Bell 222 and Augusta 109

Hi upnorth,

Revell does a 1:72 A109 kit. It's the A109K2 as used by Swiss mountain rescue organisation Rega. I have never seen the Matchbox kit of the A109 you mentioned, so I wouldn't know if it's a re-issue of that kit. I wouldn't think it though, because the moulds look very clean and up to date to me.
Besides the AMT and Hobbycraft Canada kits (which indeed are the same and indeed of a disgusting quality) I don't know of any kits of the Bell 222. Would like to see a good kit of that one, or maybe the 430?!
Hope this is of any help,

Gertjan

I too am not aware of any other 222 kits. How about those 'recessed' panel lines. Just about as deep and wide as the Grand Canyon! I built the ChiPs version and completly rebuilt the rotor system with aluminum tubing for the rotor mast. I must admit though that I liked the paint scheme. All that black and white helps to hide some of the kit flaws. What a shame, the 222 is a beautiful bird and would be awesome in 35th scale.
Paul

Yep those panel lines on that 222 are that bad i thought it must be an old MATCHBOX kit LoL. I did the airwolf version for my nephew more years ago than i care to remember....greg

Thanks all.

I'll keep an eye out for the Revell Augusta 109. The Matchbox one I saw was back ion the mid 1980s and had a couple of Civilian registerd decal options, one I think was a New York air taxi and I can't remember what the other one was.

I do keep hoping for a 222 in any scale, I suppose as it is largely a civilian bird its not seen as "worthy" by the major kit manufacturers.

Am I the only one who thinks some of the best looking aircraft seldom if ever wore a military uniform?

I couldn't agree with you more, Upnorth!
Too bad nearly all helicopters are designed with a military purpose in the minds of the designers. Is it a coincidence that those rare exceptions like the Bell 222/230/430 and the S76 are such great lookers?? And according to me, even the Sea King started to look better when it was turned into the S61N version as being used by civil operators.
And what makes it tragic for us civilian modellers is ofcourse the fact that we make too small a group to be interesting for the big kit-companies: why bother to release civil birds if most of your customers are mainly interested in Cobra's and Apaches and the likes?! (no offense intended here, military modellers!)
The only thing we can hope for, however paradoxically (?) it may sound is application of civil machines in military roles. (that is what -in a slightly similar way - actually brought us the B222-kit, which originally was Airwolf!).
So I hope for military applications of the S-92 , the MD600N, MD900N, AB139, B430 and EC 155, all of which I'd love to see in kit form. I'll turn them into civilian machines myself!

Gertjan

The least they could do is give us some civilian decal options.
Lee

wasn't there a conversion kit to change the seaking into the S61? i would like to do a Bristows helicopters one to go with my Bristows tiger/superpuma by Heller-bobcat...greg

Yes there was a conversion kit to make a Sea King into an S61 and if I recall correctly it was by Aircraft in Minature about 3 to 5 years ago.

I'd like to see a new tooling of a Sikorsky Skycrane and have some civilian options for it, maybe a cement pouring bucket for bridge construction or some big logs for lumber and forestry work, a fire killer option for the Sky Crane would be awesome.

Revell also make a military version of the A.109, it's of the new variant for the South African Air Force. Got one to build sometime, mind you cann't lay my hands on it at the moment !
Cheers,
Pete

Upnorth & Gregers,
I bought this S61N conversion kit a few years ago and let me warn you: it's practically useless. The only parts I actually used were the landing gear sponsons. I did find some leftover plastic parts in the bag the set came in, which later on turned out to be the vacuform (lengthened) fuselagehalves. Believe me: if you get drunk, cook some plastic and throw it against a wall, I'm pretty sure the result of that will resemble a S 61N a whole lot better than this conversion kit... Still can't believe I actually paid $.40,00 for the stuff...

Gertjan

Hi GeejeeZ Thanks for the warning on that conversion kit. I will certainly not buy one...thanks again....Greg

A 35th scale A109 would be rather cool. Of course with military options as well, I'm really hooked on the MH-68! Still, back home in NY we used to get two A109s over same time every day. Nice, sleek lookin helicopter.

Just my $.02