I recently received my order of CH-53Es from Tom’s Modelworks.

I don’t know about the rest of you gentlemen but I detest gluing small pieces on small pieces. If I have to I will but prefer not to.

I waded into the water with Tom’s 3D printed 1/700 SH-60B and was not disappointed. Excellent 3D printing . Added those to my fleet.

Now for the heavy lifter of the Fleet today’s CH-53E. Same gray resin. Some attachment points like on the refueling boom look scary but come away clean. Most attachment points are the bottom of the aircraft but scrape away cleanly with no gait. No attachment points came near the landing gear.

Fuselage detail is excellent and very fine. No fading of detail from port to starboard. I will not take a wet brush to these birds. I will shadow (outline) the detail with a .005 micron archival black pen and let dry. Afterwards out comes the small square mop brush and I dry brush over the outlines. It takes me far longer to paint than to cut the CH-53 from it print wafer.

There are two version offered folded boom tail for parking along the flight deck edge . Tail boom is printed separately and like the aircraft cuts away cleanly. Smart on this one piece none of the attachment points came near the rear stabilizer support. Glue your tail rotor onto the assembly and glue assembly to fuselage. Not bad just two small pieces. I just used a photo for reference and became an instant expert on placement of the folding tail boom on a 1/700 CH-53E and will add this to my resume.

The other version is the deployed tail boom when she being ready for flight or landing but not unknown that the big bird will be parked with her tail boom extended .

And last but not least we get a loading ramp. There is a notch in the rear of the aircraft in which you can depict ramp closed or open. Yahoo! (It’s the little things that make me happy).

A set of White Ensign deployed photo-etch rotors is included. Remember to give them a slight bend when deployed.

Tom’s CH-53E is highly recommend because in summary it’s just smartly done and has the detail us guys in 1/700 did not get until 3D printing came along.

I have 1/700 Hobby Boss LHD Wasp these are going on.

Hopefully next we will see the cousin to CH-53 the MCH-53????

My two cents