Introduction

The CH-54 Tarhe helicopter was a workhorse for the US Army during the Vietnam War. As the nickname “Sky Crane” suggests, it was designed as a heavy-lift helicopter. It weighs 19,800 lbs. empty and could carry an additional 25,000 lbs. of cargo. The simple, but very robust, design has allowed it to last even to today – no longer in military use, but in commercial use for heavy construction, firefighting, humanitarian relief, and even supporting the rescue of a whale. In Vietnam, each CH-54 Company was issued a few Universal Military Pods to enable repositioning equipment and troops as needed in support of military operations. These pods also served as medivac units and mobile command posts.

ICM has accurately reproduced a 1/35 scale kit of this pod, configured for troop transport, as an accessory kit for their line of 1/35 scale CH-54A helicopter kits. This accessory kit also includes M8A1 Landing Mat panels. The landing mat sections provide a base just big enough (210mm x 336mm or about 8¼ in x 13¼ in) for a CH-54 with the transport pod underneath.

In the Box

Lifting the full color illustrated top cover of an ICM kit reveals a sturdy, plain white cardboard box with a lid of its own that protects the kit parts. Inside this kit are 2 sealed bags – 1 bag with 4 sprues (x12 pieces ea.) of M8A1 Landing Mat panels and 1 bag with 7 sprues (168 pieces) of pod parts, molded in gray and 1 sprue of 5 clear windows. One sprue is repeated 3 times, so you will end up with a few spare parts (which is good because some are small and easy to lose). There is also a very nice 16-page booklet of instructions for the pod with a color painting and decal placement guide on the cover, 1 double-sided sheet for the landing mat, and an advert for ICM’s acrylic paint line. Full color decals are provided for the pod with 3 marking options:

1. Universal Military Pod 18597, 295th Aviation Company, 1972
2. Universal Military Pod 18590, Army National Guard, 1982
3. Universal Military Pod 18588, 113th Aviation Regiment, 1989

The side, ceiling and floor interior panel parts are very sharply molded and include pod structural stringers, electrical conduits, floor attachment points, and even a circuit breaker panel. Panel lines and raised rivets are to scale and very nicely done. The attention to detail that went into the kit parts and the molds is fantastic. ICM’s formulation of plastic is slightly soft and responds very well to fast-acting liquid cement. There was no flash to speak of on any of the parts. The clear parts (the 5 windows) are also perfectly clean and clear with no flash or impurities. Any lingering molding marks (ejection pin marks and injection stumps) are hidden during the assembly – very well-thought-out.

Construction/Finishing

The assembly sequence in the instructions is logical, but I skipped around a little, so I could paint and weather sub-assemblies along the way. My last two steps were installing the windows and then installing the pod’s roof (to keep the windows clean until I was done). The pod kit comes with ‘retracted’ landing gear actuator parts, so you could choose to build the pod with the wheels up or down; however, only the extended (down) gear actuators are described in the instructions. This is designed to be a static display model – the wheels and side doors are inoperable and although the ramp can be raised and lowered (carefully), there is no latching mechanism to hold it closed. Such a mechanism would take away from the accuracy of this kit anyway.

I painted the individual sub-assemblies along the way using the colors called out in the instruction booklet as a guide. ICM produces a pre-packaged acrylic paint set that is referred to in this kit’s instructions (ICM 3026 - Acrylic paint set for US Helicopters). While this set of paints is a good start, and includes the correct exterior colors, you will need other colors for the interior and details for the pod. A detailed color callout table is shown on the front of the instruction booklet.

The decals are very nice, but beware, they are very thin and sensitive to touch. These decals slide off the backing paper quickly using warm water. I used a toothpick to move them off of the backing paper and onto the gloss-coated part, and in doing so, I tore up the first window corner decal with the toothpick. I ended up painting it on instead. The decals responded very well to setting solution and conformed to the panels over rivets and panel lines, with no bubbling or visible adhesive.

The landing mat assembly is very straight forward, using tabs and slots. All you must do is paint and weather to taste. Once assembled, it is flimsy since it is so thin.

You can find ICM’s step-by-step assembly video for this kit on YouTube.

Conclusions

ICM’s Universal Military Pod and M8A1 US Landing Mat kit is a great accessory to their 1/35 scale line of CH-54A Tarhe kits. Even with all the turmoil in Ukraine, ICM remains able to crank out these fantastic, detailed and accurate kits. The engineering accuracy and detail in this kit, and all of their others, is second to none. This accessory kit (pod and landing mat) allows for a variety of diorama/display options for the CH-54. You can also purchase additional sections of the M8A1 US Landing Mat (kit #53200) alone to increase the size of your display layout. I highly recommend this Universal Military Pod kit with the associated M8A1 landing mat for anyone interested in Vietnam-era aircraft and/or utility, heavy-lift helicopters.

Thanks to ICM for developing this accessory kit for their CH-54A helicopter series and for providing this kit to the IPMS/USA for review. Thanks also to IPMS/USA for giving me the opportunity to review it.

Additional Information

Oddly enough, there is not a lot of technical information on the internet regarding these Universal Military Pods. I was unable to find out who developed and built these pods for the Army. ICM’s instruction booklet says, “A total of 22 containers were built, each with its own unique military registration number.” There was also another pod variant used by the Army that was similar in size and capacity, also carried by the CH-54. Many of you may remember the old, old 1/72 scale Aurora CH-54 kit with the slightly differently shaped pod design that came with that kit. Most noticeably, that pod had rounded edges and a single dual-wheel setup in the middle, under the ramp/door. There are several photos and drawings of both pod types online.