Which 1/72 kit for Sea King HAS1

[Hencore]

As title can people please recommend a starting kit to back date to a HAS.1 configuration?

 

I’ve searched on the forum and found various posts, and I suppose any sea king kit can be back dated with various degrees of effort but is there a kit that gets you the closest? 
 

I’ve seen mention of the current Airfix har3/mk43, the Revell Has6/aew and some others. 
 

Trying to build a has.1 serving onboard Ark royal in the 70s. 
 

Cheers 

[tempestfan]

Depends a bit on what you're after - the modern kits (Airfix and Revell) are of (generally) more modern variants, so may require some more work/replacement parts, like the 5-blader tail rotor. No idea if Airfix has it, Revell at least had it in most if not all Mk 41 boxings.

As the 1 is a pretty close descendant of the SH-3D, an alternative route may be one of the older kits, namely the (original 1969) Airfix SH-3D or the slightly more modern Fujimi. Whatever you do, do NOT consider the Lindberg/Revell/Heller Bobcat SH-3...

[Giorgio N]

The current Airfix kit is the best for a British Sea King. The early 5-bladed tail rotor is included so no problem here however the main rotor blades are of the composite type, so not suitable for the HAS.1. They can be modfied relatively easily or alternatively uou can use those of the old tool Airfix kit.

The old tool kit was initially released as a USN SH-3D and later modified to the British standard, with changes in the fuselage, a new 6-blade tail rotor (retaining the 5-blade one in the box), new rear fuselage radome and intake screen while keeping the original metal main rotor blades. This appeared in both HAR.3 and AEW.2/ASaC.7 form (the latter with the proper radomes)

The old tool has the right rotor blades, however the new tool kit is really much nicer.

[Moggy]

Fujimi has a oldie but goldie Sea King series of kits, if you choose the right boxing you will need no conversion - depending of your standards you might need more detailing 😇

The Fujimi kits are vastly superior to the OLD Airfix kit. 😸

 

Cheers, Moggy

[Dave Fleming]

Depends on what you are looking for - dimensionally/shape wise the new Airfix is by far the most accurate, but it's also the hardest to convert to a HAS1! (It's not until you compare an Airfix kt with the Revell one you realise just how different the shapes are). Converting from the Revell is probably a bit easier. If you want any internals, Revell is the option as the Airfix kit is definitely laid out as a HAR or HC.

 

Previous discussion here:

 

 

 

 

Both the Heller issue of the original Airfix kit and the Revell issue of the Fujimi kit had HAS 1 decal options - IIRC the Fujimi one misses some of the Westland specific features, like the bulge on the port engine housing.

 

 

[tempestfan]

38 minutes ago, Dave Fleming said:

Both the Heller issue of the original Airfix kit and the Revell issue of the Fujimi kit had HAS 1 decal options - IIRC the Fujimi one misses some of the Westland specific features, like the bulge on the port engine housing.

 

 

That one may not be easy to get - 1987? And I think did not have a long shelf life at Revell. It's one I was after a long time ago, but I haven't seen one in ages (not that I was actively looking for one in the past 20 years).

[Hencore]

Thanks all. As suspected there doesn’t appear to ‘the one’ when it comes to this. I’ll investigate all the kits you’ve mentioned and see how I get on. 

[Dave Fleming]

15 hours ago, Hencore said:

Thanks all. As suspected there doesn’t appear to ‘the one’ when it comes to this. I’ll investigate all the kits you’ve mentioned and see how I get on. 

 

The 'easiest' is probably to backdate the Revell kit. I think all the boxings have the early tail rotor and radome

[Winnie]

The easiest will be to use the Mk.3 modern Airfix kit, the rotor blade fix is easy, and all the other bits are in the box.

[dad's lad]

On 8/27/2024 at 4:21 PM, tempestfan said:

That one may not be easy to get - 1987? And I think did not have a long shelf life at Revell. It's one I was after a long time ago, but I haven't seen one in ages (not that I was actively looking for one in the past 20 years).

Italeri more recently (2019) released the Fujimi kit including markings for an HAS.1 which might be easier to find.

Edited September 3, 2024 by dad's lad

[Giorgio N]

10 hours ago, dad's lad said:

Italeri more recently (2019) released the Fujimi kit including markings for an HAS.1 which might be easier to find.

 

But does the Fujimi kit correctly represents the features of the Westland built machines?

[dad's lad]

1 hour ago, Giorgio N said:

 

But does the Fujimi kit correctly represents the features of the Westland built machines?

That I don't know, I was only offering a suggestion to the poster who said he might have difficulty finding a long oop Fujimi kit.

 

[tempestfan]

30 minutes ago, dad's lad said:

That I don't know, I was only offering a suggestion to the poster who said he might have difficulty finding a long oop Fujimi kit.

 

Sorry for the misunderstanding - I have one or two Fujimis, the one I had been looking for a long time ago was the specific Revell boxing of it, and I meant that one as probably being hard to find.

[dad's lad]

6 hours ago, tempestfan said:

Sorry for the misunderstanding - I have one or two Fujimis, the one I had been looking for a long time ago was the specific Revell boxing of it, and I meant that one as probably being hard to find.

Sorry my mistake, I thought you meant a Fujimi model with HAS.1 decals.