Preview: Sikorsky/Westland Sea King from Duke Hawkins / HPH

Duke Hawkins series from HPH has a tempting new set to add to their latest forthcoming book on the Westland Sea King. We look at the book and the accompanying package in our preview...

Preview: Sikorsky/Westland Sea King from Duke Hawkins / HPH

Sikorsky/Westland Sea King -

Flying with the Air Forces & Navies Around the World

Published by: Duke Hawkins / HPH

Code: DH035

English language text

Pages: 180

Over 350 photos in colour

Dimensions: 26 inch X 26 inches

Available as of March 12 from your favourite model shop or book shop

Available from HMH Publications directly 

DH-035, a 180 page book on the Sikorsky/Westland Sea King. This extensive book is the result of several years of travel, research and making a huge amount of photos. This book is a collection of over 450 photos and shows the differences between the Sikorsky and Westland built Sea Kings. 

A lot of the photos were taken from the Belgian Westland Mk.48 Sea King, but chapters and close-ups of many other versions are included in this book, such as the Sea Kings of the Royal Navy - HAS.2, HAS.5, HAS.6, HC4, ASaC.7 - the HAR.3 of the Royal Air Force, the Mk.41 of the German Navy, Mk.43B of the Royal Norwegian Air Force, the Spanish SH-3D, and many others. Even the VH-3D was photographed, the famous Marine One.

The Sea King was used in many different roles: as a Search and Rescue helicopter, a light transport or troop carrying helicopter, but also as an anti-submarine or Aerial Early Warning helicopter. All versions are shown in this book.

Every detail of the fuselage, foldable tail section, landing gear sponsons, hull, winching mechanism, main rotor and tail rotor is included. 

There is an extensive chapter on the different cockpit lay-outs and another one showing the cargo bay in close detail. Even the interior of the anti-submarine version is included, allowing you to super detail those Airfix or Hasegawa 1/48 scale kits!

A lot of action can be found in this book; from the final flights of the Norwegian and Belgian Sea Kings to a chapter on the Brazilian Sea Kings aboard the Sao Paulo aircraft carrier. Sea Kings from many countries are included in this book: USA (US Navy), UK, Belgium, Spain, Denmark, Egypt, Canada, Italy, Germany, Norway, Japan, Brazil, Pakistan, Australia, India, Argentina and even some civil S-61N Sea Kings used in Greenland.

In this book, one of the most extensive maintenance chapters we've ever made is included: in 22 pages, we show everything the super-modeller could wish for: from the avionics bay in the nose of the helicopter to the engine compartment, main rotor gearbox, rotor, blades, open spine, tail fold system, tail gearbox, engines and even the sponsons off of the helicopter.

Suggested retail price for the Sea King book is 31,00 euro. To promote this 35th book, a special gift set will be available as of March 16. Limited at just 200 copies, this gift set includes:

- Duke Hawkins DH-035, the 180-page book on the Sea King
- Airfix's 1/48 scale new Westland Sea King
- A 3D printed update set for the Belgian Mk.48 Sea King, especially designed for this box by SeMa Models
- An XtraDecals 1/48 scale decal set
- Double Sided masks for the model
- A luxury, 43 cm wide profile print, signed by a full Belgian Sea King crew, including the 40 Squadron CO and the only female pilot to fly the Belgian Sea King.

This limited edition gift set will be available from HMH Publications directly or through Hannant's in the UK, Aviation Megastore in the Netherlands, Artscale in the Czech Republic or Tracks and Wings in Brussels, Belgium.

Those that follow the Duke Hawkins series might have noticed that we have skipped reference DH-034. A small delay at the printers is why this reference will be released by the end of March. DH-034 is a 140 page book on the Boeing AH-64 Apache. We'll report on that one when it arrives !

This book series is also available now on the HLJ website