Austria is a nation with a complex relationship to armed aircarft. Famously using Saab aircraft such as the J-29 Tunan, the J-35 Draken, Safir, and SK-60 they now have Eurofighters that were purchased…well potentially and allegedly in a less than legitimate manner. But back in 2005 Heller released a 50 years set commerating their air force with the Die Geschichte der Österreichischen Luftstreitkräfte set!

I’ve got a lot of love for Heller sets – as you may know if you’ve read my article on the Patrouille de France. As such when I saw this set for sale I had to buy it! I got it for about €35.00 at the time (probably about the same in GBP at the time). I’ve seen this on Scalmates for double that – I guess it really is being viewed as a Collectors item!

The set contains five aircraft –
– Aérospatiale Alouette III
– Fouga Magister
– Saab J-29 Tunnan
– Saab Safir
– Northrop F-5

The F-5 seems like a weird choice, but it was their premiere fighter at the time, as the Draken had just been retired readying for the Eurofighter. These aircraft were leased from Switzerland meaning they were temporary. However, it feels unusual that the Draken was not included given it’s amazing farewell and it’s nearly two decades of service. It also feels odd that it was the Fouga Magister in place of the Saab 105 / SK60 which remained in service until only a few years ago.

However, back then, it was not uncommon for Heller-Humbrol to release sets limited by what models they had available. The aforementioned Patrouille de France set didn’t include the Mystere IV – which was only released by Revell at the time. Airfix also released a number of anniverary sets you can see below which, in my opinion, often felt incoherent and incomplete.

Nowadays you often have other aircraft included – like Italeri when they did the F-86, G-91, and MB339 for their Frecce Tricolori set. So you have to bare this in mind when viewing it from a more modern lens.

I won’t review each kit itself here, but please look at my video above for an unboxing. I’ll be building these for Austrian August starting in 2026 and going on for a few years probably!

Buy or Fly?

I’ve not build these entirely yet, so cannot say for certain. Check my site as I will upload articles as I make them. If you can get this set for £40.00 or so I think it’s a good value kit and an interesting piece of Heller history. But the kits and decals just aren’t worth more than that. You’re paying for novelty and rarity rather than the quality of the kits. Sadly unlike the PDF set there isn’t a book included or a patch – just the kits as is.