The Gist: Vintage Aurora kit unearthed. Lots of bang for the buck. Probably one of Aurora's better aircraft kits. Great for youngsters, collectors, or those who are willing to work just a little to produce a nice model of this aircraft.
The 1/72 kit is molded in a dark olive-drab plastic with a sprue of clear window pieces for a total of 85 parts. Airframe length is 11.25” and rotor diameter is 10.25”. There is no stand included.
The first thing one will notice upon opening the box is that the airframe surface is smooth; Aurora generally did not festoon their aircraft kits with rivets like Revell. This is the key tipoff that it’s not the Revell kit. In its early years, Revell was well known for intricate detailing that often included, of course, lots of rivets. The actual Jolly Green Giant was indeed covered with raised rivets, although they were not the size of walnut shells as the those plastic rivets would be if scaled up from 1/72 scale.
Atlantis retains the vintage box art from Aurora's original release. The old Revell kit had the helo facing to the left on its box art. | Decals aren’t comprehensive; only one SEA (Southeast Asia/Vietnam War era) scheme is included. Four colors, dark green, medium green, tan, and light gray (for bottom surfaces) will be needed to complete the paint scheme. The markings are apparently based on an actual aircraft of the 37th ARRS that was active during the Vietnam War. The eyebrow windows on the real aircraft are tinted green; I’d recommend some Tamiya or Humbrol clear-green to replicate these. |
While not as detailed as the old Revell version, the model still has reasonable accuracy and boasts an interior with instruments and seated pilots.
Atlantis puts some work into their kit boxes, utilizing all six sides for the prospective purchaser.
Included along with that mandatory UPC eyesore is this additional profile artwork that distinguished Aurora boxes and catalogs. Dem Brudders Trivia Fact: Did you know that buying a UPC code for a new product costs a manufacturer a lot more than it should? The confiscatory price of this obsolete artifact is baked into every product you buy.
Atlantis lists this as a Skill Level 3 kit, for modelers 14 and older. There are quite a few small parts for things like interior anti-torque pedals, control sticks, and a rather intricate rescue winch. Younger modelers who’ve had experience with glue-kits should do OK with it.
Atlantis’ price is right on this kit. Are there any other manufacturers out there with new releases (or reissues) for around twenty bucks? MSRP is only $21.99. You’re getting plenty of modeling value for your money here. If you want an HH-3 (and not the newer HH-53 Super Jolly Green Giant), this kit is pretty much your ticket. Lindberg Models made one of these as well, but this one appears to be more accurate to this modeler. |
All kit contents sans instruction sheet |
Being a vintage kit, you’ll probably have to work a little more to get a nice model. There's some flash on the small parts. There are some minor sinkholes, and a few ejector pin marks on places like the bottom of the rotor blades, but they're very shallow and should be easy to fill or ignore. The camo-scheme will complicate painting just a little, but if you're not interested in painting SEA camouflage, you could probably cheat and use an overall glossy light gray since some of the actual U. S. Air Force HH-3’s were done in that guise.
The "glass." Parts are reasonably thin and transparent. Note the small "flanges" on the sides of the parts. |
Small parts, including cockpit controls and the rescue winch. There's a little flash to deal with. Clean it up while you watch a movie. That's what Brudder Bill does. |
The small decal sheet includes only one option. Quality is good. Sorry for the reflection in the bottom right; it's not a defect on the sheet, it's an artifact from my photography in Dem Brudders' Kitchens (we're not known for our cuisine). |
Note the three-piece hull construction. Seams on the bottom should be pretty easy to deal with. Of note, if you like open doors on your aircraft models, you'll have to prep for some plastic surgery. Everything is molded closed on the kit. But read on; there's an easy opportunity to open things up. |
There's no rule that says a manufacturer can't put stuff on the bottom of a kit box. The thing I like here is that from the photo, you can tell that cockpit details are easily visible through those clear windows. |
A face only a mother could love? Note that the molding on the window frames is very crisp. I'd recommend Testors Clear Parts Cement & Window Maker to glue those windows in place. |
The pilots aren't quite identical. They'll be easily visible in the cockpit with those big windows; at least they won't look so much like the Doublemint Twins. |
Instructions Page One. That's a lot more history than you normally get with a model kit nowadays. |
Page Four includes a nice three-view drawing to get the three-tone SEA camouflage and decals just right. Don't forget "clear green" paint for those eyebrow windows. |
Here, you can see how it all goes together. Pages 2-3 of the instructions include all of the assembly steps. This kit is not for inexperienced modelers, but anyone with a few glue kits under their belt should have no trouble getting this one built.
Built out-of-the-box, this should make a nice model after a fun build. Dem Brudders give it four thumbs-up!
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE KIT
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BONUS MATERIAL I: BEYOND THE BOX - ENHANCING THE MODEL
The Atlantis HH-3E kit includes many clear window parts. The square ones for the cargo compartment have a small flange on the backside so they will nest into their airframe openings from inside prior to gluing the airframe halves together.
A macro-shot of the cargo compartment windows with the location flanges. | This flange will show from the outside; if a modeler does not like this, I’d suggest sanding them off with regular sandpapers like 400 grit and then 600 grit. The window piece will then need to be polished to remove sanding marks; a sanding system of ultra-fine sandpapers such as Micro Mesh is recommended for this. Micromesh grits range from 3200-12000. They are based on automotive finish polishing papers if anyone’s interested. The windows could then be fastened into their openings once the airframe is completed (and painted) by using Testors clear window maker/cement. Another simple solution is to simply paint the insides of the rear cabin windows black. The cargo area of these helos is like a black hole and it’s pretty hard to see anything through those windows anyway. |
If you want to open up the cargo doors, dealing with the windows will probably be a less of a worry since your efforts to scratchbuild an interior will be bigger. A very easy option for one open door is to cut the back off the hull bottom piece. It already has joints on three sides; a simple cut at the engraved line, and you have an open cargo ramp.The inside of the hull has some shallow ejector pin marks that would be easy to fill.
There's already a nice panel line to make the cut for an open cargo ramp on this hull-bottom piece. Opening up a fuselage couldn't be easier. |
The inside of the hull is quite smooth; just a few shallow ejector pin marks to fill if you plan to make an interior. Build a deck (floor) and overhead (ceiling) from sheet styrene, and go nuts with stringers (see the photos below) and you'll have a completely detailed interior without a whole lot of hassle. This kit is a great place to learn or practice interior detailing. |
BONUS MATERIAL II: MORE ABOUT THE HH-3E "JOLLY GREEN GIANT"
The following pictures are mostly from museum visits in recent years. Brudder Dick and I visited the National Museum of the United States Air Force (NMUSAF) in 2014 and took many pictures of the HH-3E "Jolly Green Giant" on display there.
This oblique view shows the massive refueling probe. This feature, a first when the helicopter entered service, allowed a pair of HH-3E’s to cross the Atlantic Ocean non-stop, making them the first helicopters to do so. The trip took over thirty hours and required nine in-air refuelings. |
Air Force Museum’s HH-3E, Dayton, OH. It was a treat to experience this aircraft in such pristine condition. The Sikorsky HH-3, better known as the Jolly Green Giant, became well-known during the Vietnam War for its SAR (Search and Rescue) qualities. It was engineered from the earlier S-61/SH-3 Sea King, originally developed for the U.S. Navy, and perhaps best known in that guise for “HELO 66”, the helicopter that recovered the Apollo 11 astronauts. |
The “Jolly Green” nickname for the Air Force version comes from the Green Giant vegetable company’s famous mascot. Thanks to its Navy roots, the Jolly Green Giant retains its amphibious capabilities, with a water-tight hull design. The Air Force version is distinguished mostly by a loading ramp at the rear of the airframe, where the Navy versions were tapered more like the hull of an amphibious fixed-wing aircraft. The Navy SH-3 had separate outrigger floats nearer the front, whereas the HH-3E had airfoil-like sponsons. This configuration gave the HH-3E tricycle-style landing gear, and the SH-3 is a “taildragger.”
The USCG HH-3F at the Pima Air and Space Museum near Tucson, AZ is an “incomplete kit.” Aside from the missing main rotor blade set, the rescue winch (above the door) is missing its housing. Also note the spray shield just in front of the winch in the photo. This part is present on the Atlantis kit, but it is not utilized on the HH-3E at the NMUSAF. You could leave it off if you want to. Photo taken during our visit in 2015. |
SH-3 "Helo 66" doing its famous thing. Compare the SH-3 to the HH-3E/F; note how different the entire tail is. Difference in position between sponsons and pontoons determines two completely different landing gear configurations; i.e. taildragger vs tricycle. The cargo door is in a completely different place as well. |
The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) bought the HH-3F Pelican, which had the rear ramp and the same sponsons as the HH-3E. The USCG versions deleted the refueling probe and added a nose radome offset from center. I recall flying on a HH-3E Jolly Green Giant a long time ago; the one thing I remember is that it was very loud in the cargo compartment and a clunky set of over-ear headphones was a necessity to protect ones hearing and sanity. I can't imagine enduring that for the 31-odd hours it took for that first transatlantic flight! Compared to a smaller helicopter I’d ridden in not long before, the Jolly Green Giant feels like you’re riding in the core of a small moon. It was pretty dark inside, which is why painting the inside of the windows black and calling it good is a viable strategy for dealing with the cargo compartment windows.
On the portside, notice that the demarcation between camouflage colors on this restoration is pretty tight. Also, rivets aren’t all that apparent in this closeup view. Neither are panel lines. Another nice thing about this restoration is that the paint is very flat, with no sheen. |
Note the mini-gun protruding through the window. These were necessary for self-defense during rescues in hostile territory. The HH-3E’s also had armor protection. |
Aurora’s kit was released around the same time as Revell’s. Circa 1969-70, aircraft modelers were interested in building subjects from the Vietnam War and this is one of those models released in that period.
The cargo door was only partially deployed to keep drooling aircraft geeks like Dick and me out of the helicopter. Those rectangular lights were not installed on the in-use helicopters; they were added by the museum to illuminate the cargo area. Interior color is a light gray. |
The tail rotor, complete with safety stripes. Don’t forget to add these to your Atlantis model! |
Revell’s 1/72 HH-3 hasn’t been sold in a few years. Lindberg sells a Sea King that is still easy to find at a low price.
Kompare the kits. At bottom is Lindberg's Sea King. Note the difference between tail booms. The Lindberg's tail boom actually doesn't have quite enough depth. The Atlantis (Aurora) kit accurately captures the rectangular cross-section of the tail boom on the HH-3E. |
Here's a head-on shot, semi-telephoto, of the rear open cargo door on the HH-3E showing the cavernous compartment. |
An interesting companion for your Atlantis HH-3E model will be Atlantis’ Cheyenne helicopter, also in 1/72 scale. The Cheyenne was an attack helicopter that emerged no further than a handful of prototypes. Its intended mission was eventually filled by the Apache. Aurora Models released a kit before the Cheyenne was cancelled, and it hasn’t been re-released in decades.
EXPERIENCE IT
If building the model isn’t enough, Dem Brudders strongly recommend a visit to either the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, AZ or the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, OH.
Pima has a nice assortment of USAF, Navy, and USCG helicopters, although they are displayed outside, where the hot sun has weathered them. Their HH-3 is worth seeing, because it is the unusual “F” version, operated by the Coast Guard. Pima continues to build more indoor display space; we hope that some day, the helos can be restored and displayed inside a climate-controlled environment. This is one of the premier aviation museums in the country, and bus tours are available from the museum to the "Boneyard" at the adjacent Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, where decommissioned military aircraft are stored and scrapped. Your visit will be an unforgettable experience.
The HH-3E at the Dayton Air Force Museum is indoors and looks like new inside and out thanks to diligent care and a comprehensive restoration. Hundreds of additional air and spacecraft in this amazing collection can be viewed in four huge, climate-controlled hangars. The most recent addition is a state-of-the-art gallery containing the extensive collections of U.S. presidential and test aircraft. You may want to spend a couple days or more to take in what is there!
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE ATLANTIS H-3E "JOLLY GREEN GIANT" KIT AT AMAZON.COM
Click the link at left to learn more about the Atlantis HH-3E "Jolly Green Giant" at Amazon.com. We're Amazon Affiliates. Through the Amazon Associates program, we receive a small commission if you decide purchase the model from Amazon after visiting this link. This helps support the websiteat no extra cost to you! |
