HEL81052 - Heller 1/400 H.M.S. Illustrious - WWHP111475

HEL81052 - Heller 1/400 H.M.S. Illustrious - WWHP111475

Preowned, Resealed, Mint

HMS Illustrious was the lead ship of her class of armoured fleet carriers, launched in April 1939 and commissioned into the Royal Navy in May 1940. Designed to operate within range of land-based aircraft, the class featured a heavily armoured flight deck and enclosed hangar — a configuration that limited the air group to 36 aircraft but proved its worth when the ship survived bomb and later Kamikaze hits that would have disabled conventionally built carriers. Illustrious is most remembered for the November 1940 Taranto raid, in which 24 Swordfish torpedo bombers crippled the Italian battle fleet at anchor in a single night strike. This Heller kit is a 1986 Heller Humbrol rebox of the original 1979 tooling, modelling the ship as a full-hull display.

Box Contents:

• Hull — 3 parts (port half, starboard half, flight deck)
• 7 sprues — island superstructure, AA and secondary armament, masts, crane, fittings
• Flight deck railings
• Aircraft — 6 × Swordfish, 6 × Martlet (with folded-wing option on Martlets)
• Waterslide decal sheet — flight deck centreline markings, waterline demarcation stripe, aircraft markings, name plates for HMS Illustrious and HMS Victorious
• Instruction booklet — 19 assembly diagrams, two camouflage schemes (HMS Illustrious Indian Ocean 1942–43; HMS Victorious Home Fleet 1941)