Jump to content

Tamiya1/72 SH-60B Seahawk - 'A Learning Opportunity'


Recommended Posts

Hello Chaps,

         Continuing towards my aspiration of having The Shelf of Ping to showcase four of the world's most prominent ASW helicopters in current service, I've added the SH-60B Seahawk of the US Navy. The rotary enthusiasts will immediately note that as of 2015, this is now no longer in service with the US Navy and has been replaced with the MH-60R, but there isn't a kit for that yet and I didn't want to spend £20 on a conversion kit for an £8 model. Furthermore, I only realised half way through the build that I was using an old paint scheme and the newer US Navy grey is a much nicer look, but then the decals wouldn't have worked anyway.

 

        Of note, this aircraft has a Magnetic Anomaly Detector bolted to the right hand side. Many of you will know that for years, the exotically beautiful Sea King AEW2 and her replacement, the Sea King ASaC7, have been considered by many experts to be the Kelly Brook of the skies due to their elegant lines, delicate handling characteristics and high octane role. It's normally a very British thing to take an aircraft and then bolt an ugly bit of kit to one side of it to force it into doing a job it was never designed for, thus giving it all of the problems associated with asymmetric aerodynamic properties. Yet here we are, with the US Navy taking a troop transport helicopter, drilling a few holes in it, filling the back full of heavy kit and then using HBM to stick a multi-coloured kid's rocket to one side. Until 2015, at least, all of that has changed with the MH-60R. Anyhow, enough of the ASW history, here's a kit which was £8 new, including p+p, and you very much get what you pay for with it:

 

8PSRCrj.jpg

qPmxlwC.jpg

xu7XbBS.jpg

173ioDj.jpg

qK58hKR.jpg

Wo2CSBH.jpg

 

The sorry saga of the build:

 

Edited by wafu_vasco
  • Like 10
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good result with what's not an easy kit and well done for sticking with it.

 

The 1/72 Hobby Boss Seahawk/Jayhawk/Rescue Hawk kits are terrific and well worth checking out....really nice detail and build up lovely.

 

Nice Merlin you got there too. :thumbsup2:

 

Dermot

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice one, this kit from Hase' was always one I'd stare at on the store shelf as a kid, along with the Fujimi '53 and Seakings. It's great to finally be able to fulfill my childhood wants by combing through eBay for deals, but then they sit in a box in the basement as my childhood time as been gone quite a while! 

 

Thanks for posting, and allowing me to see the finished product I'll never get to...  :) 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's a sad tale, I genuinely hope you do get to build it! My childhood sad story is more about the generosity of family who spent years buying models for me at Christmas, only for me to utterly destroy them in a display of glue covered incompetence! There remains a box in my parents loft which, from a model making point of view, is like something out of a horror movie. Anyhow, if you do ever build this Seahawk it would be fantastic to see. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...