Eurocopter SA 330 Puma "Tigermeet"
It's hard to tell when Revell started to take the 1:144 scale serious, but judging from the quality of the kit of the Aerospatiale (now Eurocopter) SA330 Puma, it must have been sometime prior to the year 1997. 1997 because this is the year that has been etched into the moulds of this little gem of a rotorcraft.
Molded in grey styrene and beginning with the front office, I'm happy to announce that the designers didn't even omit the collective, something often forgotten in this scale. The instrument panel has raised gauges and there are benches in the troop compartment. The fuselage sports fine recessed panel lines and the sliding doors of the troop compartment are molded separately. There is an alternate part for the small rear window, the latter can be replaced by what seems to be some sort of chaff/flare dispenser. Nonetheless the antennas should be replaced by a piece of wire.
The decals are printed in register and give you the option of either doing a camouflaged RAF bird or the flashing Tigermeet version, for which you need to mix the yellow-orange paint, while the Tigerstripes can be found on the decal sheet
Decal Options
- Puma HC1, No.230 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Nato Tiger Meet '05, Balikesir, Turkey, May 2005
- Puma HC1, No. 33 Squadron, Royal Air Force, RAF Benson, September 2005
Details
And to finish this article here are some detail pictures:
Comments
Walk around
In the summer of 2005 I took a bunch of photos of this particular helicopter. They are here on primeportal.
The chaff/flare dispenser under the aircraft should be fotted in this version, as you can see from the photos. The whole fleet had these fitted in September & October 2001 prior to being deployed to Saudi Arabia for the first Gulf War.
Paul