Charles de Gaulle by Heller Build Review and Pictures

Charles de Gaulle by Heller at 1/400 scale is a model for some time that I have wanted to build.

Truth is that this kit is certainly not for the faint-hearted. Maybe my Charles de Gaulle by Heller was a from a bad batch, who knows, what I can say it was a nightmare.

Firstly there are some issues which caused me problems, the deck fitting to the hull and also the decals. The decals came on big sheets and were complete. To make life easier I took a knife to them and cut them into smaller parts.

Assembly wise, the model is not overly complicated, it just does not fit together very well. A lot of sanding and also shaving of parts needed to be done. Some of the other details like the windows were a bit of pain to paint as they were not recessed enough.

Of course, more skilled painters of models may make light work of these issues with Charles de Gaulle by Heller.

In terms of size, it is pretty big. The stand supplied is not ideal, I would certainly suggest thinking about your own way to display this model.

As for the flags supplied, there were OK but some were decals while others were paper-based. For the planes and helicopters, there are few decals but not enough.

To get around this problem a bit of work in photoshop and some printing onto thin paper helped add some detail to the model.

Charles de Gaulle by Heller Conclusion

Given the list price of this kit unless you have a burning desire to add this to your fleet I would say think again.

If like me you also prefer to build out of the box you may feel a little letdown. The big issues with fitting are with deck and the communication ariels on the tower.

This kit put simply is not for the faint-hearted. If you buy it be prepared to work hard to get a decent finished result.