The newest
military version of Sikorsky's H-53E/S80 series, the MH-53E Sea Dragon, is the
Western world's largest helicopter. The MH-53E is used primarily for Airborne
Mine Countermeasures (AMCM), with a secondary mission of shipboard delivery.
Airborne Mine Countermeasures (AMCM) missions include mine sweeping and
ancillary spotting, mine neutralization, floating mine destruction, channel
marking and surface towing of small craft and ships. Additional mission
capabilities include air-to-air refueling, hover in-flight refueling, search and
rescue, and external cargo transport operations, in both land and seaborne
environments. The MH-53E Helicopter also has the ability to perform Vertical
Onboard Delivery (VOD) missions as well as transportation of personnel and
cargo.
The
Kit
A few years ago
Italeri introduced this kit in 1/72. It is a very nice offering from them.
Unfortunately the kit is no longer available so you may want to try ebay. I’ve
always like the 53 and the ‘E’ model Super Stallions are the baddest looking
helos of the class. Interior detail is a bit sparse so if you like to scratch
build you can go wild here. The exterior though is nicely done and there are the
extra antennas and bits that make the Sea Dragon unique. The entire nose is
molded in clear plastic which makes the front windows easier to do. The only
issue is how well this clear nose section fits to the rest of the fuselage. Some
putty is needed here to fair things in. Since there is a lot of glazing to allow
viewing of the flight deck some detailing may be in order for those of you that
may not want the spartan furnishings Italeri provides. I opted to build this kit
OOB so I left things as they are. I’m not that good super detailing in 1/72. I
wish I could say the use of putty was minimal (minimal when compared to a 32nd
sized kit I guess) but there are some areas where the fuse halves join that need
some filler.
The one thing
you notice with the Sea dragon is the massive rotor head. It takes a few
sessions of dry fitting to make sure you have things lined up right. The
instructions could be a bit better here. The landing gear is a bit fiddly but
that’s mainly due to it’s small size. Leave it off until after painting.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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Painting
& Decals
Of course
before the main color went on I masked all the glazing with Tamiya tape. I also
painted the intake mesh areas on the engines black and when that was dry I mased
the unique pattern on the intakes with small strips of tape. This was the most
time consuming but the effort is well worth it. I painted the overall color
Model Master Gunship Grey. I’ve have learned since this is not the correct
color for Sea Dragons but when compared to the photos I had it looked a pretty
good match. I wanted it darker anyway since the low vis decals are printed in a
shade of grey that is quite close to the correct color of the airframe. Italeri
has done this before and I got burned painting the model the correct color only
to have the decals become ‘invisible’ when applied because the base color
matched the decal color almost exactly. The rotor blades where painted with
Floquil grimy black. Wheel wells were gloss white. And that’s about it for the
colors. A gloss coat of clear lacquer was applied and then it was time to decal.
The decal sheet is quite complete and includes markings for the Navy’s HC-4
“Black Stallions” squadron and for a JASDF bird. The only real decal trouble
you may have is with the black walkway stripes. Just take your time. As a hint,
leave off the #3 engine so you can apply the walkways easier. Once they are done
then you can install that engine.
I didn’t
heavily weather this bird because the paint they use on it holds up rather well
and the Sea Dragons are still relatively new in service. Then it was time to add
all the bits like landing gear, mine sweeping rig, gear doors and the rotor
head. Once they were in place and paint touched up I gave the model a final coat
of Testors Dullcoat.
And there you
have it. In my opinion the Sea Stallion is just one plain, bad ass looking helo.
Jeff
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