The Westland Wessex was a British license-built version of the Sikorsky H-34 and in it’s HAS.3 anti-submarine version, was a capable hunter/killer and saw combat in the Falklands War, where one machine nicknamed ‘Humphrey’ seriously damaged the Argentine submarine Santa Fe, which subsequently had to be scuttled, and also rescued SAS troops from a glacier in bad weather after their helicopters had crashed.

Italeri’s Wessex HAS.3 kit was released in 2013 and is a very nice kit, though it has a few issues and is lacking finesse in some areas. One such area is the mesh cover for the gearbox compartment. This compartment sits atop the Wessex’s distinctive ‘humpback,’ just under the rotor and rotor head. Quickboost labels this as an ‘engine grille,’ though as the Wessex’s engines are housed in the nose, this seems a little unlikely!

Regardless of terminology, the grille as provided in the kit is a very basic and rather chunky plastic part for the frame and a mesh piece for the grille, although Italeri to their credit do also include the grille as a PE part on the small fret included in the kit. However, the new Quickboost part offers a quantum leap forward in finesse and, compared to the kit’s offerings, is a much more convincing part. A 3D printing, it has a small ‘cage’ to prevent damage in transit and very fine towers to cut away before using the part – I anticipate no issues here. The mesh is very fine and very convincing, far more so than the mesh material provided by Italeri or by their PE part, which is, frankly, very flat.

Highly recommended for the Wessex enthusiast; my thanks to the good folk at Aires for providing the sample to IPMS/USA.