Heller's 1/72 scale
Nord 2501 Noratlas

by Roland Sachsenhofer

Nord 2501 Noratlas

Hobby Boss' 1/32 Spitfire Mk.Vb Trop is available online from Squadron

The Noratlas was an iconic transport aircraft of the early cold war years. Developed in post-war France it flew for the first time in 1949. The newly established BRD was in a comparable need for a modern transport, so cooperation was resolved.

First delivered to the Armée de l’air in 1953, the license production was taken up in Germany after 1956. About 180 “Noras” have been used by the Luftwaffe in total.

Several of these would be delivered to Israel. My model depicts one of the early machines delivered to the Israeli Defence Forces in the first half of the sixties. They were used not only as transports but also in offensive and for airborne operations.

The Heller kit scores with quite good fit and –in some points- lovely detailed structures. In all other respects it shows its venerable age. There is no detail whatsoever inside the wheel wells, the cooling fans beyond the props are missing and most of the antennas have to be scratched.

This was done with stretched sprue, plastic card and copper wire, the cockpit has been enhanced with etched parts and self-made seat belts.

All in all this was quite a joyful build that offered motivation to do a little bit of scratch building and creative modelling.

But of course-it is definitely time for a new and state of the art kit of this important and iconic plane!

If you are interested in the building process, please have a look here on Scalemates:

https://www.scalemates.com/profiles/mate.php?id=10148&p=albums&album=41763

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As ever, remarks will be appreciated: ro.sachsenhofer@gmx.at

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2018 by Roland Sachsenhofer
Page Created 9 October, 2018
Last Updated 9 October, 2018

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