Westland Sea King AEW Mk.2/ASaC Mk.7

[Mike]

Westland Sea King AEW Mk.2/ASaC Mk.7

1:72 Airfix

The Seaking has been in service with the UK Military and Rescue services in various guises for many years now, and the major parts of this kit dates back from at least 30 years ago, as I remember building the white Apollo crew capsule recovery version with working winch when I was a young boy.

In order to update it to these versions however, Airfix have tooled a new sprue that contains the parts for the AEW version, which debuted in 1982 to fill the Airborne Early Warning (AEW) role.

Inside the bright red box you get four sprues of original tooling plus 3 spruelets containing the fuselage halves and floor, plus one sprue of new parts, all in the same light grey plastic we've come to expect from Airfix. The package is completed by a clear sprue, instructions, full-color painting guide and a nice looking sheet of decals.

The old sprues will be familiar to a lot of modellers, and they are sadly showing their age in some places. The spine radome part and the cowling around the engine intakes have a rough texture on my review copy, which will need some smoothing down before installation, as they won't be hidden under a coat of paint.

Flash is evident in moderate amounts on most of the older sprues too, and some of the detail on the fuselage halves are a little indistinct and uneven, which I suspect is due to mould wear. This could well be explained away by the wear on these old airframes however, although a few panel lines near the rotor head could do with some work in my opinion. The flash of course is only a minor irritation, and can soon be removed by judicious use of a sanding stick and scalpel. Clear parts are of good quality however, again with a little light flash around the edges that will need sanding off to ensure good fit.

The new parts are a complete step change, and are crisp with sharp definition. As well as the large inflatable radome, which is supplied to model it ready inflated, there are various sensor fits around the airframe, and parts to make up the filter box on the front of the engine intakes. These parts are well documented in the instructions, so fitting should be easy.

Happily, the five-bladed main rotor has stood the test of time well, as has the tail rotor, so little cleanup will be necessary here - just remember to choose the correct tail rotor, as the Westland Sea King rotates in the opposite direction to the Sikorsky model. Detail on the sponsons is also reasonable, and the basics of a cockpit are provided in the kit with a decal for the main instrument panel. Anyone wanting a little more detail will need to break out the scratch building tools, but that is only to be expected with a kit of this age.

The decal sheet is all new and in perfect register, allowing you to model one of the following airframes:

• Sea King ASaC.7 - B Flight No. 849 NAS, RNAS Culdrose, July 2007
  
• Sea King AEW.2 - A Flight 849 NAS HMS Illustrious, 1988
  

Conclusion

The basic kit is aged, but this shouldn't stop the patient modeller from producing an impressive replica of this iconic rotary wing aircraft, although a little work will be needed to clean up some of the parts due to the age of the moulds. The modeller should note that when on the ground and powered down, the inflatable radome is stowed deflated, so you will need to either source an aftermarket item, or build one up yourself if you want to add a little extra realism to your model.

Review sample courtesy of

[daz greenwood]

Looks good may have to get one my own self.

[Richard M]

The kit fit is a rather poor unfortunately, particularily around the windscreen. Inserting a shim of plastic to spread the forward fuselage helps to some extent. The new tool sensor pods on the nose have a flat moulded back, but they fit onto a curved surface - so some work is needed to fit them into position. I made one, but I won't be rushing to repeat the experience, removing all the rivets helps with the appearance;

Build review by Tom Weir here;

http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.org/about19924.html

A picture of my partially completed build, where you can make out the copious amounts of milliput and filler around the nose;

Best

Rich

[Seahawk]

There's a big difference in the diameters of the Airfix and Revell radomes. Did anyone ever come up with the diameter of the real thing so we know which is right(er)?

[Mike]

A picture of my partially completed build, where you can make out the copious amounts of milliput and filler around the nose;

That's where the "patience" comes in

[Julien]

Sucha pity they could not include a delfated dome.

Looking at your copy, the one I saw in the LHS has more flash than this. Main reason I put it back.

Julien

[SARowl]

just remember to choose the correct tail rotor, as the Westland Sea King rotates in the opposite direction to the Sikorsky model.

The Sikorsky S61N and the Westland Sea King tail rotors both rotate in the same direction ie clockwise as you view it from the port (left) side. However, the RN Sea Kings have a six bladed tail rotor, whilst the S61 has a five bladed tail rotor.

John

[thomasweir]

Its a dog of a kit and should be put to sleep at the earlist opportunity.

[Kev1n]

put to sleep???

noooooooooooooooo......

I want several :)

[sailorboy61]

Just having a go at the HAR.5 version, and one of these pending - who would have thought there's so much work in 1/72 scale - still good practice for returning to the hobby, after this anything should be easy.

Appaulling sprues, think there's more flash than parts on the old ones!

Getting there - struggling with the extra wide glass at the moment!

[heloman1]

I've already got the Revell kit. Nice try Airfix to gert a little more milage form the old Sea King kit. Maybe a rebox of the Revll kit would have been a batter idea and more in keeping with the current detail level of the new er kits.

Colin