Revell 1/48 Sikorsky H-19 (S-55) “Chickasaw”


Kit #s 181300 and 173
Collector’s Market Value ranges from $25.00 to $125.00 depending on boxing and condition
Images and text Copyright © 2007 by Matt Swan

Developmental Background
        During the final days of World War 2 the helicopter was just beginning to see some service with the military. Small, delicate units were being used as rescue units hovering around aircraft carriers to pick up those pilots who had to ditch for one reason or another. The helicopter’s load carrying ability was still very limited and balance was of critical importance but the machinery was being found useful. By 1949 the US Air Force had began to truly accept the helicopter and was looking to improve the load capacity. They went to Igor Sikorsky, the father of helicopter technology and placed a requirement for a helicopter that could transport ten men plus crew.
        Sikorsky had been busy on resolving several issues that he had already identified with the technology when this requirement was handed over and it was only seven months later that he was able to demonstrate a breakthrough design that provided for the lift capacity required but also dealt with the load balance issues. The S-55 flew on November 10, 1949 and with the rotary engine mounted forward in the nose and the cargo area positioned directly below the main rotor shaft, was able to accommodate the 10 man cargo and not be hyper sensitive to load shifts.
        This helicopter featured all metal blades, shock absorbers on all four landing struts and large clamshell doors around the engine. This feature provided for very easy servicing of the engine which really was a very standard aircraft type of engine (initially a 600hp R-1340-57 engine) where most of the operational bug had already been resolved. This resulted in a very easy aircraft to service and maintain. Another problem that helicopters had experienced was that during a hard landing rotor bounce would often result in the tail boom being severed and the helicopter taking massive damage. Sikorsky built in a three degree down angle into the tail boom that combined with the shock absorbers help to prevent this occurrence. As the type went into full production the engine was upgraded to a more powerful 700hp R-1300-3 and for military use the machine was designated H-19B “Chickasaw”.
        Sikorsky built over 1000 examples from their US factory and around 500 were built under license by Westland Aircraft in the UK, Sud-Est in France and Mitsubishi in Japan. The H-19 began its service career during the Korean War as an unarmed transport but several field modification were done to attempt to arm the unit. Various combinations of rockets, machine guns and cannons were mounted to the aircraft but the type did not have sufficient power to handle this additional load. The French experimented quite a bit with trying to arm this helicopter and ultimately gave up and shifted over to the H-34 Choctaw and Piasecki H-21. The French did give it a rather unusual name referring to it as "éléphant joyeux" (Happy elephant).
        This helicopter served with distinction for the US Army as well as with armed forces from Israel, Chile, South Africa, Denmark and Turkey. It was used by the French, Japanese and British. It was configured with wheels for land operations and floats for water operations. It was used for SAR operations, medical evacuations, tactical control and front line cargo support. This type began its military service around 1951 and by 1959 was already being phased out in favor of the H-21 and H-34. Today there are several examples of these helicopters in museums and a few still in flying condition.

The Kit(s)
        In 1955 life seemed much more simple than today, commies were bad and hot dogs were good. In the Southern states an up and coming pop performer named Elvis Presley had recorded five songs and was beginning to gain fame. The Salk vaccine against Polio was introduced in 1955 and one of our most feared diseases had its fangs pulled. The United States began offering foreign aid to South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. In the world of plastic modeling something fabulous was happening, the few model manufactures in existence were changing over from acetate plastic model kits, sometimes called “A” kits, to polystyrene plastic kits, called “S” kits. This change helped set the industry to begin to move into growing popularity that would become a golden age of modeling lasting through the beginning of the twenty first century. In Venice California the Revell Company had been working on mold set #707 which was released as kit #173 on March 15th, 1955 with the box title of S-55/H-19 Rescue Helicopter.
        At this time in model development manufactures did not focus on maintaining a particular scale such as 1/48 or 1/72 but rather produced what was known as “Box Scale”. This was a model kit that was scaled to fit the box it was to be packaged in. Today we tend to look at this kit as a 1/48 scale kit but in truth it is not, it is actually 1/49 scale – box scale. The original release of mold #707 was done with two different box arts and shot in an olive drab plastic. At this time the molds were designed with only land based running gear but in October 1955 the molds were modified to include a set of floats as an option and kits were shot in silver plastic. In 1958 the full kit with floats was reissued with the addition of a plastic base all done in silver plastic. Around this time the concept of manufacturing models all of similar scale was beginning to take hold and since these molds were so close to 1/48 Revell simply labeled all these kits as 1/48. 1972 was a big year for this kit; in 1972 the molds were given a limited run by Revell Japan without the floats as kit #181300 “Sikorsky H-19” shot in olive drab plastic. This issue included a little tiny tube of styrene glue. Obviously this particular boxing is very rare and brings a high price to collectors. All issues of this kit since then were done in silver plastic and bear the designation 1/48. Also in 1972 the kit was reissued once again with no base, with reworked instructions and a new name, “Sikorsky Rescue Helicopter”. In 1972 the copyright dates were removed from the molds with the bottom of the fuselage simply bearing the Revell logo and a slightly rough spot where that date had existed however the 1972 Revell Japan issue does include the 1955 copyright date on the fuselage. Finally in August 1978 the kit was re-issued for the last time, identical in every way to the 1972 “Rescue Helicopter” issue. Since then mold #707 has resided in the archives of Revell-Monogram in Morton Grove Illinois with no immediate plans for re-issue.
        There does exist one other 1/48(?) scale S-55 kit that is unrelated to these kits and that is the old Aurora S-55. This kit was produced by a company called “Helicopters for Industry” who specialized in “Stand” models. When they went out of business Aurora bought these molds and issued the kit under their name. This kit does not have the level of detail found in the Revell kit and is of slightly larger scale, probably in the neighborhood of 1/43. As a matter of helicopter model trivia “Helicopters for Industry” also produced the H-21 Flying Banana, HUP, HOK and Hiller Hornet during the same time period. I bring all this information up simply to avoid confusion should you be looking for one of thee old kits and think the Aurora kit is from the same molds, it is not. Its value is based entirely on rarity. Back to the Revell kit….
        The kits arrive in standard top opening boxes with all parts sealed in a common poly bag. Both the limited run Japanese kit and the standard Revell kit have nearly identical parts sprues with the rescue version having the floats attachment pieces tacked on to the fuselage sprues and two small additional sprues containing the float halves themselves. There is some medium level of flash around some parts and the fuselage is covered with large bulky rivets. When these molds were mastered the industry standard was for raised detail and that is what we get in spades, lots of raised detail. Really the worst of it is in the rivet work with there being several lightly raised panel lines and some deeper engraved panel lines here and there. There is not much to speak of for interior detail with these kits and what is offered is hugely incorrect. The cockpit seats are large, bulky and not at all close to what the actual seats looked like. The instrument panel is simply a plain piece of plastic with no detail at all and there is not even a decal to help this area out. The crew figures are thin with sink marks in the body and heavy flash. There is no detail to the cargo compartment. The engine bay clamshell doors are provided as separate pieces and there is an engine with some support pieces. Initially this engine looks very plain but upon examining actual S-55 engines it is surprisingly close. Add some wires and hoses and you have a passable rotary engine here.
        Rotor blades are adequate and rotor head is passable. Tail rotor is of the same quality as the main rotor. The kit clear parts provide for the flight compartment glazings only. There are not clear pieces provided for the cargo cabin windows and it will be up to the modeler to scratch build something there. The clear parts are very thick with well defined raised frame lines. They are designed to insert from the interior and while pretty clear for the time period will cause some distortion. On the plus side they are beefy enough that should the modeler care to use them as masters for smash molding or vacuforming new pieces they will provide a good base for that option. Below are images of the parts from both the 1972 issue and the Revell Japan issue, the only difference besides color of plastic is the addition of floats, float attachment hardware and an individual being hoisted on a winch.

You may click on these small images to view larger pictures

Decals and Instructions
        The Revell Japan instruction sheet is a very simple single page sheet from the original 1955 issue. While all the text on this sheet is done in Japanese it does contain six small exploded view assembly steps and a single image for decal placement. There are no color charts but there are a few color call-outs within the pictures (all in Japanese of course). The 1972 instructions are quite a bit better, not up to twenty first century instructions standards but a huge step forward from what the modeler had to deal with in 1955. Here we get a medium sized three panel fold-out that contains now forty five exploded view assembly steps. Makes you wonder how the modeler got by with six images in 1955. We still get no color chart and no color call-outs. There is a single image devoted to decal placement.
        Decals are very limited regardless of which kit issue you are looking at. My experience with helicopters says they are covered with little warning stencils and service stencils, more so than just about any other type of aircraft. For each of these kits we get very basic markings with either Coast Guard logos or Japanese hinomarus. We get basic tail rotor warning strips and some basic unit numbers. The decals in the Japanese kit look to be severely yellowed and will most likely break apart if the modeler attempts to use them untreated. The Coast Guard sheet looks much better and will probably survive use. I have adjusted the contrast on the Japanese sheet so you can see the white markings. You may click on either of these two small images to view full sized scans of the sheets. Color density does look good and print registry looks okay as well.

Conclusions
        1/48? 1/49? It’s pretty darned close, close enough for me not to care. Shoot, I’ve used 1/43 scale cars right along side 1/48 scale aircraft kits and they look pretty good so this minor scale variance does not slow me down one bit. Even though we are looking at a kit that is more than fifty years old it certainly looks like a “Chickasaw”. The basic shape and external components are there and look to be fairly close to the real thing. Yea, it is covered with those god awful raised rivets all over the place but that can be easily fixed. Internally the kit is very weak and the modeler must put some work into either building scratch components or converting other parts from contemporary kits to use here. I did a little research then over a period of a few hours assembled a new pilot seat from stuff I found in my spares box and some stock styrene sheet. Click on the small image for a look at what an S-55 seat should look like. The kit pieces do fit together well and the instructions are useful. The decals are basic at best and would benefit from the addition of any generic 1/48 scale helicopter decals.
        There are no aftermarket items made for this kit. Once upon a time Cutting Edge made a detail set for the Revell H-34 that contained many useful things that could have been used here. Cobra Company has made noise about making a new set for the H-34 so should that happen there is hope for this. As it stands the modeler has to do some work to make this kit shine. I give this kit a fair recommendation at best due to the lack of internal detail, limited decals and heavy raised rivet detail. Look at the box art of the Rescue version – seems the modeler that built it shaved off all the rivets. If you are a fan of helicopters you probably should have one of these if for nothing more than the historical significance of the type.