Westland Sea King AEW Mk.2/ASaC Mk.7, 1:72 Airfix Options

[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