Revell Westland Sea King HAS.6/AEW.2

Based on the Sikorsky S-61/SH-3, the license-built Westland Sea King is widely used by Great Britain and many other European and Middle Eastern nations in antisubmarine warfare, search and rescue, troop carrying, and airborne early warning roles.

While the U.S. Navy has retired the Sea King from antisubmarine duties, the Royal Navy's latest Sea Kings, designated HAS.6 and AEW.2, are equipped with advanced avionics and radar systems, and new lightweight composite rotor blades.reLots of parts, lots of detail, and lots of fun - that's how I summarize my experience with Revell-Germany's Westland Sea King. It's packed with 136 crisply molded light gray parts that include both recessed panel lines and raised detail. Whichever version you choose, you'll have lots of parts left over. Once you decide which version to build, stick to it because you will have to drill holes, shave off parts, and delete steps from the instruction for each one. Most of the required surgery is in the cockpit and cabin.

There's a lot of detail in the interior, but no collectives for the pilots. Externally, there are loads of raised rivets (proper for helicopters) along with other molded-on surface detail and small parts you glue on. Revell molded in a small key to the main rotor axle, and this fits into a shallow slot in the rotor huh. If you want the rotor to spin freely, just shave off the key.

The instruction sheet is a 16-page, 45-step book with clear illustrations, parts maps, a paint chart, and decal locators. Some of the symbology is confusing - what does the clock mean? Wait overnight? Some steps describe assembly for both versions, some for only one, so it's important to study them carefully.

I coated all the clear part with Future, and installed them with super glue so they could rand being masked before painting. Future prevents the clear plastic from being "frosted" by super glue.

Must of the kit's parts and much of the assembly time are devoted to the interior. Parts fit was good, but I had to sand the cockpit edges down a little to get the fuselage halves to close.

When it came time to paint, I couldn't resist the tiger-striped HAS.6 from No. 814 Squadron. The other two marking options, No. 810 Squadron HAS.6 and No. 849 Squadron AEW.2, are in standard Royal navy schemes. I primed the model white then airbrushed yellow on the areas where the tiger markings would be applied. After the yellow was dry, I airbrushed the overall gray scheme. One of the recommended colors are given as Federal Standard numbers, but color descriptions and Humbrol codes arc provided. I used Model Master RAF medium sea grey.

The kit decals are thin and all the color in register. Although the tiger stripes are nice, I had to cut them to fit the yellow areas. The decals needed multiple applications of Solvaset to get them to conform to the bumps and grooves.

The model took 20 hours to build, with much of the time pent on applying the tiger-striped markings. It measures accurately according to dimensions listed in the World Air Power journal Vol. 24.

I really enjoyed building the model and recommend it to experienced modeler who can handle decal challenges.