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

Today I am going to tell you more about ICM 1/35 CH-54A Tarhe with Universal Military Pod (53057). New-tooled kit was released relatively recently and now we have a chance to build yet another version. As you can guess from the name, it includes container which is attached to the cargo area. I should also remind that whole build should take plenty of space due to the size. Overall packaging is typical for this brand, and all frames come in several bags. There are 697 parts which should assemble into a model with 774mm length. All this sounds impressive, so let's take a closer look at what is included in the package.

By the way, here you can read review with figurines which can be combined with this kit.
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Watch this video-review where I show all parts even closer.

First frame is dedicated to Universal Military Pod. Overall parts division is typical for such thing, and you will find separate panels which should be combined together.

Note that it gets full interior which can be even exposed if necessary. There are also some parts for the landing gear on this container. All those seats will take some time, but finished thing should look impressive.

Panels might look big, but there is clever design which should help you with alignment. Just do some dry fitment and you should be ok.

Floor and roof panel also look great. It is a shame that the bottom part will not be visible on the finished thing.

Clear frame is packed into separate plastic bag. Molding quality looks great, but there are no masks included here.

Large rotor blades don't have very prominent sag effect. Moreover, I would recommend to reinforce joint with some metal rods as each blade is very big.

Next we see helicopter parts. Tail boom will be quite a complex assembly, but it is needed for overall structural strength of the assembly.

Here you can see some of the middle section parts as well as some cab panels. Fitment shouldn't be a problem even with such large bits.

ICM was quite proud about external features on this kit, and you can see it on the parts. All those raised rivets definitely deserve some proper weathering.

Middle section will be assembled around special "skeleton" which will be hidden inside. Helicopter will also get quite detailed engine area.

Don't let big size fool you as there are many small and thin parts to deal with. This might look tricky, but with due care should be doable.

Main rotor is assembled out of many parts, and it might be worth to be extra careful with alignment. Some of them might require pre-painting as well.

Both engines are nicely detailed, but there is an aftermarket available for even more features. Of course, it will require some extra investment too.

Front cab should be glued out of separate panels. Overall parts division is logical here, and should be easy to get together into one assembly. I like that frontal section is single panel and you won't have any gaps in that area.

Clear frame is packed into a separate plastic bag. Molding quality looks great and there is no masking template included.

Decals sheet is not that big, but you will find all necessary symbols here. Printing quality looks nice, and all markings are shown on the photo below.

Assembly manual is typical for this brand. You can check all pages in the video-review.

New helicopter should be already available for purchase. This is rather large build which is more suitable for experienced modelers. Nevertheless, with some time invested you will get quite an impressive thing with nice details. Moreover, I like that ICM is brave enough to go out with such large thing, and it is definitely a good subject for some diorama ideas.

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