UH-34J Sea Horse
US Marines Helicopter

Italeri, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Glen Porter

Italeri's 1/72 scale UH-34J Sea Horse will be available online from Squadron.com

As I have mentioned in earlier reviews, in my opinion, Italeri is the best manufacturer of 1/72 scale helicopter kits.

In this kit, there is one question mark. Is this a UH-34 J (the box top) or a UH-34 D (instructions and decals)? I don't know. Whichever it is, it lives up to Italeri's usual standard of excellence in detail, moulding and decals.

The Sikorsky UH-34 series of helicopters was the last to be designed with piston engines, in this case, a Wright R-1820-84 radial in the nose, developing 1,525 hp, before the introduction of turbine power. It was also the airframe on which the Westland Wessex was based, the Wessex, of course, having turbine power from the start.

The plastic parts are all cleanly moulded in olive drab plastic with finely engraved panel lines and heaps of detail inside and out. There is an optional left nose half for different exhausts and the cockpit side windows plus cargo door can be posed open or closed. The cockpit interior is very detailed although one thing they've missed is the cyclic control lever to the left of the seats.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

There's not much point in having an open cargo door if there's no detail inside. No problem. Italeri have given us eight nicely detailed canvas seats on a detailed floor with front and rear bulkheads and even the interior sidewalls have frame detail. The clear parts are, as usual, just that, clear, with frame detail on the out-side and even a switch panel on the inside of the roof.

Another area where Italeri excel in their helicopter kits is the rotor head. This kit's no exception and the rotors them-selves, even have the characteristic droop.

Decals, as we've come to expect from Italeri, have perfect register and minimum carrier film and although a bit matt, I wouldn't go looking for another set unless I wanted to model a particular subject. There are four markings sets offered on the sheet, a Marine Coups aircraft in all-over Field Green with an orange louvered panel behind the engine from Vietnam, 1962, a German Army helicopter in Olive Green with no date and Two French Navy choppers, one from 1959 and the other 1975 both in Insignia Blue.

All in all, this is a superb helicopter kit from Italeri, although, from them, this is to be expected.

Highly Recommended.

Thanks to Italeri for the review sample