Reviewed by Geoff Coughlin
Our thanks to Airfix for supplying the review sample. Get this kit here now at www.airfix.com
See our FINISHED NOW BUILD REVIEW
Initial assessment…
As you may well be aware, this isn’t a completely new tool release from Airfix. The detail is raised and there are plenty of tiny rivets but given the subject I don’t really see any problem here. With some gentle sanding the raised detail will be excellent for dry-brushing and weathering later on. Just look at all that light grey paintwork – superb for weathering and bringing out that distinctive exhaust staining down the fuselage sides.
The great new box art is in evidence and this will doubtless encourage many scale modellers to buy. So what else is inside? Well, plenty of plastic and importantly some mods to cover the new versions of the Westland Sea King on offer – AEW.Mk.2, ASaC Mk.7. the six-bladed tail rotor fitted to Royal Navy aircraft is there, as is the dorsal radome and that huge rotating radar pod with inflatable air bag on the starboard side. The radar pod rotates but as with the 1:48 scale Hasegawa kit this is only provided in inflated mode that is unfortunate because it is only usually seen like this when in the lowered in-flight mode.
Here you can see the sprue trees and you’ll notice that there is only minimal flash around some of the parts like the cabin window recesses. The plastic is the usual very slightly softer side of hard that is brilliant for sanding and glues together so well, unlike some of the very hard, brittle plastics some manufacturers use. I love the fact that you can pose the door open or closed as it is movable. No interior detail is provided for the rear interior fuselage but that’s hardly surprising as this is crammed full of large box-like electronic gear, radars and so on in the real aircraft. This was off limits when we were on our recent photo shoot down at RNAS Culdrose and RAF Waddington (2010), so that a fair one. Maybe a good chance to add some artistic flair and scratch some of this detail and it would make for an interesting and unique model project. Why not give it a go?
Clear parts…
These are clear and dry-fit quite well, so hopefully no need for filler later. The Sea King has plenty of domes windows and other clear apertures and these all seem to have been included to correctly fit out your model and achieve an accurate representation of this amazing Royal Navy workhorse.
Instructions…
The usual staged breakdown here and there is plenty of help in terms of when to open up locating holes for the various mods and fit of the types on offer. The sequence is helpful and logical and that’s a real plus point with Airfix and this release that is frequently overlooked by many manufacturers.
Painting guide…
Really impressive this – an absolute step change forward and is accurate and informative for both painting and decal placement. Paint numbers from the Humbrol paint range are provided only, but at least the correct colour name is given allowing you to match the equivalent from your preferred manufacturers’ range.
Nice decal sheet!
Well, what a difference a year or two makes… a decal sheet that continues to be an improvement. The decal detail is accurate and the colours in perfect register. The quality looks to be there and we will test this out when we get to that stage in Build Now soon. Having spoken to the team down at Airfix, the aim is to get to Cartograf standard and that’s fantastic news for us modellers.
Ok, so what’s the verdict?
Not bad at all really. It just goes to show that you can get more out of an original tooling than might be apparent. Additional parts to create a new variant, a great decal sheet and an awesome painting guide all help. Given the very reasonable purchase price, this is a welcome package that is recommended. It also builds on what is rapidly becoming ‘The Year of the Sea King’. Check out Finished Now for a range of Sea King builds.
Geoff C.