Seeking fame
Sikorsky’s much-loved design has fulfilled many roles over six decades and inevitably has seen some action on diecast manufacturer production lines too. Rick Wilson straps himself in for take-off.
60 years of the Sikorsky Sea King, by Rick Wilson.
Russian–American aviator, Igor Sikorsky, established his US-based Sikorsky Aero Engineering Company in 1923. Currently owned by Lockheed Martin, easily it’s most well-known product over its almost 100-year history is model number S-61 – the Sea King helicopter.
Officially designated as the SH-3 Sea King it was designed as a twin-engined anti-submarine warfare (ASW) helicopter - notably, it was one of the first of this type to use turboshaft engines. Its origins were a requirement to counteract the growing threat of Soviet submarines during the 1950s.
Introduced to service 60 years ago, in 1961, it was operated by the United States Navy as a key ASW and utility asset for several decades.The Sea King also performed various other roles and missions such as search-and-rescue, transport, anti-shipping, medevac, plane guard, and airborne early warning operations. It has also proved to be popular with foreign military customers, as well as civil operators, and has been built under license by Agusta in Italy, Mitsubishi in Japan, and by Westland in the UK as the WS-61.
Probably the most famous Sea King of all – seen by millions worldwide when it recovered the Apollo 11 capsule from the first moon-landing mission when it splashed down in the Pacific on 24th July 1969 – is the SH-3D designation variant flown as #66 of US Navy HS-4 Squadron, based on USS Hornet.
SEEKING SEA KING DIECASTS
The options for collecting diecasts of this impressive and well-known aircraft design are relatively limited, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t some absolute corkers to be had. Period releases by Dinky Toys and contemporaries from Corgi spring swiftly to mind, with the latter currently running at 22 detailed 1/72 scale releases so far, plus two budget Showcase issues at half the size (1/144 scale).
So we’ll do this in date order, which means we begin with the awesome 1970s releases from DinkyToys.A total of four versions were sold using the same casting.
It all started with No 724 Sea King Helicopter that depicted the US Navy aircraft that were involved in the capsule recovery missions from the 1960s and early '70s Gemini and Apollo space programmes. In typical Dinky style, though, the model took full opportunity of the excitement generated by incorporating some excellent and exciting features.At 155mm long, this equates to roughly 1/105 scale.
This first release replicated that most famous Sea King of all, the Apollo 11 capsule recovery aircraft.As was the norm for Dinky, though, historical accuracy would not get in the way of shop shelf appeal, so the drab grey lower half of the real helicopter became metallic blue for the toy version. Colour changes aside, it featured plenty of play value.
Not only did it incorporate a battery-powered motor that span the main rotor blades, there was a finger-operated winch with a metal hook that could pick up the moulded plastic capsule and carry it away to safety. Even the capsule had a working feature, with an opening door that revealed the three astronauts waiting to be recovered.As the capsule was plastic, it floated on water, meaning a very accurate mission could be replicated in sinks, baths and perhaps even puddles around the world.
This superb release was initially packaged in a colourful box that featured very appealing artwork. Open this up and the internal plinth could be slid out, which then folded out to make a great display depicting the deck of USS Hornet with space for the capsule to be displayed in the water alongside. Top job, Dinky!
No 724 lasted in the range right to the very end of Dinky Toys production and there were a few minor colour variations along the way. Initially the interior was red and the blades blue.The interior and blades later changed to black.The colour of the lower fuselage would change slightly, but this was restricted to the shade of blue used. Even the capsule got in on the act, with the interior colour being white, blue or yellow and, later, the capsule body would become an unrealistic yellow.
Building on the success of No 724, Dinky made good use of its casting with the model becoming part of the Action Kit range as No 1040. Shown on the box artwork for this one with an orange lower fuselage, Dinky clearly still couldn’t bring itself to replicate the real colours! Taking this colour conundrum further, only white paint was included in the kit.
Two other releases followed, with the first of these being No 736, in Bundesmarine livery, produced from 1973. Sporting the all over grey with red top colour scheme of the German Navy, the winch feature was retained, but now it was used for lowering and raising a white plastic-moulded sonar device. Just as much fun though. Interestingly, if you were to unscrew this and relocate the lower fuselage to swap out that of No 724, it would replicate the Apollo recovery aircraft a lot more accurately. Finally an all over drab green army version was released as part of No 618 AEC Artic Transporter with Helicopter from 1976.
Moving to more recent times sees two castings by Corgi in its 1/144 scale Showcase and 1/72 scale Aviation Archive ranges. I’ll get to the smaller versions in due course, but now it’s time to focus on its superbly-detailed series of 1/72 scale releases.
First released in 2002 as part of Corgi’s series commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Falklands conflict, interestingly, the second release of this tooling (No AA33402) was a much more accurate replica of that famous Apollo 11 capsule recovery aircraft. Featuring the correct colours, of course, it came with a very realistic sea surface diorama, complete with a very accurate capsule.This marvellous replica rightfully commands serious pennies today, so I’ve yet to find one within my budget. Rest assured that, when I do, I’ll share it in my From the Editor’s collection pages.
Fast forward to a 2014 release, No AA33414, I photographed this during Corgi’s media preview day down at Margate in late 2013. Resplendent in the eye-catching grey and red livery of Royal Navy ‘Search & Rescue’, it’s another great release. One feature that I’ve neglected to mention so far of this casting, is the sliding cargo door that slides open towards the front of the fuselage to reveal the spacious interior.
Bringing Corgi’s releases up to date, the 22nd and very latest version of this stunning model is No AA33422. It went on sale during 2020, priced at just £61.49, and was quick to sell out the limited run of just 1,000. Depicting an earlier space capsule recovery scenario, it was assigned the duties of lead recovery helicopter for the Gemini X space mission. Sikorsky SH-3A Sea King ‘White 63’ from US Navy HS-3 ‘Tridents’ was on the scene seconds after the capsule splashed down, with its specialist diver ensuring the safe extraction of the returning astronauts.With the world’s attention fixed on this latest mission, for a few short moments, the live broadcast of the recovery made this aircraft the most famous helicopter in the world, before it returned to USS Guadalcanal.After its time in the limelight, the aircraft would return to its usual anti-submarine patrol duties.
The finish to Corgi's latest release of its marvellous Sea King casting is absolutely astonishing, with a fabulously realistic sheen to the look.Wearing the correct markings to replicate this historically important aircraft, the graphics are applied perfectly with crisp edges and the right proportions.The cockpit is nicely detailed, with two pilots and some instrumentation clearly visible.
So now back to those smaller Showcase releases, there have been two variations in Corgi’s budget series – the earlier No CS90607 and the current No CS90625 release.The latter has sadly lost some detail during recent cost-cutting exercises, but it still makes for a nice display model.At 113mm long, this makes it exactly half the length of its bigger sibling, so it comes out at 1/144 scale. In the bright yellow Royal Air Force Rescue livery, it replicates Sea King XZ597 that is still flying with Historic Helicopters (www. historichelicopters.com).This very aircraft was actually the subject of the 4th Sea King release in the Aviation Archive series as AA33404 – another one on my wishlist, and I’d like to take it for a flight on the real aircraft one day.
There is just one more model to mention, released in 2012 by Amercom as part of its Helicopters of the World magazine partwork series. Largely diecast at 1/72 scale, it’s not really a rival for the Corgi as it lacks a lot of the detail, but it is an excellent budget model and can easily be picked up for around £25 on ebay. Representing a Westland-built WS-61 in the colours of the Implementation Force (IFOR), as deployed in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1996, it certainly makes for a striking display. DC