Heller Talbot-Lago F1 car

[bbowser]

I searched the forum but came up empty. I see these on eBay going for fairly reasonable money and wondered what's in the box. Do they have an engine, any chassis detail? Or are they basically curbsides? Thanks in advance.

[jbwelda]

is that a reboxed merit kit?

jb

Edited August 6, 2014 by jbwelda

[landman]

I built that before. If I remember well, it has an engine.

[Ace-Garageguy]

is that a reboxed merit kit?

jb

Apparently not. This is the Merit kit built, complete with the odd clear wire wheels and plastic tires...

And this is the Heller kit built...considerably different, inny louvers, spoked wheels, sorta-correct tread pattern...

Here's the Merit kit detailed...

Edited August 6, 2014 by Ace-Garageguy

[Ace-Garageguy]

Another shot of the Heller kit built-up. It has an obviously opening hood, so there's most likely an engine in there. Older Heller kits are, in my opinion, usually pretty good representations of their intended subjects. Their 1950 Talbot-Lago Drophead Record (2-door convertible production car) has quite nice engine and chassis detail, if I remember correctly.

Edited August 6, 2014 by Ace-Garageguy

[Paul H]

Another shot of the Heller kit built-up. It has an obviously opening hood, so there's most likely an engine in there. Older Heller kits are, in my opinion, usually pretty good representations of their intended subjects. Their 1950 Talbot-Lago Drophead Record 9@-door convertible production car) has quite nice engine and chassis detail, if I remember correctly.

Yup, it does have an engine. I don't have my one to hand, but from memory, it is full detail, but things like the differential, which are completely hidden, are not included. I agree that the Heller kits of this series are excellent, with loads of detail. Some very unique subject matter too. Worth noting also that Heller (or reboxes of) did the only decent Jaguar E Type / X-KE coupe kit in 1:24.

[jbwelda]

thanks Bill, that's very revealing being able to see build ups of both for comparison sake. I always assumed it was a Merit. it does look like the Merit kit has a smooth cowl while the Heller one it is split with a seam up the middle. you didn't build the Heller but you built the Merit? did you fill that seam or was it a complete piece from the box?

jb

[Ace-Garageguy]

you didn't build the Heller but you built the Merit? did you fill that seam or was it a complete piece from the box?

I didn't build either model in the photos (found them on the web) but I have several versions of the Merit / Smer kit. I've started one as a post-war smallblock-Chevy powered left-coast road racer, and I have the Heller Record Drophead in stock.

The Merit GP body is split the same way the Heller body appears to be, but fits together remarkably well, and the hood fit is quite good too (especially for really really old tooling). Because the Merit body halves fit together so well, finishing the seam is relatively easy.

I was seriously thinking of poaching the very nice engine and whatever mechanicals might be appropriate from the Record, and building a full-detail GP car combining the two.

Edited August 7, 2014 by Ace-Garageguy

[Ace-Garageguy]

I just found this link to a guy doing an incredible detail build of the SMER / Merit kit. Lotsa old detail photos, too. http://www.pwm.org.pl/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=18063

[Art Anderson]

Heller's kit was tooled in the late 1980's, or about 30 years after the Merit kit.

[Miatatom]

The SMER was one of the first kits I tried when I returned to the hobby. I thought it would be easy but the seam did present problems for my limited skills. I may create something different with it some day.

[ZIL 111V]

Not a bad kit, made in the late 70's, when French Heller was expanding its 1/24 classic car line, kit was also reboxed in the Humbrol/Heller boxes in later years.

Great & unique subject, the level of detail(s) is pretty good, but like many Heller kits, will demand a lot of patience, nicely detailed parts BUT ...fitting of some of the assemblies are not always the best!!!...need to be patient, but as we can see those kits can turn out in real nice replicas.

[Matt Bacon]

Not a bad kit, made in the late 70's, when French Heller was expanding its 1/24 classic car line, kit was also reboxed in the Humbrol/Heller boxes in later years.

Really interesting "war stories" from the designer here:

http://www.tsrfcars.com/toys-heller.htm

bestest,

M.

[ZIL 111V]

Yep already read it, amazing to see the high level of details/complexity of all those Heller race car kits...45+ years ago!

[sjordan2]

Here's another article (in English) on building the SMER kit.

http://www.arcauto.com/Gal01/001-100/gal006-Talbot-Dalton/00.shtm

Here are some incredible reference pictures on T26 cars (the 4L5 is also known as the T26C. The Heller box seems to have a typo, corrected in the instructions, which should probably be 4.5L).

http://www.fantasyjunction.com/cars/474-Talbot-Lago-T26

http://www.classicdriver.com/de/car/talbot-lago/t26/1949/162974

The Heller kit appears to have a very simple engine. Here are the trees:

http://www.modellboard.net/index.php?topic=42440.0

Edited August 7, 2014 by sjordan2

[lordairgtar]

Awesome kits in the way that old IMC kits are awesome. Very technical and lots of small bits. I enjoy building them. I and Mssr. DeLespinay had on occasion conversed about Heller kits. I was asking things about my Alpine build. He needed an AMT boxed double kit of the Matra and Brabham kit for his collection, so I sent him a kit. I had two of them and he did not have any.

[bbowser]

Here's another article (in English) on building the SMER kit.

http://www.arcauto.com/Gal01/001-100/gal006-Talbot-Dalton/00.shtm

Here are some incredible reference pictures on T26 cars (the 4L5 is also known as the T26C. The Heller box seems to have a typo, corrected in the instructions, which should probably be 4.5L).

http://www.fantasyjunction.com/cars/474-Talbot-Lago-T26

http://www.classicdriver.com/de/car/talbot-lago/t26/1949/162974

The Heller kit appears to have a very simple engine. Here are the trees:

http://www.modellboard.net/index.php?topic=42440.0

Great links, Skip. Thanks!

[sjordan2]

I might add that the reference links no longer exist as searchable at the original host site (Fantasy Junction) and it took me a while to find them. You may want to bookmark them or, preferably, download the images into folders. No telling when they'll completely go away.

PS: You'll find over 70 more images here...

http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/frame.php?file=search.php&keys=talbot+lago+t26c&method=0

Edited August 8, 2014 by sjordan2

[Ace-Garageguy]

THANK YOU SKIP !!! I'm really fired up to build one of these now, having all those beautiful pix to work from. Man, that's some car.

[sjordan2]

THANK YOU SKIP !!! I'm really fired up to build one of these now, having all those beautiful pix to work from. Man, that's some car.

Thanks, Ace. That's why I post stuff like this, hoping it will encourage curious people to go ahead and build the car, and blow us all away based on the information.

As I've mentioned on a couple of other threads here, if you find any of this information valuable, scroll to the bottom of a reference page and make a pdf, or download each shot individually to a folder or your desktop. I've had enough links go away to know how important that is.

Edited August 8, 2014 by sjordan2