Some more options. These beasts could pick up almost anything.
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H.P.
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some excellent pictures there Frenchy, great ideas for a diorama!
I was wondering why there havenāt been any updates about the Tathe: so I emailed ICM last week. This is the response I received earlier today:
Thanks for your message.
We plan to release kit 53054 - Sikorsky CH-54A Tarhe, US heavy helicopter on the IV quarter of this year.
We will post updated news on our social media and website, stay tuned.
Have a nice day!
Best regards, Daryna
Support manager
Just in time for Christmas. 
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Good news. I am looking forward to seeing it and their other announced helos too.
Los Angeles Fire Department Sky Crane Tanker Fire Helicopters - La Canada fire 2009 - YouTube Erickson Aircrane Dropping Water on a Wildfire || ViralHog - YouTube
Good videos. The name on the first one is wrong though. They are actually owned and operated by Ericson Air Crane and leased out by the US Forest Service and/or LA County for fire fighting duties.
Hopefully someone will make a firefighting module for the ICM kit.
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I think there are multiple operators. Believe Colson has a couple in their fleet too. Seen photos of ones in Oz. Not sure if they āliveā there or were shipped down for the BFWFs a couple years back. National Guard unit up the road at Stead had 64s till they switched to H-47s (and H-60s, and H-72 Lakotas.) The H-47s and 60S get a lot of work with bambi buckets. (Weāve been lucky, most of their work has been in Ca. , except for a couple border incursions into NV for Ca. We just get the smoke ā¦ for weeks at a time ā¦ usually with high 90s+ temps. (we are talking just making out the trash dumpster , 75 meters away, at the other end of the parking lot!)
Agreed, but the orange and green ones are definitely Erickson.
EDIT: After a bit of digging, I found this out:
Coulson has retired/sold all their S-64 Sky Cranes. Evergreen Aviation, formerly the largest operator, recently sold to Erickson as well.
The only other current operator is Helicopter Transport Services out of Corvallis, Oregon. Theirs are red and white.
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your right about the weight capacity of the CH54! They brought our brand new M54 gun truck out in one, but it couldnāt set it down inside the wire! They used the gravel air strip about a quarter mile away. CONEX containers were a common load for them. Yet they were still about as common as your discharge papers!
gary
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ICM is showing CAD drawings of the CH-54A Tarhe. It looks really nice and should (hopefully) be coming soon.
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Aw baby donāt be teasinā me now, you know I want you sooo bad, Iām gonna make a special place just for you, come on now, come home to daddy. 
Cajun 
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Thatās gonnaā be a monster!
I had the OG kit when I was a kid with the āpersonnel podā slung beneath it. Canāt remember the scale or manufacturer. Monogram?
Thatās it. Was probably $1.75 or one and three quarters of a lawn in Lawton, Oklahoma.
I think the main rotor could be attached to the cargo cable, too. When you turned the rotor, the cable payed out or was withdrawn.
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I hope it is planned in 1/48! I donāt have the space to display such a beast.
wasnāt this promised last year 2022?
I think ICM / Ukraine have a few things on their minds the last 11 months and still have. Just glade they are OK and still going and producing kits.
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I was thinking (ambitiously for once) of getting the Tarhe, then I saw a pic of it handling a Sheridan, and sort of realised how big it would be! Perhaps not then.
I must just say though, I do appreciate the increasing number of helicopters coming on to the market in 1:35, not that Iām an aero modeller, but just that it enables one to add to/ring the changes with AFV scenariosā¦
The rotor alone will have a diameter of about 70 cmā¦