BillS Posted December 28, 2024 Share Posted December 28, 2024 Which is best? Is Italeri engraved? Possibly kitbash Academy with Italeri? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Glynn Jacobs Posted December 28, 2024 Share Posted December 28, 2024 I prefer the old Airfix kits, raised lines and rivets! Their overall shape and detail are better than the Italeri or Academy kits, IMHO. I have one that's been with me for over 40 years now and she will (eventually) be built as an Israeli CH-53 Ya'Sur, as soon as I get the correct paint and modify the resin parts designed to fit the Italeri kit! WARDOG Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PeepingBear Posted December 28, 2024 Share Posted December 28, 2024 Hello, Academy's CH-53 kit is of Fujimi origin, not a bad choice. See photos of the spues here: Super Hobby Webshop ACA # 12575 CH-53D 1/72 Italeri's CH-53 is, AFIAK, their own mold, see details here: Super Hobby ITA # 1035 CH-53 1/72 For a walk around, see here: Burkhard Domke's CH-53G walkaround photos IMHO the best 1/72 scale starting point is the old Airfix kit: 145 parts, if I counted correctly, details and dimensions are rather nicely done, the outer fuselage is covered in rivets, like the original. Cockpit detail is ok: all controls, alas only decal instruments and switch panels (same for all available kits, there is (was?) a PE set available, see: Eduard MH-53 PE set. The side door and steps look good, there is a part for the cabin roof and the landing lights (to both sides of tha nose landing gear) are clear parts. Fujimi takes second place, 116 parts, the engraved lines are really nice for a kit from the 1980es, the vertcal stabilator looks a tad thin, but this can be corrected with easy scratch building, if one feels inclined. Fujimi's engines are a three piece affair, not the easiest to glue "straight". Venting grids have sharper detail than the Airfix parts. Fujimi and Italeri do not have a cabin roof. Specific weak points of Italeri's kit: - fat "holes" on both lower sides of the cabin (the inner halves of the sponsons are part of the fuselage halves in this kit) - wrong anti-clockwise rotating direction of AT-rotor (true: clockwise, if viewed from the port side) - overly simplified AT-rotor head - missing upper "star" of the main rotor head - wrong (rounded) shape of the aft ends of the engine frontal gear coolers - wrong shape of the main landing gear wells - the windows over the forward end of the sponsons should be a tad narrower - the "bumps" (warts) on the inspection platforms/ covers of the main rotor gear box (middle of the dog house sides should be aft on the left (port) side, a bit more forward on the right (starboard) side - instead of rivets (correct) there is a tight network of lines all over the fuselage, look ok, hen finished, but just ok... - oleos of the landing gear are a tad long (as if the helicopter weighs less than real) None of the kits has side wall detail in the deeper parts of the cabin, US forces flew the H-53 sometimes without any sound proofing mats --> all ribs and stringers visible; using "quilted" kitchen paper tissue (painted some light greenish silvery grey) to simulate the sound proofing could be an easy fix. None of the kits has benches running along the cabin side walls. Hope this helps! I am a proud former member of the Medium Transport Helicopter Regiment 15, stationed in ETHE (Rheine Bentlage), their workhorse was the CH-53G. mTrspHschrRgt 15 was disbanded in 2013, the German CH-53 are no longer part of Army Aviation, but flying with our Luftwaffe. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PeepingBear Posted December 29, 2024 Share Posted December 29, 2024 Hi, if you visit this (German) Aviation website and register (for free), you can see the pictures I published for a comparison of all three kits: https://www.flugzeugforum.de/threads/1-72-ch-53g-bausatzvergleich-airfix-fujimi-italeri-auch-revell-bilek.53083/ Google translate will help with my German text. Best wishes and a happy new year 2025! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PeepingBear Posted December 29, 2024 Share Posted December 29, 2024 (edited) If you desire to build a modernised H-53 with improved rotor blades, you could look for Italeri's MH-53E kit, this has seven rotor blades that can be used for a conversion, their shape is not perfect, but... Furthermore, you also get the larger external drop tanks (total capacity 4,921 L), the kits only offer the older and smaller external tanks (tot. cap. 1900 L?) BTW, the discontinued Eduard PE interior detail set is also for this kit, well who can see the detail is wrong for an old school H53 without a microscope... Edited December 29, 2024 by PeepingBear large external tank addendum and typo removal Quote Link to post Share on other sites
BillS Posted December 29, 2024 Author Share Posted December 29, 2024 Thanks for all the input guys! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
andyf117 Posted December 29, 2024 Share Posted December 29, 2024 As the others have said above, there are basically three base H-53 kits, which have been released as differing versions under various labels over the years: Airfix / MPC Fujimi / Testors / Academy Italeri / Bilek / Revell The Airfix, though the oldest, is still the best for shape, and levels of exterior and interior detail. Both boxings - CH-53 and HH-53 - contain exactly the same plastic, so it doesn't matter which you find, the only differences are use of alternative parts and decal sheets. The sole 'drawback' is that they only have the early narrow 'nose-down' external fuel tanks - fine for 70's and 80's machines; later, larger and fatter styles can be found in different versions of the other manufacturers' kits. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
hemspilot Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 If I may add something, Airfix also has the best rendition of both main and tail rotor hubs. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
YF65_CH53E Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 We had this discussion over on another thread a while back. I think we all came to the realization, Andy help me out if I forget, but the new release Academy of the CH-53A/D of "Operation Frequent Wind" the evacuation of Saigon, HMH-462, HMH-463 aircraft, included all of the relevant sprues to make any of the H-53's in 1/72nd. Scalemates has shots of the sprues. CH-53A - Slick no tanks CH-53D - with correct 650 gallon aux tanks HH-53B - with correct 400 gallon low profile tanks HH-53C - " " " " " " MH-53J - with correct 650 gallon tanks, parts 13, 14, 15 are the correct fuel probe, nose radar pod, early metal blades Sprue "W" contains all the items needed for the various drop tanks. Academy even included a set of Mirrors so you could do either a USMC or USN Minesweeper. USMC - CH-53A with mirrors, no tanks, US Navy RH-53A Mirrors no tanks, US Navy RH-53D, Mirrors, 650 gallon aux tanks. And yes, you can do a modern MH-53J PAVE LOW III, but you would need the Wider, Composite blades from the Italeri CH-53E, MH-53E kits, just the blades, not the whole rotor head.😉 Just my thoughts. Gunny Quote Link to post Share on other sites
andyf117 Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 12 hours ago, YF65_CH53E said: We had this discussion over on another thread a while back. I think we all came to the realization, Andy help me out if I forget, but the new release Academy of the CH-53A/D of "Operation Frequent Wind" the evacuation of Saigon, HMH-462, HMH-463 aircraft, included all of the relevant sprues to make any of the H-53's in 1/72nd. Scalemates has shots of the sprues. CH-53A - Slick no tanks CH-53D - with correct 650 gallon aux tanks HH-53B - with correct 400 gallon low profile tanks HH-53C - " " " " " " MH-53J - with correct 650 gallon tanks, parts 13, 14, 15 are the correct fuel probe, nose radar pod, early metal blades Sprue "W" contains all the items needed for the various drop tanks. Academy even included a set of Mirrors so you could do either a USMC or USN Minesweeper. USMC - CH-53A with mirrors, no tanks, US Navy RH-53A Mirrors no tanks, US Navy RH-53D, Mirrors, 650 gallon aux tanks. And yes, you can do a modern MH-53J PAVE LOW III, but you would need the Wider, Composite blades from the Italeri CH-53E, MH-53E kits, just the blades, not the whole rotor head.😉 Just my thoughts. Gunny Almost, Gunny, but not quite! The sprue shots aren't at Scalemates, but Super Hobby, as linked in the first @PeepingBear post above; the instruction sheet's parts layout diagram in the pics there indicate that the tanks are additions to sprue 'B', rather than 'W'. I think it may have been @Dutch who noted that the Academy kit includes all the bits from the various preceding Fujimi releases - but even with them, it's still not possible to do any H-53 from the box: Even though Bilek labelled their issue of the Italeri HH-53C as a B/C, no-one has actually provided parts necessary for a B, namely a fairing/'hump' on the sponson tops, along with fuselage-to-tank mount bracing struts - there's never even been a conversion set. Likewise, no-one's kitted an accurate MH-53J - the metal blades only allow for the earlier Pave Low HH/MH-53H; as you mention, a J or later M requires composite blades which could be taken from an E kit - and those would require removal of the added root extension to revert back to the original length... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sarathi S. Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 Is it possible to modify the metal blade parts to look like the composite blades? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
YF65_CH53E Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 Not that I can think of no. As the whole shape of the blade root and cord are completely different. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PeepingBear Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 (edited) Look here in this older thread for pictures: page 9 showing the different main blades in 48th scale (farther down) HTH Jan Edited January 25 by PeepingBear to make the URL an active link Quote Link to post Share on other sites
andyf117 Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 10 hours ago, Sarathi S. said: Is it possible to modify the metal blade parts to look like the composite blades? As Gunny says, the shape and chord are different, but it can be done. Pic of Revell 1/48 kit blades scaled to 1/72 - centre one is an overlay showing where the differences are between the two types: The below specifies the modifications required - red-outlined areas for removal/reprofiling, yellow to be added: At the root, as well as removing the small leading edge section, the remaining 'bar' would need reprofiling into a 'tube' as far as the added triangular fillet. The increased chord at the trailing edge would be the hardest part to achieve, but as it's only around 1mm, you could get away with just adding the trim tab - not strictly accurate, but would certainly "look like". Quote Link to post Share on other sites
YF65_CH53E Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 Ok, I should have prefaced that with - not in my ability wheelhouse....LOL🙃 I admit I am not a very good scratch builder. But there are composite 1/72 scale blades out there to kit bash from. Thanks Andy as always keeping the 'ol Gunny corrected and up to speed!!! Cheers! Gunz Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ST0RM Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 17 hours ago, YF65_CH53E said: But there are composite 1/72 scale blades out there to kit bash from Yeah, but you lose an entire kit in doing so. And seeing that Italeri isn't releasing the long promised updated CH-53E, we're limited. Would it be feasible to 3D print the correct composite blades? I dont have one, but would sponsor the initial test run(s). Quote Link to post Share on other sites
andyf117 Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 4 hours ago, ST0RM said: Yeah, but you lose an entire kit in doing so. And seeing that Italeri isn't releasing the long promised updated CH-53E, we're limited. Would it be feasible to 3D print the correct composite blades? I dont have one, but would sponsor the initial test run(s). I've read somewhere else that "long thin items" such as rotor blades are very difficult to 3D print successfully... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ST0RM Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 1 hour ago, andyf117 said: I've read somewhere else that "long thin items" such as rotor blades are very difficult to 3D print successfully... Same with resin casting. They just didn't have the rigidity. Dang... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PeepingBear Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 The sketch of the IRB is from the F-40 book "CH-53G". The new composite main rotor blades Italeri tried to represent in their CH-53E kit (top in thy picture) have a too narrow chord, the blade root is too thin, the trim tab is not wide enough and the slanted aft ends (both inner and outer) have the wrong angle. The blade root extension (correct for the CH-53E) can easily be shortened and the angle of the aft blade tip can be corrected easily. The inner slanted aft edge is harder to correct. The two painted old style blades are from a Fujimi kit, alas I made the yellow "lift here" marks in the wrong place... Possibly laminating thin sheet styrene over the (thinned down) old style blades is a way to arrive at the correct shape or one could try to 3D print or resin cast the blades in top/ bottom halves, with a thin net/ mesh sandwiched in between? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PeepingBear Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 BTW, some examples of built 1/72 models Hajo Lippke's MH-53J on Mdellversium (German website), based on the Airfix kit is a really nice example of a possible kit bash. Craig 'modelling minion' shows several really detailed step-by-step phots of his aifix H-53 project Somchai 'Blackeyes' built a clean IDF Yasur showing the engraved panelling of a Fujimi kit nicely. Christian Schmidt updated Fujimi's kit to the GS variant (ca. year 2000) Oliver Zwiener built a HH-53 Super Jolly Green Giant from the Fujimi kit Quote Link to post Share on other sites
andyf117 Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 (edited) 2 hours ago, PeepingBear said: The sketch of the IRB is from the F-40 book "CH-53G". The F-40 books are a great series, and I've managed to obtain .pdf copies of the Sea King and both UH-1 volumes - but the CH-53 has proved elusive... Edited January 26 by andyf117 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hajo L. Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 11 hours ago, PeepingBear said: BTW, some examples of built 1/72 models Hajo Lippke's MH-53J on Mdellversium (German website), based on the Airfix kit is a really nice example of a possible kit bash. Craig 'modelling minion' shows several really detailed step-by-step phots of his aifix H-53 project Somchai 'Blackeyes' built a clean IDF Yasur showing the engraved panelling of a Fujimi kit nicely. Christian Schmidt updated Fujimi's kit to the GS variant (ca. year 2000) Oliver Zwiener built a HH-53 Super Jolly Green Giant from the Fujimi kit Thank you for advertising! 😉 Here is a WIP in english: HAJO Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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