UH-34 Chocktaw model helicopter also known as the seahorse

The Sikorski UH-34 helicopter was a development from the earlier H-19 Chickasaw. The helicopter shared a similar transmission design to it's predecesor, having a nose mounted piston engine turning a diagonally mounted prop shaft which transmitted the power to a gearbox under the main rotor head. The Choctaw was a more powerful and capable helicopter however, and has seen a great deal of service around the globe in one form or another. The U.S. Marines made great use of the helicopter in Vietnam, while Westland in Great Britain took the basic airframe of the UH-34 and created the highly successful gas-turbine powered Wessex series of helicopters.

This kit is another Italeri 1/72nd scale helicopter marvel of mould making. My example of the model is cleanly moulded in olive plastic on two sprues, in addition to a clear sprue for the transparent parts.
As is common for the latest of the Italeri helicopter models all the panel line are finely recessed. The general level of detail is in my opinion very high, and everything is crisply modelled.

The kit gives a choice of building one of four helicopters out of the box. These are a Vietnam based Marine Corps aircraft, a German Army machine, and a choice of two French UH-34 models. As well as the paint and decal differences, there are some construction choices during building which depend on which machine you are building.

Internally the model kit provides a reasonably good show, both in the cockpit area and cargo bay. The cockpit area has an instrument panel and cyclic sticks but no collective levers for some strange reason. The seats are well detailed with moulded in harness detail, while the rear cockpit bulkhead and the cockpit floor are both neatly done. The cargo area has stretcher style seats, a floor moulding and bulkheads front and rear.

Dry fitting the major components once again proves the kit to exhibit a highly accurate fit. The main fuselage sides are moulded without the nose section, this being moulded in two more separate parts. You get a choice a parts for the left hand side of the nose depending on which version you are building.

Wheels on this kit are very good indeed, the fine hub moulding is first class as is the tyre tread detail. The rest of the undercarriage does not disappoint either. The rotor head comprises four blades which are sandwiched between four arm plates. The rotors are mounted to a plate which glues into the upper fuselage.

This kit is another rotary winged winner from Italeri's growing number of helicopter kits. I reckon virtually anyone with an interest in helicopters would take a pleasure in building one or more of these.

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