Sea King AEW.2 Etch Internal & External Detail Sets - 1:72 Eduard for the Cyber Hobby Kit

[woody37]

Sea King AEW.2 Etch Detail Sets

1:72 Eduard for the Cyber Hobby Kit

With the Sea King now in the twilight moments of an amazing career, there has been a great deal of modelling interest in it lately.

With the recent release of the Dragon AEW.2 Sea King, Eduard has released a number of sets to spruce it up. Whilst the kit is nicely moulded, it does I believe have some accuracy issues. Jessica has done a good review of the Dragon kit on Aeroscale and points out some of the inaccuracies well. There are three sets here that I’m reviewing:

• Interior set – includes cockpit and cabin interior improvements
• Interior Zoon set – budget version of the above focussing predominantly on the cockpit interior
• Equipment Set – this adds the avionic stations to the cabin area that I believe are missing from the Dragon kit
• Exterior Set - adds a significant amount of external detail to the kit

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Sea King AEW.2 Interior (set 73468)
This contains three frets of etch parts, one being pre-painted and self adhesive for the cockpit area. Included on the pre-painted fret is a replacement main panel made up in two layers together with a replacement T-frame. A replacement bulkhead with wiring and surface detailing gives a good but subtle improvement. The cockpit side and overhead panels get the same treatment from the coloured fret. The cabin interior walls are catered for with a considerable number of panels that are designed to sit between the framework. How beneficial or noticeable these will be, I’m not sure. The crew seats are significantly improved with seat belts and structural frame work. Finally, many electrical panels of varying sizes are catered for in the set to really ‘busy’ up both the cockpit and cabin areas.

Sea King AEW.2 Interior Zoom (set SS468)

This is a budget version of the above containing just the Pre-painted Self Adhesive fret. This includes the main, side and overhead panels.

Sea King AEW.2 Equipment (set 73470)

The rear cabin of the AEW.2 has a lot of radar equipment in it. This is faithfully reproduced in this set. Again, 3 frets are contained with the electrical displays and switch panels being supplied on a pre-painted fret. A significant improvement to the cabin area of your Sea King can be made with this pack.

Sea King AEW.2 Exterior (set 72557)

If investing lots of money to fill the interior of your kit that most will not see doesn’t really float your boat, they you might be tempted by this. There is a lot of detail contained on the two frets that will certainly transform the exterior of your build and in good scale representation too. The Sponsons and undercarriage get a comprehensive make over offering internal sidewalls, hydraulic and brake lines. Some plastic will need to be cut away from the main uc legs which looks quite fiddly. Replacing this section completely with a piece of suitable diameter rod looks easier. There’s a vast amount of access panels, handles and tie down hooks included to give the surface the busy look of the real thing. A stunning set of boarding steps is included which in itself is a work of art. This requires wire of around 0.15 diameter that isn’t included. The main rotor hub has several enhancement parts. The diagram in the instructions is a quite complicated affair, so I would recommend spending some time digesting this step, but the results will no doubt be worth it. The tail rotor also receives a makeover on the hub. If you want the tail folded, the additional detail offered in this set will be most welcome with no less than 14 parts making up the folding mechanism and structure. Tail spine and vertical reinforcing plates as well as various vent grilles add to the tail area detailing. The radome isn’t forgotten either as this is spruced up on the rear face.

Conclusion

The cockpit is already quite well catered for in the Cyber Hobby Sea King, but etch has the ability to improve scale accuracy beyond what is possible in plastic. The sets here make for a great improvement to the kit as described above, particularly with the radar control stations. They may also benefit the Airfix kit if you’ve already invested in one of those; it would be interesting to see if anyone can confirm this. The exterior set offers a huge transformation to the exterior of the kit in the way that plastic simply can't complete with.

Review sample courtesy of

[zed]

Would the interior rear cabin equipment set work for the Revell of Germany kit as well?

Edited April 4, 2013 by zed

[woody37]

Looking at the assembly of them yes I think they will. The equipment is built up into an almost stand alone unit that appears to simply sit on the floor panel. The only thing I can't answer is if there is any obstructions inside the Revell kit that would foul it as I don't have the kit....yet, although it does look very nice

Please have a look at the instruction pdf included on the Eduard product page to see what I mean. There are some smaller bits that would be unique to the Cyber kit as you'll see.

http://www.eduard.com/store/Eduard/Sea-King-AEW-2-equipment-1-72.html?cur=1&force_sid=a3527abc6de3abbbe8bb3212b1ffb7c7&listtype=search&searchparam=73470

Cheers, Neil

[zed]

Thanks, that I a good idea. I will check it out.

[woody37]

Now updated to include the superb external detail set