When I accepted the challenge to add helicopters to my Scale Modelling Projects, I had assumed I'd build a couple and then return to my favoured winged aircraft. It is therefore, a great surprise to me for this build to be my 6th helicopter and to have a further 4 in progress!
Just as the First World War opened the military mind to the use of air power, the post war conflicts in Malaya, Borneo, Korea and Vietnam did the same for helicopters. If you've been following my builds, you'll have accompanied me through these early days of helicopter flight. My scale model builds of the Sycamore, Whirlwind, Sioux and Hueys have covered the years 1950-1975, and while my next model, the Westland Wessex, enters its finest hour in the early 1980s, it actually first saw service, replacing the Westland Whirlwind, in 1960.
The conflict of the 1980s, where helicopters proved undeniably critical to military success, was the 1982 Falklands War. When Argentina invaded the disputed and distant British territory in the South Atlantic - unknown by many at home at the time as the Falklands Islands and South Georgia - Britain was to undertake probably last and most audacious overseas military engagement of modern times. It was a conflict in which equally matched forces were to face each other in a fight for all out victory, the like of which we have not seen since.
The Wessex helicopters which participated in the Falklands War, were the improved variant of the Wessex Mk3/HAS3, which succeeded the 1960s Mk1 in the anti-submarine role, and the 'commando assault' variant, the Wessex Mk5/HU5, which was developed as a battlefield transportation helicopter. 2 Wessex Mk3s and 55 Mk5s were shipped out to the Falklands, which together with even newer Sea King, which I will cover in a later build, performed the vital role of moving troops and supplies between ships and across a battlefield unsuitable for vehicles.
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| Wessex Mk1/3/5? In commando assault Falklands War colours of 848 RNAS |
There is currently no quality scale model company producing the Wessex as a 1/72 kit and so finding just one, if not the three that I have in mind for my Falklands War project, has been challenging to say the least! The first kit I was able to lay my hands on, at a sensible price, was a scale model of the original Mk1. While this variant had been replaced by the Mk3 some years before the Falklands War, it was visually similar to both the Mk3 and Mk5 with the exception of just two fundamental details: it lacked the Mk3’s radar dome and had a second exhaust jet to the Mk5’s single one.
The model kit itself, although released in 2009 by the Russian manufacturer Ark Models, looks very dated, which is not surprising when one learns that it is basically Frog's 1963 kit re-released in Novo's 1970s box! Although production of most of Frog's kits passed to the Soviet Union manufacturer Novo in the 1970s, neither they nor Ark Models, the new owners, appear to have made any effort to improve the kit, and goodness, with the age of the tooling, it needs improving!
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| One of the smallest kits I have constructed to date |
With only around 21 individual pieces, this is one of the smaller kits I have constructed to date. The poor quality in moulding and fit required copious amounts of plastic filler, which at least gave me opportunity to practice this new modelling technique. While the model came with 2 figures, which made a nice change, the cockpit detail was woeful when compared to the real life helicopter and even some models produced in the larger scale. So I improvised adding scratch built control panels and a fire extinguisher. The after view look better in the 'flesh' than in the photos!
Before & after adding scratch built cabin 'furniture'
Once completed, I had to make the decision on colour scheme: blue/grey for the anti-submarine Mk3, or green for the commando assault Mk5. The finished build, irrespective of its Mk1 origins, was far too poor to have as a display model and after coincidentally locating both a Mk3 and Mk5 kit, the decision was easy; it would play a central role in a diorama depicting Royal Navy 845 Squadron commando Wessex helicopters in one of the key missions of the War.
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| and ... my Wessex Mk1 more at home over the Borneo Jungle 1964! |
More from the Falklands War next week.
Title: Westland Wessex HAS Mk.1/31 Anti-submarine helicopter
Number: 72032
Scale: 1:72
Released: 2009 (Originally 1963 Frog)
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