Introduction

The following introduction is taken from the ICM website:

The CH-54 Tarhe helicopter was developed by Sikorsky Aircraft, a company founded by the prominent Ukrainian aircraft designer Igor Sikorsky. The first flight of the helicopter (originally named S-64) took place on May 9, 1962.

The helicopter was built on a modular principle, which simplified its maintenance and repair. It had a tall three-post landing gear with a front support, which allowed a tractor with a trailer approach its fuselage freely.

The helicopter’s powerful winches allowed it to pick up cargo in a hover mode, without the need to land on the ground. During the Vietnam War it evacuated damaged airplanes and various helicopters, transported artillery pieces, cars, tanks and even combat boats on an external sling.

It was also used to drop high-powered bombs to clear the forest for an airfield. This helicopter set 10 world records for its class, including lifting a 15-ton cargo to 3307 meters. The civilian version of the helicopter (Erickson S-64 Aircrane) is still in successful operation today.

Contents

This offering from ICM arrives in 2 substantial cardboard trays, protected by a single card lid. The model parts are packaged within 3 bags, one of which contains the clear pieces. An examination of the parts reveals no immediate concerns with the quality of the moulding process, and despite the large size of some of the components I do not see any shrinkage due to heat build up. There a quite a few small ejector pins marks, some of which will need to be tackled but nothing major to worry about there. Access to the pieces is good, with my only concern being the risk of damage or breakage due to all the plastic components apart from the clear sprue being packaged in 2 bags.

Review

Looking over the parts of this model, which have been heavily covered in the modelling press there is little I can add reference detail and such. So I am going to break this down into 2 main sections, these being the high points and the low points. 

Lows:

The sheer size of this model will create problems for many who want to get in past the wife, and once built having somewhere to safely display it.

The model measures in at 770mm (over 2.5ft long) and the blade-width of over 2 feet - even displaying the model with the rotor head off of the model gives you a kit that is 7 inches across. So the first issue is - Sheer size.

Next up are the seats that have no harness detail present. Weighted wheels would have been a nice inclusion in a kit this size, and also being 1/35th scale despite efforts be ICM to represent a large amount o the cabling and pipes on the exterior of the aircraft I believe there is still room for further enhancement. Also because of the sheer size of this aircraft there is the possibility of damage to the parts on the sprues - both by breakage or warping.

The rotor blades are profiled flat for the aircraft which would be rarely accurate on the real aircraft as they sag on the ground and lift in flight. I hope that a former or such is made available to accurately enable this detail to be replicated.

Highs

Despite being listed as a low, you have to say did we ever really expect to see this aircraft in 1/35th scale? 

Interior detail is on the whole very good, with the exception of the seat harnesses as indicated.

External detail both raised and recessed is an especially well done aspect of this release, a aspect that ICM can be really proud of, and I believe that regardless of you requirements the provided detail should please the modeller greatly. 

The clear parts of the model meet my expectations.

The instruction booklet deserves a mention due to having a very large number of steps that show the build process clearly and in easy to follows stages, which I feel will be of great assistance due to the sheer size of the finished model. 

All other aspects of the detail provided I cannot criticise and I suspect that this release will end up being one of the stars of the year.  

The decals provided are generally good, with good colour and clarity but some of them I can feel on the backing paper.

2 finishing options are provided for this release:

Sikorsky CH-54A Tarhe 67-18420, 273rd Assault Support Helicopter Company, Vietnam, 1968

Sikorsky CH-54A Tarhe 67-18426, 101st Airborne Division, Vietnam, 1969

Provided separately for this release is a 6 colour paint set, covering the model here and the Arctic Cobra. My only concern reference the paint set is will 12mls of paint be enough to cover a model of this size.