the most relevant passage for the modeler:

 

When the Rainbows crossed the Atlantic

Arc en Ciel No. 5 – Couzinet 71 No. 01 The inscription on the tail fin bears 71 as the type number. The fuselage is that of Arc en Ciel No. 4, the tail of which has been shortened by 1.25 m. The front of the fuselage remains unchanged; the shortening of the fuselage takes place starting at frame No. 6, located behind the cabin. This new fuselage was remounted on the wings at the end of February 1934. A Karman of normal proportions was fitted. While the fuselage was being modified, the engines returned to Hispano for the removal of the reduction gears, thus reverting to the 12 Nb. The propellers are two-bladed metal propellers with a rounded cone. The air outlets are still louvered; these air outlets will undergo numerous modifications, the aim of which is to improve the aerodynamic flow of air toward the tailplanes*, which tend to flutter at certain engine speeds, around 170 km/h, as well as to improve engine cooling.

1. The vents behind the central engine are removed. The upper vents on this rear door have become triangular. The side engines receive numerous triangular vents below the engine centerline.

2. For the resumption of Atlantic crossings (which the photos taken at Noronha confirm), the central engine cowl receives triangular vents on its upper part, as well as three rows of vents on the rear engine door. The last row runs around the fuselage. The side-mounted engines also have their upper cowlings fitted with triangular louvers. On all three cowlings, between the engine centerline and the exhausts, there are still louvered slots.

3. There is no longer a louvered air vent on the central engine; a large louver surrounds the upper part of the cowling from centerline to centerline, extending between the exhausts of cylinders 4 and 5, and the exhaust of the sixth cylinder at the rear of this central cowling retains the three rows of triangular louvers. The same principle is adopted for the side-mounted engines, but between the exhausts of cylinders 3 and 4 and ends behind the exhaust of the sixth cylinder. The water tank is very elongated and extends to the middle of the engines. This is the configuration used for the last four crossings. The livery is identical to that of the Arc-en-Ciel No. 4, except that the inscription 71 has replaced 70 on the centerboard, and that under the engineer's portholes one can read the signature R. Couzinet. In Dakar or Port-Étienne? After the eighth and final crossing of the South Atlantic, the rear of the fuselage is abundantly illustrated, since the following has been added: SOUTH ATLANTIC 1st CROSSING January 16, 1933 2nd " May 16, 1933 3rd " May 28, 1934 4th " July 28, 1934 5th " August 4, 1934 6th " September 25, 1934 7th " October 3, 1934 8th " October 23, 1934 The fifth crossing is noted on August 4, although it actually took place on September 4. On the left side, in the same position, are painted the names of the four South American cities: Natal – Rio de Janeiro – Buenos Aires – Bahia. In front of these inscriptions, there are folkloric scenes representing To the right of the fuselage is the northern hemisphere and to the left is the southern hemisphere; on the right is a drawing of a couple on a café terrace, four hangars each carrying Avions-René-Couzinet-Paris (above, the Eiffel Tower can be seen), a guitar player and two Spanish dancers, and a Moor in the desert. On the left are scenes from the Rio Carnival, as well as gauchos. This description was given to me by the mechanic Cavailles, as unfortunately no good photos exist. Mounting of the "pig's ears" on the Rainbow No. 5. (Claude Faix Collection).

  (*) N of T: This observation is inaccurate. The engine louvers had no significant impact on tail flutter, they were only aimed to aid refrigeration, but the Karmans (whose shape many times changed) did.

 

Surprisingly, the 3 engines could be accessed from inside the plane!

 

Get a cup of coffee. Here is the list of tasks (incomplete):

-Sand down the surface of the whole kit (wheel pants included), removing also the poor Venturis (to be replaced) at the left of the cockpit.

-Engrave some chosen panel lines and reinforce the hinge lines, add tabs.

-Re-make props for a two-blade configuration

-Replace engine radiators with scratch items, thinning the lips of the nacelle from inside (to allow for slightly bigger, more to scale radiators)

-Separate and metal-pin the "pig's ears" from the top and under the stab. Those were mobile and solidary.

-Locate door position and cut open, make new door following references.

-Drill the three circular windows on the extended nose (top bigger than the sides).

-Cut open and fabricate a clear hatch for the cockpit.

-Cut open small window on spine.

-Remove kit's side windows and replace with correct ones.

-Modify the radius of the section of the wing nacelles as they meet the wing, too pronounced on the kit.

-Revise the louvers on nacelles and restore to photo references configuration, maybe using Archer resin louvers?

-Revise the exhausts positions and detail.

-Sand carb air intakes and re-do according to references.

-Add generous Milliput "padding" from inside to the areas that are too flat on the aft fuselage spine, in order to be safe when sanding them down to a more curved section, following bulkhead section darwings of the real plane:

-Fabricate...well...the whole damn interior, including the sacred toilet! but tune efforts as visibility from outside the model will be really limited.

-Whole new decal sheet needed.

-Add the dozens upon dozens of external details: aileron horns and linkages plus the elongated covers under the wing seen in photos, faired radiator fillers, new oil coolers, nav. lights, landing lights, multiple small fairings on top of the wing, new Venturis, rearview mirror, new detail on wheel pants (ARC logo on axis), rudder and multiple tabs linkages, revise tailwheel, revise landing gear struts, tail struts, make new Pitot (it's complex) following references... shall I continue?

Mermoz connection with Argentina is strong. He married Gilberte Chazottes, born in the Argentinian town of Bahía Blanca, south of Buenos Aires:

Argentina dedicated a monument to Mermoz, located in Avenida Costanera, facing the Río de la Plata, close to Aeroparque airfield:

Another image of the interior. Notice the big finder loop, not located outside as usual. We check again the windows to be sure is the right version:

At the beginning it was mentioned -while exploring the different Couzinet kits- that the Heller rendition dated from 1964. Curiously, another French kit manufacturer, Brifaut, announced it for that year! (but never released it). Did those molds/masters go to Heller?:

So here is the beast:

Heller tried to do...surface texture? Whatever their intent, big mess:

And yet you can see that they could have done much better, as the detail in this section shows (raised panel lines and rivets aside):

The wing halves are dealt with as an insert, which almost never bodes well:

The smallish parts. Missing a short strut and the Pitot here, the only parts missing by some miracle after all these years:

The by now completely useless decals, cracked, creased, yellowed and...widely inaccurate:

The instructions follow the style of an Albert Dürer gravure:

Butchery starts:

The horizontal tail like the elevator hinge lines, but provides the tabs. Mysteries of the kit industry:

The fit of the wing halves as predicted is awful and will need copious filling, sanding and re-engraving. To say that the fit is dismal would be an undeserved compliment. The wings are missing quite a number of details, the little bumps on top and what looks like battens/conduits under. Pitot and leading edge lights will need redoing. And let's not even talk (yet) of the nacelles:

As already commented, I have built many Heller kits, then and now, and they were usually agreeable. But this spawn from earlier times is something to reckon with, even from a time when these kist were basically seen as toys. Retroactive shame on you, early Heller! 

The clear hatch is opened. Notice the fus. misalignment:

The "Pitots" are removed to be later replaced:

The bullseyes are relocated and drilled:

The spurious rivet detail sanded:

The hatch and coaming are corrected:

The bigger bullseye on top on top of the nose is drilled, and a little square window excised:

The frames on the windows have been removed. The wing awful seams were filled with superglue as the bonding was weak due to non matching parts:

The particular shape of the windows is clearly seen here:

As mentioned before, the glass was recessed:

A reminder to deal with the wheel pants. We see that the rivets were there, but need toning down beyond the circle. The ARC logo will need to be added:

The hinge lines of rudder and trim (raised on the kit) are engraved. The rivets around the stab root need to go:

The windows undergoing transformation:

The rim of the nacelles is thinned down. The kit's radiators have not been glued as per instructions before joining the wing halves, as they will be replaced. Two backing styrene strips glued transversely a bit inside the nacelle will hold the new radiators in position. Notice the roughness of the molds. The exhausts are not even depicted. The oil coolers will be also replaced:

The door is cut out:

The ailerons hinge lines and separations are engraved (they are raised on the kit). As the trailing edges will need profuse sanding to eliminate their excessive thickness and so will the wing surface, the engraving is deep. The awful seams are filled with putty:

The corrected windows (less transparencies). The missing elevators hinge lines are engraved, as well as the -until then- raised trim tab lines. The stab had little bumps -adjacent to the "pig's ears"- that are absent on the kit and need to be fabricated and added after smoothing the criss-crossed surface of the parts:

Working now on the inexplicable surface treatment that Heller perpetrated on the parts. Comparison between original surfaces and sanded ones:

Fuselage sides also sanded smooth, and rivets toned-down but left for the moment as a guide. The tabs were re-scribed as the rudder trailing edge was thinned-down:

Door made of thick styrene (photos show thickness on both fuselage and door) and fitted:

The idea is to pose it open:

 I am the kind of person that sees gyms as torture chambers, although for many years I dabbled in Tai Chi and other movement disciplines. Nowadays my exercise mainly consists of sanding kit parts and turning the pages of books. 

The wheels are a little poor, so they will be given new hubs made of "repoussé" styrene disks:

The rivet detail is toned down:

Material is added to the lips of the pants to conform them to photos:

Why do I like so much working with old injected kits and vacs? (not all of them, by any extent of the imagination, bad kits will be bad kits, old an new, and many are irredeemable). I think the answer is that you can always, with time, work and dedication, improve an old kit and make it better than it started, while with super-kits I am usually concerned with not screwing up. Besides, working with old injected kits and vacs (and scratchs, of course) you put in them something of yourself, usually more than merely assembling the parts of a good kit. But don't get me wrong, I love the break that nice kits provide, and will build them too with pleasure. It's just that with the challenge comes a sense of accomplishment. Yes, you have to work for it, but the satisfaction merits it.

The "alignment" pins on the pants actually produced misalignment, so they were removed. As the wheel moved left and right in the too wide space, washers were added on their pins to limit that movement:

The props are mounted on rods, their three blades removed (the plane used two-blade props), the spinners cleaned up. The dimples on the tail wheel fairing are filled, and a small relief on the nose of the pant is added following photos:

 The prop blades from the kit can't be repurposed, as they will render a smaller than needed disc diameter. Prop blades from the spares bin will be used (you need just six, as discussed):

 

 

 

To be continued...