Designer Notes: Heller Morane-Sauliner 406
Philippe de Lespinay started with Heller, the French model kit company in the 1960s as a designer and project engineer. He also also worked for Cox, who are now known for their remote control and gas powered vehicles, but also created many kits over the years. More recently, he was the curator of the Los Angeles Slot Car Museum. And he’s on the hobbyDB Advisory Board, so yeah, he’s our kind of guy.
hobbyDB will be regularly sharing his insights on particular models he has worked on including production kits, never-produced projects, and his own custom builds. We hope you enjoy the journey through his career as well.
Read more about his history in the toy and model business here.
The kit had been designed by Jean-Michel Trochain, a really good guy in the R&D department at Heller and a WW2 aircraft expert.
I was responsible for creating the finished drawings for the assembly instructions for the 1/72 scale model of the MS406.
Hre’s a shot of a finished model of the Heller MS 406