What you get in the package is a full gear replacement in white metal for both main gear legs and the tail gear. In many cases SAC will assemble some of the kit parts prior to casting. In this case the replacement parts number is the same as the kit parts. They have cleaned up the gear and filled any imperfections that were present on the original plastic parts. They also have enhanced the level of detail on the gear well above that of the plastic parts

The gear in the kit consists of five plastic parts. The metal replacement parts make up five pieces, two for each main gear and a single piece for the tail gear.

Detail is crisper on the metal gear than on the kit’s plastic parts. One can also tell from the photos that the SAC gear is much beefier, especially on the main gear retraction arms. The replacement parts are a drop fit with no issues what so ever. The overall appearance of the replacement gear is vastly superior to the kit parts.

Thank you to MRC and Gallery Models for providing another example of an iconic USN helicopter, this time in the distinctive Operation Deep Freeze color scheme. The kit was a very pleasant and enjoyable build. Thank you also to the IPMS Reviewer Corps staff members who do the hard work behind the scenes, getting us kits to review and publishing our work.

This kit is the latest in a series of H-34 variants by Gallery. Excellent reviews of the H-34 Choctaw (by William Nichols), the H-34 U. S. Navy Rescue version (by Rod Lees), and the HH-34J (by Dave Morrissette) may be found on the IPMS site. I suggest consulting these reviews as there are many great ideas and suggestions that are pertinent to the UH-34D reviewed here. All three of these reviewers found items I would’ve missed.

Eduard’s partnership with fellow Czech company HGW continues with their release of these pre-cut printed fabric seat belts. The belts themselves are made from very thin, elastic like fabric onto which the details and colors are printed. The belts are printed in the standard Luftwaffe light tan for this set, with the late war Orlon green available in a separate set.

The hardware is typical Eduard, rendered beautifully and precisely. Three types of mounting brackets are included for the shoulder harnesses, so check your references to the type used specific to your model.

Assembly is straight forward, if not a tad fiddly. The belts re very thin, and thread well through the photo-etched buckles and parts. As noted in other reviews here, they work best if you do not crumple them up before threading them as the instructions states.