The problem of estimating an unknown variance function in a random design Gaussian heteroscedastic regression model is considered. Both the regression function and the logarithm of the variance function are modelled by piecewise polynomials. A finite collection of such parametric models based on a family of partitions of support of an explanatory variable is studied. Penalized model selection criteria as well as post-model-selection estimates are introduced based on Maximum Likelihood (ML) and Restricted...