Tag Archives: Sikorsky

Sea Stallion

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Military things, like cars, are often named after exciting or deadly animals. Unless they’re from the Soviet Union of course, in which case an array of numbers and letters was sufficient.

Cue the Sikorsky RH-53D ‘Sea Stallion’, so called because ‘Sea Horse’ was already taken by another Sikorsky aircraft, but mostly because ‘Stallion’ sounds far more masculine.

The RH-35D was operated by the U.S Navy Marines from 1975 until 1997, primarily for mine clearing and heavy lifting, and it’s been recreated in incredible detail in Lego form by previous bloggee [Maks].

At 1:40 scale, [Maks]’s Sea Stallion measures 80cm across, and took almost a year to complete, with his spectacular attention to detail further enhanced by some beautifully authentic decals.

There’s a whole lot more of the Sikorsky RH-35D to see at [Maks]’s ‘RH-53D Sea Stallion’ Flickr album, including imagery showing those enormous rotor blades cleverly folded, and you can take a look via the link above. Just don’t call it a horse.

Horse Truck

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Surprisingly we don’t think we’ve ever blogged a horse truck here at TLCB (and we’re reluctant to go into the Archives to check properly as there are rumours of a feral band of TLCB Elves inhabiting them).

Today doesn’t change that though, despite the title, as this lovely Dodge M-37 truck is not a horse truck per say, rather it’s here as ground support for [Maks] previously blogged UH-34D Seahorse U.S Navy helicopter.

That means no attractive horsey girls called Arabella, but still an ace scene that would have been commonplace in the 1960s U.S Navy. There’s more to see of [Maks] Dodge M-37 truck and superb Sikorsky Seahorse on Flickr – click the link above to take a look.

I Can’t Hear You, There’s a Helicopter

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President Trump is going to have to return to his own helicopter from February. Whilst we’re sure this will still offer plenty of toupee-glue testing moments, incoming President Joe Biden’s numerous cosmic alterations seem not to include a wig, more’s the pity.

Anyhoo, whichever cosmetically enhanced face is in the White House, it will be flown about in this, the specially adapted Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King ‘Marine One’.

Often a feature on the White House lawn, doing its best to drown out whatever spur-of-the-moment nonsense is being spouted to the press, Marine One has been a Presidential fixture for decades, with almost twenty (Marine One and Twos) in operation the current Presidential fleet.

This superb mini-figure replica of the world’s most famous helicopter comes from BigPlanes of Flickr, who has recreated the real VH-3D Marine One beautifully, including custom decals and a fully-fitted interior, although there’s no angry orange mini-figure shouting from underneath it, which is surely a missed opportunity.

No matter, there’s more to see of BigPlanes’ creation at his ‘LEGO VH-3D Marine One’ album on Flickr, plus you can find his amazing previously blogged recreation of Air Force One by clicking here.

Hippocampus Helicopter

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The seahorse is a funny little animal. Delicate looking but with bony armour, they swim upright, have no scales, and the female gives birth to eggs which the male then carries before giving birth live young. That’s shared parenthood right there. It’s also not like a horse in any way, but most things in the sea seem to be named after things on land that they aren’t really like.

Cue the Sikorsky UH-34D Seahorse, which isn’t really like either the sea or land based versions of it’s namesake either. But it is quite a cool device, being one of the last piston-engined helicopters in use in the U.S Navy, operating from the mid-’50s to the 1970s. This one, built by [Maks] of Flickr, is in a rather fetching (and highly visible) orange due to its use in the arctic, and has been quite wonderfully recreated.

Finding the orange parts needed to construct this model must have been tricky as it’s a rather rare colour, and you can see the excellent fruits of [Maks]’s efforts at his photostream. Swim over to Flickr in an upright fashion via the link above.

Coast Guard ‘Copter

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This excellent Sikorsky HH-52 U.S. Coast Guard helicopter was discovered by one of our Elves on Flickr today. It comes from Robson M, features custom decals, folding rotors, a sliding side door and a hoist for rescuing drowning swimmers / apprehending Mexicans. See more of Robson’s top notch build at his photostream via the link above.

Anthem Air

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Lego Mach Anthem

LEGO’s own 42078 Mack Anthem set is the flagship of the H1 2018 Technic range. With nearly 2,600 pieces it’s one of the biggest Technic sets ever, but that hasn’t stopped Paliason deciding to go even bigger. This is what he’s built, a simply astonishing Mack Anthem 70″ sleeper truck complete with a Landoll 825E-AG lowboy trailer, upon which is spectacular Sikorsky H19 Chickasaw U.S Air Force rescue helicopter.

Lego Mach Anthem

Each of the three builds is a work of art in its own right, featuring beautiful custom decals and a variety of functions. The Mack Anthem includes a piston engine underneath a tilting hood, a detailed cab interior inside opening doors, and working steering, whilst the Landoll trailer behind it features a working detachable gooseneck and side extensions.

Lego Sikorsky H19 CHICKASAW

The amazing Sikorsky H19 rescue helicopter adds a pair of Power Functions motors that turn the main and tail rotors, and features one of the coolest cockpits we’ve ever seen in LEGO form.

There’s much more to see of Paliason’s incredible trio of creations at the Eurobricks discussion forum. Make the jump to Eurobricks by clicking here, and if you’d like to see how LEGO themselves did it way back in 1990 you can read our review of the classic Model Team 5590 Heli-Transport set by clicking here.

Lego Mack Anthem Truck & Sikorsky H19 Helicopter

Seahorse

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Lego USMC UH-34D Seahorse

The early marine biologists of the world were not inventive in the naming department. It seems many marine animals are simply named after a land animal, but with the word ‘sea’ added before, or ‘fish’ added after, even if there are no similarities whatsoever between the two. The humble seahorse is a case in point. With a mass of just a few ounces, no legs, and reproduction via eggs, the seahorse and regular horse are about as far apart on the animal spectrum as you can get. Lazy marine biologists, lazy…

Military engineers however, are far better at naming things. This is a Sikorsky H-34 Seahorse helicopter, and whilst the weird little fish doesn’t have rotor blades, it really does look quite a lot like the H-34. The Seahorse’s strange looks come from the huge 1,500bhp radial engine mounted in the nose, as back in the fifties most helicopters were not powered by the more compact turbine engines that are now fitted to almost all rotorary-wing aircraft.

This enormous power plant meant the cockpit needed to be raised above it in order for the pilots to see, giving the Sikorsky H-34 and the many variants that followed their unusual seahorsey shape.

This particular version of the Sikorsky H-34 is a UH-34D from 1962, deployed by the US Marines in the Vietnam War and recreated beautifully in Lego form in all of its weirdness by Flickr’s Ralph Savelsberg (aka Mad Physicist). Ralph’s superb replica of the famous American helicopter includes a side opening door and some simply awesome detailing, enabled by the range of ingenious building techniques that Ralph is known for.

Head over to Flickr via the link above for all the photos, and you can read our interview with the builder as part of The Lego Car Blog’s Master MOCers series by clicking here.

Lego Sikorsky H-34 Seahorse

 

Ho Ho Ho…

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Lego HH-3E Jolly Green Giant

…Green Giant. We’re not convinced that the marketing department at Green Giant canned vegetables were being completely original when they came up with their tagline, but in fairness if Father Christmas hadn’t trademarked it first it was a bit short sighted of him. Anyway, it does allow us a tenuous link to Christmas with this blog post title, so we’re cool with it.

This superb military helicopter, complete with some of the best brick-built camouflage that we’ve ever seen, is a Sikorsky HH-3E ‘Jolly Green Giant’. Launched in the early 1960s the big Sikorsky has been in continuous use ever since, with both it and the UK variant (the Westland Sea King) forming the backbone of American and British search and rescue fleets.

The brilliant Lego recreation of the Jolly Green Giant featured here comes from Flicker’s [Maks] and it’s without doubt one of the finest Lego helicopters that we’ve come across since this site was founded. There’s lots more to see at [Maks]’ photostream – click the link above to take off.

Lego Sikorsky S-61R

Poseidon

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Lego Sea King Helicopter

Nope, not the slightly dodgy remake of the slightly dodgy film of the 1969 book by American novelist Paul Gallico, but this – the King of the Sea, the Sikorsky/Westland SH-3 Sea King helicopter – the aircraft of choice for maritime rescue agencies the world over. This lovely 1:40 scale mini-figure version of the iconic helicopter comes from Flickr’s [Maks] and there’s more to see at the link.

Sikorsky Skycrane

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Lego Sikorsky CH-54 Helicopter

It’s an RC kinda day here at TLCB. LEGO’s beautifully versatile Power Functions motors can be used to enhance almost any model, and one of the more unusual we’ve found recently is this Sikorsky CH-54 Skycrane helicopter. Eurobricks’ juGSI16V is the builder and you can see more of his brilliant remote control Technic helicopter at the link above.

S-55

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Sikorsky S-55 / HRS-1

It may be a bit fat, ungainly, and getting on a little, but the Sikorsky S-55 is still able to take up to eight troops at once. Just like your Mom. Ralph Savelsberg has recreated the world’s first proper army transport helicopter – which is still in use right around the world – brilliantly in mini-figure scale. Click the link above to see more.

Heavy Lifting

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Lego HelicopterThis Jupiter Heavy Lifting Helicopter is the work of the rather talented Don Quixote 2×4, who’s based his design on the Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion. Check out the full gallery on Flickr.