Italeri Wessex

I am pretty sure that Italeri have never released a Wessex with RAN markings. The old Matchbox kit and the Revell re-boxing of the Matchbox kit had RAN markings.

The Italeri HAS.3 kit no. 1828 (and the early Revell boxing of the same kit

04439) can be made into a RAN version. (Later HAS.3s, and this kit, had a cover over the air intakes just above the nose. By leaving this cover and the spine mounted radar dome off, several other marks can be built, including the HAS.1 and Australian Mk 31 and 31B. Unfortunately, this air intake under the cover has no interior detail. You could still build these earlier marks and perhaps just paint the intakes black.)

The Matchbox kit was pretty good for its day and had the advantage of including parts for a folded tail. It can be made into a reasonable replica of the RAN bird. The Revell version has better decals but the same plastic. There is a review of a build of the Matchbox kit at the SMAKR web site (WARNING: This site is hosted by Fortune City and there are a lot of pop-ups trying to install spyware and other crap. Ensure that you have a pop-up stopper installed before visiting this site). I can email you a PDF version of the review if you want.

Cheers Ultan

The ancient Frog kit also had RAN markings included. At one time that was the only way to get a Wessex and modifications were needed to get an H-34 out of it.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.