Couzinet Arc-en-Ciel, Modified Heller vintage 1/75th kit

 

And after long labor here finally is the Couzinet "Arc-en-Ciel" (Rainbow), a very beautiful, original and stylized design of the 30’s. 

The model represents the plane in one of it's many guises (the Couzinet 71 No 01 ARC 5 iteration) as it flew to Buenos Aires (and other destinations in South America) in its several Atlantic crossings. The plane would appear through time in various other configurations (even as Couzinet 71 and not anymore 70) with changes mainly in the engine nacelles and decoration. 

The very old, clunky and notoriously inaccurate Heller kit of old has been reworked to a –hopefully- better standard. The process involved gathering reference materials, sorting out the many versions (the plane was constantly modified), making note of the details to be changed on the model, and finally implement those changes to a degree that seemed feasible, practical and reasonable for my level of skill and available time on earth. Here and there compromises were made that I believe do not detract too badly from the whole.   

The step-by-step building article con be consulted here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2025/06/couzinet-arc-en-ciel-converting-hellers.html 

Many alterations took place, among them

- Reshaping the spine of the aft fuselage

- Redoing the windows which had a different shape

- Thinning trailing edges

- Adding missing features to the wings and tail

- Engraving missing hinge lines

- Fabricating a succinct cockpit and cabin interior (toilet included of course) to resemble the original since not much can be seen as usual trough the transparencies -the kit offers just an empty void, not even a miserable pilot seat on a stick, nada, zip-

- Refurbishing the props to a two-blade configuration

- Re-doing the radiators by necessity as the nacelle lips were too tick and irregular and had to be thinned

- Opening the cabin door

- Working on the engine nacelles for a bit more of accuracy and realism

- Opening spaces for transparencies on the fuselage top (missing in the kit)

- Replacing the kit’s Pitot with a home-made item

- Replacing the vastly inaccurate and insufficient decals (this time with rather humble and simple home-made, non-professional items)

plus other minor changes.

It’s not easy work, and choices have to be made as it’s not sound to spend a lifetime introducing all the necessary changes and details, which would amount to basically a scratch. But the goal was to obtain a more accurate model, dealing with the most glaring mistakes of the manufacturer, which I would like to think was achieved, again, to a reasonable degree. This is a kit that is doomed from the start if you build it as it is, as it mixes details of at least two versions of the Arc en Ciel. It’s inexplicable, really, how Heller managed to make a real mess of it being itself a French outfit. As mentioned in the building article, there are two other (resin) kits of this plane out there, more accurate no doubt, but I am yet to see a kit of the Arc-en-Ciel in 1/72nd that I would like to build. Kit manufacturers, the ball is in your court. Same goes for previous Couzinet types (10, 30, 31, 40, Biarritz, 100, 101) all beautiful trimotor machines surely deserving attention from the industry.

My thanks go to Diego Fernetti, friend and fellow modeler, who long ago donated this Heller kit that remained dormant for many years in the garage, until now. Dieguito, I hope I have honored your generous gift.

My gratitude also goes to Alain Bourret who made long ago an exhaustive review of the kit’s hits and misses. His research facilitated the task ahead.

P. Gourgues published an article featuring his accurate model on Maquettes Modèles Actualités of May and June 1997.

No less supportive have been the Ornithopters at large, an international underground modeling organization I belong to, with branches in Volkania -Marzipanland-, Greece, Argentina, Canada, French Polynesia, the Arctic Circle, the Shire, Lothlorien and Rivendale.