Airfix 1/72 Wessex HC.2, previewed by Scott Van Aken

The Westland Wessex is an early turbine-powered helicopter produced by the British rotorcraft specialist Westland Aircraft (later Westland Helicopters). It was an under licence development of the piston-engined Sikorsky S-58.One major change from Sikorsky's S-58 was the replacement of the piston-engine powerplant with a turboshaft engine; while early models were powered by a single Napier Gazelle engine, later builds used a pair of de Havilland Gnome engines. The use of a turboshaft engine was credited with increasing payload capacity while reducing both vibration and noise levels.

The Wessex was first introduced by the RN in 1961; it was the service's first purpose-build anti-submarine helicopter. Multiple variants of the type were introduced, including more capable anti-submarine models (enabling early Wessex HAS.1s to be reassigned to search and rescue (SAR) duties) and a dedicated battlefield transportation variant, the Wessex HU.5; the latter was equipped with two Gnome engines that provided double the power of the HAS.1's single powerplant. The Royal Air Force (RAF) also opted to procure the Wessex, using it for troop-transport, air ambulance and ground support missions; it was the first RAF helicopter that suitable for instrument flight and thus night-time operations. Several sales also made to overseas customers; several overseas military services flew the Wessex, including the Royal Australian Navy, the Brunei Air Wing, and the Sultan of Oman's Air Force amongst others. Furthermore, a limited number of civilian rotorcraft were also produced. In British services, the Wessex had an operational service life in excess of 40 years, the last examples in Britain being withdrawn during 2003.

The Wessex was built in many variations. The HC2 is an RAF Troop carrier for up to 16 troops, One prototype converted from HAS1 and 73 built. These helos were also used in the SAR mission.

THE KIT

This is not the first time the Wessex has been kitted in this scale. An early version was done by Frog, while Matchbox did a fairly nice later variant. This one by Airfix is an all new tool kit released in 2025. Typical of newer Airfix kits, this one is somewhat parts intensive with 134 pieces. Some of those are for optional parts so you won't be using all of them.

It is interesting that the instructions start by having you build the cabin first. There are holes in the fuselage you need to open depending on the decal option you have chosen. You also have to open holes if you are going to display the tail section folded. All the cabin windows are installed from the inside which means you'll have to mask them prior to painting.

It is only then that the cockpit is dealt with and it is nicely appointed for the scale. Once that is installed, the rotor mast is build up before moving to closing the fuselage halves. Then things like the rest of the upper fuselage and the cabin door are attached. Several steps are devoted to building up the forward nose, which is comprised of a half dozen parts.

Then some cabling on the underside is attached and the landing gear is built up. We then move to the tail rotor section and build that. There are some alternate parts involved there in case you want to have the section folded. Personally, I wouldn't attach this until after painting. Construction then moves to the cockpit clear bits and there are quite a few steps required here. The side windows can be posed open or closed. There are a variety of antennas to attach, some of them are dependent on the markings scheme you choose. The last steps are for the main and tail rotor. The main rotor can be modeled folded, which is a big space saver if you go that route.

Instructions are the usual excellent Airfix offerings of the past several years. Once again, only Humbrol numbers are provided for the build sequences, so have your Humbrol paint chart handy if you want to know what those numbers mean. There are three markings options, all of them are in green/grey uppers with black undersides. The first is a 2FTS plane as shown on the box art with a red nose and fuselage band. In a similar scheme is an Uruguay plane. The final option is a 28 Squadron plane that doesn't have the red areas. The decal sheet is well printed and includes all the required stencils.

When I built the Matchbox kit, I was quite pleased with the result. I'm sure this one will be even nicer.

KIT #:	A04068
PRICE:	$
DECALS:	Three options
REVIEWER:	Scott Van Aken
NOTES:	2025 tooling