The Sikorsky H-34 (company designation S-58) is a piston-engined military helicopter that was originally designed by American aircraft manufacturer Sikorsky for the United States Navy for service in the anti-submarine warfare (ASW) role. It has seen extended use when adapted to turbine power by the British licensee as the Westland Wessex and Sikorsky as the later S-58T. Various H-34s served, mostly as medium transports, on every continent with the armed forces of twenty-five countries—from combat in Algeria, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and throughout Southeast Asia, in roles such as saving flood victims, recovering astronauts, fighting fires, and carrying presidents.
As one of the last piston-powered helicopter designs before its replacement by turbine-powered types such as the UH-1 Huey and CH-46 Sea Knight, it saw a remarkably long run of 2,108 H-34s produced between 1953 and 1970.
[Source: Wikipedia]
- Detailed flight deck
- Pilot seats have photo-etched restraints
- Positionable flight deck windows
- Choice of web seats or canvas seats in main cabin
- Seats in main cabin have photo-etched seat belts
- Nose cowling doors are positionable to reveal engine bay
- Positionable main cabin door
- Detailed R1820 with cooling shrouds
- Choice of exhaust manifolds with corresponding nose cowling door
- Photo-etched grilles around engine compartment
- Detailed main cabin with cabin sidewalls molded separately from outer fuselage halves
- Rear of main cabin opens into detailed rear fuselage
- Rescue winch over starboard main cabin door
- Vented rear of doghouse is well molded with see-through venting
- Tail can be posed folded or flight-ready
- Main rotors molded with gravity sag
- Choice of bent-legged or later landing gear
Markings for three aircraft:
- HUS-1L, 657, XO/25, VX-6, Antarctica, ‘King Pin II’
- UH-34D, 150208, UA/23, VC-1, NAS Barber’s Point
- HSS-1N, 8569, 69, JMSDF, Japan
The latest incarnation of the already nice UH-34 Seahorse from Gallery Models features all the goodies and beautiful engraved detail we’ve got in the previous versions. The parts from the previous versions are included in the box so if you want to skip the Operation Deep Freeze in Antarctica, all you have to do is pick a nice sheet of after market decals and you’ll be set.
Looking carefully at the instructions, one can notice that the external tank carried on the Antarctic missions slipped away from them. The decal sheet is nicely printed and they look as they almost had no carrier film at all. Colors are called in Mr. Hobby, Vallejo, Model Master, Humbrol and Tamiya.
Out of the box, this is the best UD-34 you can find on the market today.
Highly Recommended!
