ICM CH-54A Tarhe with Universal Military Pod (53057) 1:35

[Mike]

CH-54A Tarhe with Universal Military Pod (53057)

1:35 ICM via H G Hannants Ltd

 

 

With the advent of the helicopter, their ability to rise vertically into the air led them to lifting heavy loads, and by the end of the Korean War, there were already Heavy Lift choppers in service, most using piston-engines as their motive force, which was a limitation both in terms of power and reliability – a very important factor when you aren’t flying, but are instead beating the air into submission with your rotors.  The peculiarly ungainly-looking CH-60 Mojave was reaching the end of its service life, and Igor Sikorsky had already identified the need for a very heavy lift helicopter with the S-60 that was powered by WWII era radial engines.  The design was the basis for the Tarhe, but updated and given the more powerful and reliable turbo-shaft engines that were just coming into production.  The engines for the nascent CH-54 were created in conjunction with Pratt & Whitney, adapting one of their new JT12 jet engines to their requirements.

 

In an effort to keep the weight of the airframe down, the designers gave the Tarhe a cut-down skeletal fuselage, with only the crew compartment boxed in.  This compartment also contained a rearward-facing cab that gave the crane operators an excellent view of proceedings, as well as limited control over the height and attitude of the airframe, as the CH-54 had an early form of fly-by-wire that allowed the duplicating of controls in a secondary location, but with the effectiveness of the controls lessened to reduce the likelihood of accidents due to sudden movements caused by the crane-operator.  The advanced control system also gave it such luxuries as altitude control, reducing the workload of the pilots during extended hovers.  The US Army recognised the potential of the type after a short testing phase, and took over 100 airframes on charge that would see extensive use in Vietnam.  A civilian version was created too, called the S-64 Skycrane, while in army service it was often referred to as just ‘The Crane’.  Because of its size, The Crane was capable of carrying enormous loads that were hitherto impossible to lift vertically, if at all.  It was able to carry a Sheridan Tank, an M101 Howitzer, or up to 90 fully kitted out soldiers in a passenger pod that could be slung under the skeletal bodywork. There’s some fantastic diorama fodder right there.

 

One of the tasks allotted to the Tarhe was carrying a large purpose-built pod that resembled a cargo container on wheels, which could be slung in the belly of the airframe, and could carry a substantial cadre of troops from A to B, act as a temporary air-transportable hospital ward, or a mobile command centre.  Depending on the task it was allocated, it could be fitted out with seats, litters or admin facilities and could house up to 87 fully equipped paratroops sat on simple fabric seats, who could air-drop if necessary, through the doors on each side of the pod.  Small windows were also sited on the sides, and these were slightly convex to allow easier vision around the aircraft, whilst still being streamlined.

 

The Tarhe was eventually withdrawn from service in the late 80s, as the airframes were ageing and the new Chinook was taking over in military service, the Tarhe finally leaving National Guard service in the early 90s.  Due to their usefulness however, many of them were bought by civilian operators, especially Erickson Air-Crane of Oregon, who also took over type approval to ensure their ongoing airworthiness.

 

 

The Kit

This is a rebox of a brand-new tooling from ICM with a new sprue for the bomb, and to create the base from which the Tarhe operated, a sprue of M8A1 US Landing Mat and two sprues of figures have been included to depict the crew and ground personnel, giving you the basics of a diorama.  The master tooling is the first of its kind in this scale, and in fact we’ve not been very well served in any scale as far as the Tarhe goes, other than an extremely old kit in 1:72 from another manufacturer.  It arrives in a long top-opening box with a wrap-around painting of the type in action, and inside are a deceptive two lower trays with the usual captive lids, all of which is held in by tape.  Take care when opening the box, as it could surprise you when the second box drops out.  Once the boxes are open, the sprues have been spread evenly across the two trays to reduce the likelihood of damage to some of the lovely detail that’s within.  There are twenty-one sprues in grey styrene, one of clear parts, a relatively small decal sheet, and a moderately thick instruction booklet printed on glossy paper with colour profiles in the rear.  It’s difficult to get a feel for the scale of the finished model from the sprues, but the length is stated on the box of 774mm or 30.4” long, and 225mm or 8.9” tall.  The width isn’t given, but each rotor is 28cm or 11” long, so allowing for the extra width of the centre boss it should be a little more than twice that wide.  Detail is excellent, as we’ve come to expect from ICM in recent years, with finely engraved panel lines, raised rivets where appropriate, and crystal-clear canopy parts, which will be very visible on the finished model.   Without a shadow of a doubt someone will manage to create a diorama that uses the cables to support the finished model above its load to give the impression of flight, and if they also manage to make the blades rotate, they may just achieve modelling godhood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Construction begins with the stepped cockpit floor, which is kitted out with rudder pedals for both pilots, adding the instrument panel and supporting centre console with decals to the centre, then fixing collective and cyclic sticks in position, followed by the seats that are each made from rear frame, seat pad and back cushion, locating in holes in their adjustment rails moulded into the floor.  Another seat is made up from a solid base and two cushions, gluing in position on the lower section of the floor, facing aft and forming the first part of the crane operator’s cab.  A partial bulkhead separates the front seats from the rear, adding another to the side of the seat that has a small console with joystick sprouting from the centre.  Another L-shaped column is added on the inner side, and a short frame with an instrument panel and decal attached to it at the side of the cut-out, which is fleshed out with a pair of curved bulkheads.  At the front of the cockpit, the nose cone is mounted in front of the instrument panel, then the sides and underside of the cockpit structure closes in much of the area.  Turning the assembly around, the rear is closed in with a panel that wraps under the edge, and under the crane-operator seat, a foot rest with twin supports is slotted into the edge.  The back of the cockpit has a lot of glazing, starting with five radiused panes in the starboard corner, one more on the port by the crane-op’s seat, and a large wrap-around section enclosing the operator’s cab.

 

 

 

 

Much of the fuselage of this behemoth is skeletal, and is built up as a separate assembly, including internal bracing to ensure your Tarhe doesn’t become a Droopy.  The process starts with the underside of the fuselage structure, which is made from three overlapping lengths that have location grooves for the bracing that comes later.  Firstly, the winch is made from two halves that form a drum, capped off with two nicely detailed parts that turn it into a bobbin, which is supported between two angled trunnions that are each laminated from three parts, and braced at one end by rods and by the bobbin at the rounded end.  It is glued between two vertical braces that have two more braces slotted in across the front and rear of the winch bay, fixing two exterior panels to the end of the cross-braces, plus another that is slotted in nearer the front.  Take care here, as there are two slots, and the aft-most is the correct choice.  At the same time, a cross-brace that supports the main landing gear sponsons is added from underneath, and this slots into all four thicknesses, as does another short brace behind and one more in the front, making the assembly stronger, and once it is glued to the underside of the fuselage it should be very strong.  On the tapering tail section two more bulkheads are shown being added, but in the next step a longitudinal brace is shown already fitted, which I suspect is part D11, but test fit to reassure yourself when you build yours.  The two tail sides with moulded-in fin hides the tail internals, joining together at the tip of the fin, and secured by adding the rear surface, and cutting a raised area off the underside.  The topside of the fuselage is then boxed in with three panels, the largest having a hole in the centre for the rotor head later.  The full length of the beast can be seen for the first time now, when you mate the cockpit to the front of the fuselage, gluing the side extensions to the bare section to create one assembly.  An overhead console is decaled and detailed with levers, and is fixed to the rear bulkhead of the cockpit alongside another, after which the cockpit roof is laid over the area, followed by the windscreen and side doors that give your Tarhe a face.  Two small two-part “ears” are made up and inserted in recesses near the rear of the cockpit, as are a couple of other small humps and bumps, the uses for which will become clear later.  On the port fuselage side, a thick trunk of cables is fixed to the side and overlaid by a pair of C-shaped assemblies that are each built from three parts.

 

The CH-54 had long legs that allowed it to pull its loads close to the spine to reduce sway, and these are next to be made, starting with a pair of two-part wheels, and the sponsons that support them, each one made from four surfaces, plus the struts, which have a two-part sleeve around the upper area, separate scissor-links and two tie-down hooks, fitting to the end of the sponson by the flattened rear of the outer sleeve.  The nose wheel is also two-part, and fits on a short oleo with a one-part scissor-link under the nose.  The winch head is also two parts and is added to the winch mechanism while the main gear sponsons are slipped over the supports and the nose wheel is put in place.  The tail rotor head is a complex assembly that should remain mobile after construction, made up from eleven parts and fitted on the back of the tail fin along with a small bracing rod at the front.  There are also several external trunks added individually on the starboard side and down the leg sponsons, some of which are overlaid by a protective panel near the front, and yet more small lengths are dotted around all over the place, making for a complex, detailed surface that should look more realistic than moulded-in alternatives.  The drive-shaft for the tail rotor is also external, and runs up the back of the fin through some additional brackets, and terminating at the bottom with a four-part universal joint.  More scabbed-on panels are fitted to the back of the fuselage, and a pair of optional aerodynamic fairings are supplied for the sides of the main gear sponsons.  This isn’t even close to the final layer of detail yet, but we take a break from detailing to build the main rotor head next.

 

 

 

The rotor-head starts with a bell-housing that has two input shafts from the twin turbo-shaft engines, the main portion of which is two parts, plus two-part end caps that is then placed on a circular base, and has the shaft cover and ring fitted to the top, adding a number of actuators and rods to the side, plus a housing with pulleys and equipment that mounts on the back of the head.  The basic assembly is then mated with the opening in the top of the fuselage, after which there are a host of small wires/actuators/hoses that link the two assemblies together.  A scabbed-on box is fixed to the fuselage behind the rotor off to one side to accommodate the drive-shaft for the tail rotor later, and a bulwark slots into a groove just in front of the rotor-head, followed by the drive-shaft, which slots through a support and dives through the tail to emerge behind the fin at the universal joint.  A two-layer cover is placed over the drive-shaft around half way back, possibly to protect it from blade strikes, but it’s not the only piece of equipment that is sited on the fuselage top, which includes what appears to be a radiator assembly and some kind of exhaust, both installed behind the rotor-head, an area that is getting busy already.  More parts are added further enmeshing the various assemblies, then it’s time to build the two engines.

 

The Pratt & Whitney engines are identical in make-up until they reach the exhaust stage, which is handed.  The front section is made from thirty-five parts before the handed exhausts are made, each one a mirror-image of the other, and built from eight more parts.  The motors are mounted on the top deck with an M-brace between them, adding a few more small parts around them, then building up two intake filter boxes from sixteen parts each, handed to each side, with a scrap diagram showing how they should look from the front.   They mount in front of the engine intakes on the ears we made earlier, and have two Z-braces front and rear between them.  There are four auxiliary winches for load stabilising placed around the front and rear sides of the fuselage, with a four-part assembly making each one, and locating on a pair of brackets moulded into the fuselage sides.  More detail is applied to the cockpit in the shape of four clear lenses underneath, a towel-rail and blade antenna, two more externally routed wires around the rear, and crew step plus three ladder rungs on each side, with two more around the rear.  Grab-handles, door handles and windscreen wipers are next, followed by yet more grab handles on both sides leading up to the cockpit roof.  More aerials are fixed at the root of the tail boom, and at the very rear, a three-part bumper is fitted under the fin, then an asymmetrical stabiliser is mounted on the opposite side of the fin to the tail rotor.

 

Most traditional choppers have two rotors, and despite its size the Tarhe conforms to that layout, and the tail-rotor is first to be made, starting with the two-part rotor base that accepts the four individual blades, and a two-part actuator crown in the centre.  It fits to the axle and should be able to rotate if you’ve been sparing with the glue.  That’s the easy, simple part over with, now you must do it again on a much larger scale and with six blades.  Work starts with the axle, the lower end of which slips through a centre boss and is covered by the six-point star assembly, which has another smaller star fixed to the centre, six D-shaped inserts added to the tips, and T-shaped spacers added vertically to separate the top rotor “star” from the bottom.  The top portion is made up identically to the lower apart from the spacers, then it is closed over the rotor holders after gluing them in place on the lower.  Each blade holder then has its four-part actuator mechanism installed over the top, and the whole assembly is topped by a three-part spinner cap.  The final act is to insert each of the six blades into the holders, then drop the completed rotor into the rotor-head.

 

 

Universal Military Pod

The floor is the starting point of this assembly, adding six rows of tubular legs to recesses in the detailed deck, fixing seat pans horizontally, and back cushions that rest at an angle on vertical posts, the port two rows facing starboard, the other against the starboard facing them.  The walls are detailed on both sides, having panel lines and rivets on the outer face and ribbing on the inner face, where you will find a few ejector-pin marks that you may want to fill if you think they will be seen.  They are further prepared by installing windows from the inside, plus two vertical tubes, a control panel on one side by the doors, which are fitted later.  The floor is laminator with an extra layer that tapers upward at both ends, then the side walls are glued into position, followed by the two-layer back wall, which is covered in surface detail but has no windows or other features.  The front wall has a window and a bracket, but the roof is prepared first, fixing seventeen inserts into recesses in the ribbed part, some of which are lights, finishing the main structure by installing the last two faces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The details added to the exterior of the pod are copious, starting with the retractable wheels that give you a choice of two styles depicting raised and lowered by using parts of different lengths.  The basic shape of these struts is an inverted T, with the vertical strut extending to give the wheels clearance below the pod so that it can be moved around more easily.  The wheels are each made from two halves, sliding onto the stub axles at the bottom of each strut, adding the doors to their cut-outs after mounting the handles at waist-height, and fitting various grab-handles and protective cages to the landing gear, and for ground-handling.  Tie-downs are added, with four brackets that accept clips for carriage under the helicopter, plus a pair of dampers that reduce oscillation of the pod when airborne to reduce the likelihood of nausea for the passengers.

 

 

 

 

Markings

There are three decal options provided on the sheet, all varying slightly in the tone of green applied to the airframe or pod, one with matching colours, the other two with a lighter pod or airframe.  From the box you can build one of the following:

 

• 68-18457, 295th Aviation Company, Germany 1972
• 67-18429, Key Field Air National Guard Base, August 1982
• 68-18459, 113th Aviation Regiment, Reno Stead Airport, November 1989

 

 

 

Decals are by ICM’s usual partners, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas.

 

 

Conclusion

When the first boxing was launched, several commenters lamented, or hoped for the pod to be part of the release schedule, and now their wish has been fulfilled.  Will we see some firefighting or ski-equipped boxings next?

 

Highly recommended.

 

Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd.

 

Review sample courtesy of

[manuel]

Just waiting for his little sister in gentlemen scale :).

Manuel

[cmatthewbacon]

I wonder who'll be first with the interior parts for the mobile surgical pod? Also, the Revell one I built all those year ago had a ramp/rear section that sloped up and back towards the tail, and that's certainly what the pictures I found of the surgical pod in service have, so there'll be some scratch building or additional parts for that. Still, pods are cool.... I'm sure it's no coincidence that I was avidly watching Thunderbirds when I bought that old Revell kit...

best,

M.

[bentwaters81tfw]

Have you had the extension built on your garage yet Mike? You will need it when that is built.

[Mike]

18 minutes ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

Have you had the extension built on your garage yet Mike? You will need it when that is built.

I'll be living in the pod

[Ad-4N]

Had this been issued in 1/48, I would have been first in line.