1/48 Hasegawa S-61 Seaking

Royal Malaysian Air Force

by Brian Param a.k.a Mr B 

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  Malaysia National Day 2004 

 

The seaking entered service with the Royal Malaysian Air Force in the 1960tees. It is still in service today with 3 flying squadrons. The Seakings are known locally as "Nuri" which actually is a type of bird. They are tasked with various duties and make up to be the work horse of rotary wing craft in the RMAF.

Click on images below to see larger images

The kit is a hasegawa offering. I did not built this kit myself as I bought it incomplete at a Hobby Shop in K.L. I picked it up because, I wanted to have two Nuris in my collection one with old markings (this kit) and one with new markings by yet to be built Hasegawa Seaking of mine. I only got the kit weathered, painted the band, bought new blades and etc from Revell Germany and of course decalling and fine tuning. Overall I think it turned out quite nice and I am quite happy with it. Decals were taken from the Tutor kit, thanks Todd and Ken again for helping here and the serials were custom printed by Richard Chaffer of Gekko Graphics...Thanks Richard.....a special mention once again to Richard as he put in a lot of effort and help in getting these decals printed for me. Much obliged. Thomas Ng and Mazlan Yusof for their help in referencing and advise. Much obliged guys and not forgetting Steve Bamford and all at ARC for giving us a platform to exchange and display our work. Thanks all....Happy Merdeka to all Malaysian and all TUDM/RMAF personal.

The model depicted here is circa 1970 -1980. It has the old larger national markings and without the radar/radome in the nose, Intake covers and other improvements as seen on RMAF Nuris today. It also has the red/orange band aft which actually identifies it as a operational conversion bird. It is still not 100 % complete as Malaysian Seakings had a lot of stenciling in yellow, I am in the process of planning to get them done.

Cheers and Thanks

Brian

Photos and text © by Mr B