Kitty Hawk Models 1/35 SH-60F Oceanhawk Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

During the 1980s, the US Navy employed the Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King in the anti-submarine warfare (ASW) role, but a newer airframe was needed. The Sikorsky SH-60 was selected as the SH-60B was already in service in the LAMPS role, which combines anti-submarine, anti-ship, and search and rescue role into one airframe. Designated as the SH-60F, this new variant shared many aspects of the SH-60B though it was fitted with avionics out of the upgraded SH-3H aircraft it replaced.

Kitty Hawk Models has released three naval Seahawk variants all at once. Of the three kits, this one is great right out of the box. The kit is molded in the usual light gray styrene and presented on 13 parts trees plus two trees of clear parts, and one fret of photo-etched parts. Among the features and options in this kit:

• Nicely detailed flight deck
• Great main cabin details
• Nice T700 engines w/detailed IR suppressor exhaust shrouds and intake air filters
• Positionable engine access doors
• Nicely detailed rotor head and swash plate
• Main rotor blades are positionable - flight or folded
• Tail boom is positionable - flight or folded
• Optional racks included for folded main rotor blades
• Accurate horizontal stabilator with handholds and folding points
• Dipping sonar buoy system
• Positionable flight deck doors
• Positionable main cabin door
• Positionable side window(s)
• ASW operator's console in main cabin
• Sonobuoy rack in main cabin
• Avionics bay in nose with positionable cover

The kit provides the following external stores (see notes):

• 2 x Mk.46 torpedoes

Markings are included for six options:

• SH-60F, 163285, NSAWC, USN
• SH-60F, 164081, HSL-51, TA/01, USN
• SH-60F, unknown, HS-6, --/610, USN
• SH-60F, 164099, NAS Fallon, 7H/00, USN
• SH-60F, 164098, HS-4, NK/610, USN
• SH-60F, 164460, HS-14, NF/610, USN

At least one of the markings options is the indian scheme painted by Shayne Mede.

Kitty Hawk had a glitch in their software tools when they printed the instruction book. Two of the pages were corrupted, but they've provided the correct pages here.

There is a bit of an issue with the instructions and parts regarding the blades-folded rotor head assembly that affects all three Seahawk kits. If you're not folding the rotor blades, please disregard. First, in step 9, prepare two HD34, then a miracle occurs and the rotor head is ready. There is only one HD34 in the kit, the other is HD33 and they are opposites. The instructions don't clearly show this, but the HD34 pairs with HD21 while HD33 pairs with HD28. Now that we have the blade holders HD33 and HD34 paired correctly, the actual blade holders on the ends of these parts are molded backwards! You'll have to carefully remove the blade holder ends and swap them between HD33 and HD34 to get them to completely align with HD28 and HD21 respectively. When I was alerted to this, I did some serious dry-fitting to try figure out this design bug. It is relatively minor once you see and fix it, but if you're going in cold turkey, you'll need an adult beverage. Here's a clearer diagram for the folded-blade rotor head assembly out of the MH-60S kit which uses the same parts.

Aside from the instructions, this is another outstanding release from Kitty Hawk and is easily the best SH-60F kit available in any scale (less than 1:1).

My sincere thanks to Kitty Hawk Models for this review sample!

References:

• H-60 Black Hawk Modeler's Online Reference