1/48 H-34G, which is better?

[Jon Krol]

Italeri or Gallery/Trumpeter?

[AD-4N]

18 hours ago, Jon Krol said:

Italeri or Gallery/Trumpeter?

They are the same kit.  Decals might be different.  The plastic is the same.

[Tank]

54 minutes ago, AD-4N said:

They are the same kit.  Decals might be different.  The plastic is the same.

Not the same plastic between Italeri and Gallery/Trumpeter. Between Gallery and Trumpeter, that is correct. 

 

Italeri

https://www.scalemates.com/products/img/8/1/5/999815-86-instructions.pdf
 

Gallery/Trumpeter

https://www.scalemates.com/products/img/4/6/0/261460-46-instructions.pdf

 

Better, is interesting word because it depends on what things you value in a kit/peoject. They are both about the same age 2012. 

 

Italeri in many feels like a scaled up version of their 1/72 kit. If that is the case, there are some issues to look out for. The detail appears softer overall. 

Gallery has an engine and more parts. The detail seems sharper and more options. Depending on how detailed you want your build there was some issues I saw on the H-34D kit, not sure if those would carry over to the G kit or not. 

I myself have bought the Gallery kits and not the Italeri H-34D in 1/48. I have the Italeri 1/72 kit. Italeri kit sorta reminds me of the Revell kit in many ways and the Gallery kit seems a step above. I am not an expert H-34 fan, so while Gallery might offer more it might be off in other areas that more knowledgeable people might find Italeri captures better, I don’t know. Just my thoughts and where I have spent my money. 
 

Hope that helps.

[AD-4N]

Sorry, you are correct.  I should have said Gallery and Trumpeter H-34 are the same kit.

[PeepingBear]

Hello from Germany, 

as already written, there are principally three kits of the H-34 in "quarter scale" (1/48): The old and not to detailed Revell kit from the 1990es (with an underscale rotor head, a overly simple cabin and cockpit but with nice raised rivets all over the fuselage), and the kits from Gallery (Trumpeter) and Italeri, both from the 201x years. Pictures of their sprues and of the modelling instructions can be found here: https://www.super-hobby.com/products/H-34-US-MARINES-re-edition.html (Trumpeter) and https://www.super-hobby.com/products/H-34A-Pirate-UH-34D-U.S.-Marines.html (Italeri, an early H-34A with the landing gear of sub-variants I and II, their kit of the German SAR variant has type III landing gear) The Gallery/ Tumpeter and the Italeri kits are/ were offered in serveral versions with the V-shaped landing gear struts (H-34G.III) but also with the L-shaped lower struts (older variants H-34G.I and-II, furthermore, the motor exhaust is farther down for variant I and II and higher up for III). 

 

I crawled all over and around a H-34 in a German museum and we had a Chocktaw as our Heeresflieger air field gate guard. My photos, the Schiffer book on the H-34, the old German F-40 series booklet and my memory let me think that both the Italeri kit and the trumpeter kit will yield really nice models. 

 

Italeri offers parts for the collective controls (left hand side sticks), Gallery forgot these. Italeri reproduced the cooling vent slits at the aft end of the "dog house" correctly with several "stiffeners between the slits, Gallery has just one central "stiffening" line.  See e.g. https://b-domke.de/AviationImages/Choctaw.html#H-34G-II (farther down the aft end of the dog house is shown) or https://modellbau360.eu/walkaround-h-34-g/ or http://originalundmodell.de/originale/h-34g.htm for walk around pictures. 

 

Gallery's detail is a bit sharper, but the detail of Iteleri's kit is not mushy, fully acceptable. Gallery offers a detailed Wright R-1820 engine, Italeri just shows the parts visible under the belly. I think Gallery used a German example, because their kit shows the three rows of vent slits on the starboard side upper tail. (I think this is for the cabin heating, there is an exhaust tube on the port side.) 

 

Both kits wait in my stash, the Italeri kit is now open beside my keyboard, I must say it looks very buildable. On German modelling forums one can read that the panel lines of Italeri's kit do not match from one fuselage half to the other, annoying, but rather easily fixed. 

 

Verdict: Gallery/ Trumpeter ranks top (say an A- school grade), but rather closely followed by Italeri. The old Revell kit is of definitely inferior detail with some hard to improve weaknesses - just a collector's item.