Full Review with Geoff Coughlin
With Video Demos
See Geoff’s Here Now review of the kit
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VIDEO DEMO
This all new tool release from Airfix is very welcome and as soon as it arrived I just felt the urge to get on and build it as much from the box as possible. The only adds will be some seat harnesses for the rear cabin seats and aircrew. In addition, some fine aerial wires and that should be enough for this build.
The plan is really to try and discover how well it goes together and offer you all any observations that I can about the build and suggest a different approach than that offered in the kit if I think it can give you a better result – and as you’ll see very soon, I have some suggestions early on. I also plan to have the rotor blades spread, although a folded option is also possible in the kit which will appeal to many.
First though, a quick look at the kit and I like the overall quality and level of detail is ideal for this scale as far as the latter goes, although the fuselage assembly is a bit over-engineered in my view and may cause issues and I explain this below.
3 choices of scheme, including an option for a Westland Wessex that was operated by the Armada Nacional del Uruguay. A very similar scheme however, to that of the RAF. And so I am going for Option A, I like the red painted areas that help to break up he camo pattern.
Option A: XR505, No. 2 Flying Training School, Royal Air Force Shawbury, Shropshire, West Midlands, England, 1995.
(Photo: Westland Wessex HC.2 XV728 ‘Argonaut’ currently at Newark Air Museum, Nottinghamshire, UK. Copyright Geoff Coughlin Collection)
Reference for the Westland Wessex HC.2
Don’t forget that there is a great walkaround in your SMN Photo Reference Library for the Wessex HC.2, so do take a look at that.
Getting started…
One neat feature that I have spotted with the newer Airfix kits is that they have moulded the sprue tree letters quite big – makes the sprue you are looking for much easier.
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