The Best 1/72 Seaking

[Gondor]

As the title suggests, what is the best 1/72 Seaking to buy in 1/72? Straight sub hunter, AEW, and as a basis for the Commando.

Gondor

[pyro-manic]

Can't really go wrong with the Revell one IMO - lovely kit.

[Spey_Phantom]

i heared good things about the new Dragon Seaking HC.4, but for that price you can buy 2 revell's, witch are very good btw ; got 4 of them in the stash, all destined to become RW Belgian ones.

[Thorvic]

Revell for AEW, although it has its flaws as it has the composite blades and doesn't actually have any ASW gear bar the sonar which doesnt even have a hole in the cabin floor for it to fit in, due to the kit being designed as the West Germany MK-41 so if basically a SAR cab.
The Fujimi is possibly better for an earlier cab up to the Falklands war as it has the ASW kit and torpedo's although not as well detailed as the Revell kit, it also doesnt have the bulge on the engine housing for a Westland machine (I'm using the extra bits from the Airfix kit to do a HAS5).
The CyberHobby Commando has a nice detailed interior however the seats look rather underscale, the fuselage is also somewhat shorter than the Revell kit and is noticible when placed side by side, apart from the price the worst faux par is that they copied the 48th scale Hasegawa kit which has a seperate shroud over the vent at the back of the rotor housing, but Cyber-hobby have the grove and no kit part to fit leaving a rather odd look to the machine.

Avoid the older Revell kits, Linberg and even the Airfix kit as whislt they have updated it the basic kit is the same one from the 60s and shows its age.

[Gondor]

Thanks everyone for the info. So which box numbers should I look for to avoid the older Revell kits and which box numbers am I looking at for AEW etc?

Gondor

[Thorvic]

The AEW/HAS6 RN boxing is the 04450 currently OOP
The German skua armed one is 04411 currently OOP
The current kit is the German 04899.

Theses German kits are OK as whilst they dont have the AEW parts they do have the HAS6 parts.

We could probably do with a conversion set to make a proper ASW version from the Revell kit

[Howard of Effingham]

gondor!

i hope no one will knock all of the airfix boxings of the sea king. i think the releases up to and including the one with the west german bundesmarine SAR sea king decals are quite ok in terms of mould quality. its the recent airfix ones that are the pits.  however if you can find the fuijimi sea king [was in RAF and USN variants iirc] you will be doing ok.

as others have said the revell boxings are the best and with some work most sea kings can be done from them.

you will be doing very, very well indeed to find the c-scale conversion set for the commando though.

there were several modeldecal sheets with sea kings on them, including one with a commando too.

[Thorvic]

Nope the Airfix one is still a bit of a dog as its a mid 60's mould SH-3 inspired by the recovery of the Astronauts, the Anglosizeed the kit in the early 80's but its still not that nice when compared with the Fujimi kit and a decade behind the Revell kit.

Airwaves actually do/did a Resin & etch set to converst the Revell kit to the Commando.

The new Combat Decals HMS Hermes decal sheets includes a Falklands War HC-4 Commando  and HAS-5 decals  which are rather tasty.

[PR19_Kit]

Nope the Airfix one is still a bit of a dog as its a mid 60's mould SH-3 inspired by the recovery of the Astronauts, the Anglosizeed the kit in the early 80's but its still not that nice when compared with the Fujimi kit and a decade behind the Revell kit.

But it's cheaper..........

[Gondor]

Prompted by the replies I have been getting, my old and bemused brain managed to remember that at one time I was going to build an HC4 from the Airfix kit. So having dug out the box from the stash I can say that at the moment I have

Airfix Westland Sea King box 03043
Airwaves HC4 conversion set
Airwaves Detail set
PP Models set AL730 Detail parts for Sea King Helicopter
Modeldecal set 66
One Sand filter box from someone at sometime in a light blue grey plastic, probably Revell

I am still thinking of getting more Sea Kings, AEW and a generic ASW version.

Gondor

[Captain Canada]

Revell is the best.
Get the Fujimi kit if it's on sale.
New Airfix release for the parts....and price !



I've got a few Airwaves sets too, incl. the deflated bag.

[Howard of Effingham]

Nope the Airfix one is still a bit of a dog as its a mid 60's mould SH-3 inspired by the recovery of the Astronauts, the Anglosizeed the kit in the early 80's but its still not that nice when compared with the Fujimi kit and a decade behind the Revell kit.

But it's cheaper..........

quite right kit! 

[garys]

How bout if one wants to make a US Sikorsky Sea King?
What approach would be best?

Thanks,
Gary

[Thorvic]

How bout if one wants to make a US Sikorsky Sea King?
What approach would be best?

Thanks,
Gary

Fujimi do a Sikorsky Sea King in both US Navy boxings and JMSDF ones, which are probably the best to use

[Spey_Phantom]

Again, the Revell Mk.41 Seaking is the way to go, as it also houses the US style ASW Sponsoons.
all you have to do is (optionaly) leave of the FOD plate, radome and rear bubble windows. as there is almost no difference between the US and British build Seakings (Westlands were licence build Sikorsky's)