I wanted to do some research before buying these kits. First,is Italeri’s 1/48 Chinook any good?Last, what about 1/48 CH-53 from academy? are they both accuret
The 1/48 CH-53E is an extremely solid kit. I’m sure ridleusmc will be along to discuss any (if any) inaccuracies. Check out his thread on this forum – he just finished a bang-up job on one.
Hi Raptor,
The detail makes the Italeri Chinook attractive, along with the availability of an accurate aftermarket decal sheet from Zotz. Also, the attachment divots for the stub wings and grenade launcher are internal, so the conversion to a “Slick” would be very practical, with the addition of troop seats, hoist, and two lateral window panels.
I would recommend both kits… and you may also want to consider the 1/48 CH-46 by MRC to round out the collection, all are nice kits!
Take care,
Frank
Ditto with all said above…All great kits though the 1/48 Chinook is a nice bird in that scale…there have been ONLY two Chinooks done in 1/48…the first was the old Aurora kit first done in 1964 and then again in 70 I believe…OK kit…but very sparse on details, it use to go for 100.00 to 200.00 on ebay but now they are going for 50.00 or less…funny how that works.
Yeah… [8D]… somebody knows all about those Aurora ebay deals, don’t they Troy? [;)]
Take care,[:)]
Frank
Ouch! You really know how to kick a guy where it hurts dontya! hehehe Have a nice Holiday Frank!
Not to add insult to injury, but I found mine at a swap meet for $10, Happy Holiday’s
There’s two reviews in prior FineScale Modeler issues:
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Trumpeter CH-47A in the July 2006
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Italeri MH-47E in the April 2002
Rich W
Thanks for the nod Whiskey,
The Academy CH-53E is a great kit. It builds into a wonderful and accurate representation of the beast. I added alot of tweaks to mine and there was definately room for more, but I think Academy did a bang up job. This is a thread which shares my build of Academy’s CH-53E.
/forums/640840/ShowPost.aspx
This is my Photobucket page which has some reference shots of CH-53E’s, and pics of my 1/72 and 1/48 53’s
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v491/ridleusmc/
The one Major thing I didn’t like about the Academy kit was the painting instructions. The 3 tone Grey/Grey/White scheme, should just be Dark grey and then light grey. Marine Corps CH-53’s don’t wear white on their bellies. I guess you’d need the instructions in hand to know what I’m talking about. In short, don’t paint the underside of the fuselage white. In the 4.5 years that I’d worked on these Aircraft, I have never seen one with a belly painted white.
Semper Fi,
Chris
I am working on the Italeri ACH-47A and am going the slick version as Frank mentioned. I was going to try to scratch build some seats but I’m gonna pass on that.
If you do a slick remember that when making the lateral window panels that you have to do four of them…two for the exterior and two for the interior and lining them up is kind of tricky especially when trying to cut the holes for the windows.
The cabin floor detail is very nicely done as is the lower crew door, but some areas around the ramp and in the cockpit, heater closet, avionics closet and companion way between the cockpit and cabin are complete works of fiction as are the aft landing gear struts. The rotor heads are O.K. but the pitch change links are bogus. The plumbing around the ramp area is molded on so some careful painting is required, the paint guide seems to call for all the raised areas to be painted black, but this is wrong, the only items that need to be painted black are the fuel lines and the fuel transfer lines (they are the largest of the raised detail in this area), Also the instructions call for painting the “eyebrow” windows(the overhead windows over the pilot and copilot seats) a clear green… I can’t say what color they were on ACH-47As, but on the slick versions of the As, Cs, and Ds that I crewed, they were all clear with no tint to them, the HF stnadoffs need to be cut down to about half the size as provided in the kit. I haven’t looked real close at the armament except to note that the mounting points for the .50 cals are on the barrels instead of the recievers of the guns where they should be.
I would have thought Eduard or someone else would have done up some aftermarket details for this kit, and maybe they will…probably about the time I finish the one I am working on. The end results will be OK, but it could have been a GREAT kit…The Academy CH-46 series on the other hand, while not completely accurate, come much closer than the Italeri ACH-47A, at least that is my take on the two.
To be honest, if someone had never worked on a Chinook, they wouldn’t know the short comings of this kit and it wouldn’t make any difference. My situation is a case of having spent too much time on the 1:1 and finding too many faults with a reasonable facsimilie of the real item.
Jonathan Primm
Youngsville, LA
Hi Jonathan…
Concur.
I checked the kit instructions and compared them to a reference pic, and it appears the mounts do attach to a shroud at the base of the barrell. The “kit” mounts are too tall however: 
In looking at the picture below, a couple other points of detail was noticed that the kit pieces don’t have… there are “short” Stringer sections between each of the full span Stringers along the cabin cealing… form strips from sheet styrene and positions holes Also, note the First-Aid stations throughout and “step boxes” are also indicated in the pic. I haven’t altogether figured how to put the holes in the molded stringers, since they’re so close together. A small 90 degree elbow for my Dremmel would be nice… maybe a crude hole filed uniform using a micro rat-tail file?
You’re right, most would be perfectly content with a straight out of box construction, and admittedly that makes an excellent display, but shucks, with a little TLC someone with an intimate knowledge of “her” anatomy could leave the rivit counters scratching their heads! [:O] Having folks around like you, who can see the areas others can’t, is a fantastic edge! [tup] That’s what makes this Hobby so great! [:)][tup]
I can’t wait to get started on mine, but have a couple other projects I have to get finished first. I’ve offered to do a replica of the 147th “Hillclimbers” “A” Model my Uncle was flying on the worst (and luckiest) night of his life - http://www.147thhillclimbers.org/AnNhutTan.htm - .
Take care,
Frank