1/35 Gazelle Sa-342Ma by Hacheckaprints - Review

[ROM]

Good evening,

Nicolas provided me with a box of his brand-new kit, and here are a few photos of it.

The thin cardboard box is nicely illustrated.

 

 

 

 

 

The back provides some information, such as the number of pieces (72) and the dimensions. An overview of the kit is presented:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The gray 3D-printed parts are distributed across 4 cages. The large fuselage parts and the blades are supplied off the sprue.

 

 

 

A view of the large cage:

 

 

 

Some close-up photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The turbine and the rotor mast are truly very well detailed:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fuselage:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a few quick file strokes, the fit seems good:

 

 

 

 

The front bubble is supplied as a vaccuformed part, on its mold:

 

 

 

 

The plastic is quite transparent. It remains to be seen if polishing will still be necessary?

 

 

The door windows are supplied as cut-out plastic. They will need to be sandwiched between the internal and external door parts.

 

 

 

I find the manual to be very well thought out. Color drawings and photos will help with painting:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The decals look very thin, and their opacity will need to be checked during application.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The base model can be completed with additional sets to make a Viviane Hot version, or one with a door-mounted Gatling gun.

A crew will also be offered.

The figures benefit from a convincing sculpt, and like the rest of the kit, they are very well printed.

 

 

 

 

 

Same for the Gatling:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From my point of view, Hacheckaprints offers us THE Gazelle kit that has been missing for decades.

Not being an expert on this machine, I did not detect any shape issues.

However, the level of detail is truly impressive. And the print quality is excellent.

However I did notice a few small points for improvement.

Like rinsing residues in two places, printing defects at the tip of the blades, and one part (the stabilizers) with print steps that were a bit too visible to me.

I have shared this with Nicolas, who will look into it more closely.

Finally, as beautiful as this kit is, it might not be for a beginner. 3D resin remains quite fragile and delicate to remove from the "sprue".

In that regard, I recently acquired an ultrasonic cutter, and it changes your life!

See you soon!

Romain

 

 

 

Links:

https://www.hacheckaprints.com/

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555651894702

[Supersonic]

WOW ! Looking very nice . Another gap is closed . The long waited death 

for the Blue Thunder . I want one of these Gazelle . 

Thank you Romain

SP

[RCPlym]

What a shame it is in 1/35th. ☹️ 

 

A VERY decent asking price though! 

[ROM]

On 6/5/2026 at 10:39 PM, RCPlym said:

What a shame it is in 1/35th. ☹️ 

 

A VERY decent asking price though! 

Nicolas said it wouldnt print well in 1/48th scale. To small details.

 

And Yes The price is fairly decent I find.

Around 85-90€

[RCPlym]

26 minutes ago, ROM said:

Nicolas said it wouldnt print well in 1/48th scale. To small details.

 

And Yes The price is fairly decent I find.

Around 85-90€

 

I was thinking 32nd scale would be great. 

[LSP_Ray]

Should print just fine in 1/32nd if they will do it.

[iaf-man]

They already have the Tigre helicopter(with a book or without)

https://www.hacheckaprints.com/shop

They are sold without the weapons, which have to

be bought separately

[thierry laurent]

 Both kits are absolutely excellent. The Gazelle is even giving a better value for money ratio. For such a 3d print quality the Hacheka prices are quite attractive. The next one should be the NH-90 and I'm crossing my fingers for an Alouette III!

[John1]

I would want to see how the vac form clear parts look (and) fit on the completed model.   Everything else looks pretty nice (assuming it all fits properly).  

[RCPlym]

On 6/17/2026 at 2:41 AM, LSP_Ray said:

Should print just fine in 1/32nd if they will do it.

 

Fingers crossed - I just messaged the producer. 🤞 

[thierry laurent]

Printing 9% larger should be easy. However the decals will be a problem...

[RCPlym]

Just had confirmation there is no possibility of 1/32 scale. 

 

That is a real shame.

[RCPlym]

8 hours ago, thierry laurent said:

Printing 9% larger should be easy. However the decals will be a problem...

 

Not strictly so.

Where there are close fitting parts, changing scales can result in dimensional changes that will prevent parts fitting.

 

Doing just a blanket 9% increase will increase everything - as an example, a 1.5mm thick cockpit walls will become 1.635mm thick - 0.0675 inside and outside. That will reduce the inside dimension of the cocpit by 0.135mm. Anything to fit inside will also get bigger... See where it is going...

[thierry laurent]

I agree the difference has an impact but isn’t it marginal from a modelling perspective? I purchased many rescaled sets from two aftermarket companies ànd never had big issues of compatibility whereas there was not only a slight increase from 1/35 to 1/32 but also from 1/48 to 1/32.

[RCPlym]

On 6/25/2026 at 7:59 PM, thierry laurent said:

I agree the difference has an impact but isn’t it marginal from a modelling perspective? I purchased many rescaled sets from two aftermarket companies ànd never had big issues of compatibility whereas there was not only a slight increase from 1/35 to 1/32 but also from 1/48 to 1/32.

 Depends entirely on said design.

I have an Alpha Jet that when scaled up, the interior parts do not fit. They require a little more work than a simple blanket scale.

 

You may well find the ones you have had rescaled have been rescaled by their designers parametric files and remeshed so the problem doesn't arise as it would just rescaling STL files.