ACADEMY 1:48 MH-60K BLACKHAWK
Reviewer: Adrian Papps (rec.models.scale)
MH designations generally give meaning to a helicopter involved with 'special operations' and in most cases this also requires a fairly powerful helicopter. A couple that spring to mind are from the H-53 family (Jolly Green Giant, Super Stallion etc family) such as the MH-53E Dragon for towing mines and sonars through the water and the MH-53J Pave Low as an electronic and infiltration platform. The MH-60 is part of the Sikorsky Blackhawk family and is one of the recent additions to US Army's 160th SOAR (Special Operations Aviation Regiment). This mainly lends itself to night and adverse weather operations and deep infiltration mission profiles and is fitted with special radar and electronic equipment such as FLIR, radar warning sensors, nightime and hug-the-earth special terrain following radar, mission management avionics and night sensors. The model carries around 10 fully equipped soldiers.
This kit is marketed under Academy-Minicraft and their reputation for clean crisp molds and accurate replication is certainly not without merit - they have in partnership produced some of the finest kits on the market. Opening the box to this one and you will not be disappointed but having been pre-warned of this kit's shortfalls, when you match it to reference material you are sure to be angry! The parts are crisp with excellent exterior detail and live up to expectation, no problems there, but apparently it's accuracy is flawed mainly with regard to sensor pods, fairings and what-not that set this kit apart from the other Blackhawk kits in the Academy-Minicraft production line. But alas, help is at hand and one can purchase from a couple of aftermarket detail resin sets to correct the kits flaws - I chose to purchase the complete correction set from Cobra Company (hereunder referred to as "CC").
Academy provide a complete lack of cockpit and other interior detail and thankfully the CC resin set does to some way improve this. The resin parts are nicely molded and are nicely detailed and cover most of the kit's problems as far as accuracy is concerned. You will, however, need to remove some of the kit's parts yourself to be replaced by the resin options. One flaw I noticed in the CC instructions was the statement to remove the forward cockpit floor by a quarter (1/4) but in actual fact this was not correct, you will have problems fitting the nose section on if you follow the instructions. The resin set also provided for the cockpit a new instrument panel with the correct layout, seats, new nose section and fairings for the RWR antennae. The kit's nose section and instrument panel are okay but the resin set is more accurate and the kit does not have the RWR antennae fairings at all. Some ejection pin marks on Academy's interior pieces are quite noticeable and require removal. The interior walls and general cabin area were painted a ghost grey, matching reference photos and the seats were painted in black with crimson head rests. Seat belts were detailed in olive green colour.
The fuselage halves went together reasonably well but need a bit of sanding of the joint lines and filling behind the rotor mast. The intakes caused a few headaches because there was a bit of flash on the parts that needed cleaning off, and they were hard to align properly and fairly large gaps resulted once affixed. The windscreen area did not sit correctly and required several adjustments and dry-fit tests before it would comply with its required task. Other than these parts the rest of the kit went fairly well together. Fit would be classed as poor for these components and good for others. The resin set included quite an array of antennae to fit to the aircraft - now it really is starting to look like an MH-60!
The undercarriage also went on fairly well but the interior covers for the main gear struts are not supplied in either the kit or the resin set. Proper close up reference photos should reveal the flaws and delicate use of putty by the experienced may do the job (as it did in my case) - other than that the kit's replication of the undercarriage isn't bad. The resin set includes weighted tires for the landing gear and are best advised to attach in favour of the kit's supplied plastic parts.
Externally the aircraft features an array of antennae and some fairings housing the all important avionic gear and also can carry external fuel tanks pointed out in the instructions (and as also shown in the box art) but I also believe that an internal tank can also be placed in the rear of the cargo bay. While my reference material suggest this the instructions certainly don't alert you to whether this is a possibility, although some unused parts on the sprue match what I would believe is needed to construct the internal tank (parts 37-40). Some replacement parts will also be needed for the fuel tank wings and I would suggest doing this in conjunction with good reference photos. I opted for the external tanks on mine.
You can finish your chopper in either Euro 1 camoflage scheme or an overall dark green/olive drab. I chose the Euro 1 version in US Dark Green, Light Olive and FS 36081 Dark Grey. The result looks very convincing and the decals supplied in the Academy kit were replaced in favour of some aftermarket Aeromaster decals. I did use some stencilling supplied in the kit and these were quite good quality, conformed to the aircraft's surface well.
In conclusion one would have to say that the Academy kit is fine but lacks a fair bit of accuracy to represent an MH-60K bird - mainly as far as nose, interior and some antennae are concerned. Using the detailed CC resin set will definitely enhance this kit to a point that accuracy is very good. While the quality of the kit was very nice, the fit of some of the components as mentioned was disappointing and would only really suit a modeller of at least intermediate skill. Without the CC set I wouldn't be ready to give it the complete thumbs up but if you are happy to use the resin conversion set then this kit plus CC set can be happily recommended.
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MH-60 Blackhawks (K version?) in Euro One camouflage about to touch down