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Cyber Hobby Sea King HC.4 Queries?


tonyot

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Hello Folks,

I`ve recently bought the new Cyber Hobby Sea King HC.4 and would like to hear from any Sea King experts out there who may also have the model as I`ve a few questions.

1/ Does it look underscale? The seats inside do look rather small.

2/ Are the antennas accurate, especially those on either side of the nose? I`ve seen something similar on a modern aircraft but not on a Falklands War aircraft and those in the kit seem to be rather big?

3/ Are there any other things that I should be aware of?

All the best

Tony O

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Hi Tony

Its not so much underscale, although it is shorter and narrower than the Revell kit. The fuselage appears to be scaled down from the Hasegawa 1/48th Seaking and has similar features to that kit except that they dropped a major clanger. Look at where the tail rotor drive shaft meets the engine housing, its got a nice grove to accomodate a shroud but they didn't actually bother to create that part !, so it looks odd shape wise without it.

Yeap the cabin seats are way out of scale and they went with a .50 cal Browning rather than a GPMG (whichc they already do in their Chally 2 kits !!)

The kits also includes some features from the AEW2 version so the aerial configuration is little bit off.

The pity is that it is nicely detailed and stand alone with the features fixed it should look quite good, but will be a little odd when placed next to other RN Seaking kits.

Cheers

Geoff

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Sounds like the guys who are designing the interior are not talking to the toolmakers who are doing the rest and working to different inaccurate drawings or can't use a tape measure!!

Seeing as they are trying to fulfil our dreams here with classic Fleet Air Arm types, they are getting them all wrong! Not good.

Edited by Paul J
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I agree with Jennings, Revell do it better and cheaper to boot.

Your right about the RWR boxes on the a/c they didn't have them in 82. The kit is a real golden moment gone to waste, shame as I really like the Junglie Mk4 over the rest, so much easier to work on without the pinger sh*t in the back, but the sound proofing was a sod.

As for the kit its overpriced, over here and now being over looked.

This is one ex-Mk 4 engineer not wasting his money on this kit.

Edited by Wafu
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Thanks for your answers lads, Geoff I had noticed the .5 Browning rather than a Gimpy which is a bit of a bugger, but not the missing shroud cover! I agree with you all that the Revell kit is the best out there but like Wafu I have a soft spot for the `Junglie' HC.4 as that is the one which I flew in and had some `experiences' in and thats the one that cannot be built from the Revell kit due to the different undercarriage without float shaped nacelles.

The decals are a load of c**p too and I`d highly recomment the Modelart decal range which has at least two sheets covering the HC.4, including one with the attractive green and white `Arctic/Balkans' scheme with IFOR & SFOR titles.

I`ll probably be cutting the location points for those `washing line' antennas on either side of the nose and find a photo of my subject aircraft to determine the correct antenna fit. I`m pretty sure that the RWR receivers provided for the rear fuselage are only present on the Pinger or Baggy versions and that the current Junglies have a different type,....although I may be wrong?

All the best and thanks again chaps,

Tony O

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Because it has the.50 cal which was only fitted to the HC.4 in 2010 I'd say the kit is actually supposed to represent a modern-day one, and not a 1982 Falklands example. I have ordered one and plan to replace it with a FN MAG. I'm not sure about the aerials and RWR etc but I think I have a Modeldecal sheet lying about somewhere that may have decals for a 80s a/c. Its expensive yes but I've seen the conversion sets go for ridiculous prices on eBay in comparison.

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Can any of you guys who have the kit post a picture of the front fuselage ? The CAD drawings shown by Dragon/Cyberhobby were criticised for the shape of the nose, I'd like to see if the problems have been fixed on the production kits.

Thanks !

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Here you go Giorgio, my kit arrived today (from a Hong Kong-based online store for the equivalent of 20 pounds + 6 pounds p+p):

100_4938.jpg

100_4939.jpg

It's a really nice kit, but it's a real shame about the shroud cover and the cabin seats are ridiculously small. I may have some spare Italeri wessex ones somewhere I'lll try and use. I've noticed the instructions also have a few steps out of order.

The whole Falklands theme seems to be a bit of a red herring - it's definitely a modern one. The decals are very much different (smaller roundels etc) to the 'VG' aircraft depicted in the Modedecal 66 set I have. I'll leave the RWR off and check photos etc for the other aerials and other protuberances. It has the strakes for the rear left side fuselage too but I'm not sure whether 1982 a/c had those. But I've already pulled a spare GPMG out of a Dragon HMMWV kit for it.

The rotors can be posed either in flight (bending up), at rest (bending down) or folded.

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In the box it actually looks a nice kit apart from the kiddy seats, but wait till you match it up to a Revell or Fujimi kit !!!. As for the strakes along the tail i think those had started to appear in 82, i know the AEW had them and the HAS5 but would need to check the references for the Junglie.

The Falklands theme is even worse for their AEW Seaking, as the markings are for later 90's Medium Sea Grey Aircraft, when they should have done either the prototypes in their pre-war scheme or the toned down scheme they carried on their deployment onboard. Looking at the AEW instructions on-line, it appears to have followed the Hasegawa approach with only external mods and no internal hardware and glueing the AEW radome directly to the door , so the internal HC4 detail is of no real value as the doors have to be closed !

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Here you go Giorgio, my kit arrived today (from a Hong Kong-based online store for the equivalent of 20 pounds + 6 pounds p+p):

Thanks a lot for posting these pictures, they are very useful. The nose does not look as wrong as the CD drawing showed fortunately. Still not too sure about something in the shape though, I have to try and understand what it is.

This and the other issues you mention make me look at this as a bit of a missed opportunity. I might still get one if I can find it for the right price though, looks as if it's a nice, if somewhat inaccurate, kit.

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Still not too sure about something in the shape though, I have to try and understand what it is.

When I compare it to Paul's photo I think he's right about it not being bulbous enough. But I also compared it to a Fujimi kit and the nose on the HC.4 is a lot shorter - maybe that's it? (the Fujimi has the same shape though).

Another gripe I forgot to mention is the instructions don't give any painting advice. There's a list of paints to use but none of the construction steps show where to put what colour!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi all,

Having spent the best part of 15 years on Jungly squadrons, I can safely say that this so called Falklands anniversary kit is far from it.

I ordered two kits as I wanted to have a complete set of Sea Kings from mk2 to mk7, and thought my luck was in when these arrived. On closer inspection it is actually a modern day mk4, the only think it has in common with the Falklands version is the basic airframe, the metal blades instead of composite and some of the aerials which were removed in the late 80's. The vertical aerial on the nose is not a mk4 fit. The vertical towel rails on the forward fusealage below the cockpit side windows are a recent mod.

The infra red searchlights that they show mounted on the stub wings were fitted for GW1 and then only a single unit not two and it would appear that they have not moulded the extension at the rear of the main rotor gearbox housing.

There are plenty of pictures on the web showing early mk4's so removing bits shouldn't be a problem, I just wish I had taken more for referance when I had the chance.

Just for interest, all Sea Kings had the same basic airframe, engines and gearboxes. The pingers and AEW's had different radios and their hydraulics were slighty altered due to the retractable undercarriage but apart from that they were the same. I say that because some one earlier was asking about the nose profile.

I look forward to seeing some of the mk4's taking shape on this forum.

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