Italeri

1/72 MH-53E

Kit Number: 065

Reviewed by  Chad Richmond, IPMS# 10346

MSRP: $22.00 When John Noack offered me this kit, I was enthusiastic and could hardly wait to get started. That enthusiasm was to be short lived, however, because overall, the kit has been a disappointment. The fit throughout the construction of this kit was generally poor. The molding was not of the quality one should expect from Italeri. Panel lines were very wide, and in some cases, crude. The raised rivet detail was generally nice, but in some places disappeared all together. Some of the moldings looked more like this was a limited run kit, instead of a normal production kit. The molds seemed to be out of alignment on all trees, resulting in some very large, offset moldings that made cleanup a real task. None of the cylindrical parts ended up being cylindrical, once cleaned up. Everything ended up with an oval profile. The interior is one long piece, including the cargo floor, with only a couple of tabs on the sidewall to support it. The cockpit area is very basic and very sparse. There is not a whole lot of detail, which is a shame, because most of it can be seen through the numerous windows of the cockpit and nose area. Proper location of the interior assembly on the right fuselage half is strictly a guess. The interior walls of the fuselage halves are detailed, but here is no ceiling to the cargo area, so regardless of whether you have the cargo door down or up, you'll be able to see all the way to the rotor head. Speaking of the rotor head, there is only a tiny shelf to use for alignment. The shape of the floor of the rotor assembly and the shape of the mounting area do not match, so once again, guesswork comes in to play. The rotor assembly is big, and with the aforementioned molding problems, cleaning up the assembly was a little on the frustrating side. No two blades seemed to be alike, and the scribing is highly questionable. The trailing edge of the rotor blades is extremely thick, but I opted not to try to correct it on any of the blades. Once the assembly is together and dry brushed, it doesn't look too bad. The tail rotor assembly is very basic, but also looks okay when dry brushed. The fuselage halves are also made to accommodate the CH53 variant, so there are two sets of slots for sponsons; one for the MH53 and one for the CH53. The slots are much bigger than the tabs, which you don't notice until later. The side windows and side window plugs are smaller that the openings and no two seemed to fit alike. I did the best that I could, and finally ended up installing them with Super Glue. The entrance door on the right side is smaller that the provided opening and is shaped differently. I had to super glue it in place, fill the gaps and re-scribe it. The fit of the fuselage halves was bad, at best, and made the assembly of the belly plate, cargo ramp and tail assembly floor a real exercise in alignment. There are numerous external antennas, air data sensors, scoops, etc. that have to be installed, and there are two choices offered in locating them properly: one is pure guesswork based on the assembly drawings, or place them somewhere in the middle of a flat spot in a depression that is twice as large as what you are putting there. The three parts that make up each of the sponsons are a real trip in trying to make them fit properly. The two external engines are very basic, and attaching them to the fuselage assembly is also a guesswork drill. It is better, however, to leave them off until all the painting and decals have been put on. Otherwise, you may find yourself with some new words in your vocabulary, or variants of ones you already have. The kit instructions call for the aircraft to be painted Gunship Gray, 36118. Squadron Signals In-Action book states it should be 36091. In looking at color pictures of MH53's and CH53's, I decided the lighter shade was more appropriate. It looked a lot better once it was on the model. The decals are a real exercise in frustration. Some lay down perfectly; others do not. The black decals are all very thick and don't lie down, but they do conform well to the curved shape of the upper part of the fuselage and cowling. If you use the instruction sheet as the guide for decal placement as I did, you will have markings in highly questionable places. Had I paid attention to the In-Action book, my markings would have looked a lot better. The light gray decals all lay down nicely and snuggled down on the raised rivets and in the scribed panel lines. Once finished, the model looks okay sitting on the shelf, but overall, it was a disappointment. Regardless, I do want to thank Testors/Italeri for the review kit and to John Noack for allowing me to review it.

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