As the Airfix team are engaged in making final preparations for our attendance at this year’s Royal International Air Tattoo, our latest Workbench update features our latest scale tribute to an aircraft which has to be described as one of the most significant of the post war era, the current RAF incarnation of which is scheduled to be thrilling the crowds at Fairford in just a few days’ time, the mighty Boeing Chinook. This twin rotor behemoth is a heavy lift helicopter phenomenon, an aircraft whose everyday routine taskings are anything but routine, and a helicopter the world has come to rely on over the past 63 years or so.

As the second release from our newly tooled Boeing Chinook HC 1 kit is just about to arrive in our warehouse, and is surely destined to prove as popular as the inaugural release, we’re devoting this edition to the wonderful world of the Wokka, looking at why both the aviation world and modelling/enthusiast communities just can’t get enough of this magnificent and historic aircraft. In addition to taking a little historic overview of the Chinook’s service life with the Royal Air force, we will be looking in a little more detail at the two scheme options which are included with this second release, with the added benefit of having eye’s on a selection of built model images, featuring kits finished in both of those scheme options.