H-1 / AB-47 H-13 Sioux Helicopter

This week's helicopter model is the Bell H-13 Sioux, H-1 / AB-47 Light Helicopter, the military variant of the Bell 47 single-engine single-rotor light helicopter with more variant numbers and aliases than you can shake a stick at! Although first launched into service in 1946, its place in helicopter history was secured when dubbed the "Angel of Mercy" by soldiers battling against the Chinese and Communist forces during the 1950-1953 Korean war. After rekindling memories of "Hot Lips" Houlihan during my Bristol Sycamore medivac helicopter build a few weeks ago, it was one helicopter I just had to include in my scale modelling project! Those of a certain age will recall Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan as that lusty and extremely capable head nurse played by Loretta Swit in the 1972 to 1983 hit TV series MASH. Set in a US Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) during the Korean war, the H-13 Sioux is the helicopter seen flying in across the screen with a wounded soldier strapped to its skis during the opening credits of all 251 episodes! 

The finished Italeri 1:72 scale H-1 / AB-47 Light Helicopter kit

The source model for my build was Italeri's 1998, 1:72 scale H-1 / AB-47 Light Helicopter kit. I would like to have been able to track down a replica model of the original MASH helicopter with medical markings and stretcher pods such as those produced in the mid 1990s by Revell and Academy. Fortunately, for my bank balance, they only made them in 1/35 scale and so I was not tempted to part with the best part of £120 that a seller in America was asking for his rare and pristine kit! The quality of this Italeri model, however, is amazing. The detail and quality of the mouldings: the engine with its exhaust manifolds and drive belt, and the number of pieces required to build the tubular tail section, was truly outstanding. 

The H-13 Sioux Medivac helicopter arrives at MASH with a casualty

Although the smallest, it was probably one of the most technical and challenging builds of all my 22 lockdown models! Fitting the engine into the structure reminded me of when I had to drop an engine into an old mini I used to own! My only disappointment with Italeri models, and there are very few, is that they don't supply a pilot figure. I, therefore, had to improvise by amalgamating a couple of figures I had in my spares box to create the closest match to a Korean war pilot I could. The model was intended to be completed with a set of very detailed machine guns, mounted on the top of the skis, but as this did not fit with my plan for a medivac helicopter, I’ve saved them for another occasion, adding them to my spares box, and the stretcher, first seen in the Sycamore build, sits nicely in their place.

Casualty delivered to MASH, the H-13 Sioux Helicopter is cleared to take off

To complete the scale model experience, I constructed a diorama representing a small corner of a MASH base. The red dusty soil, which during the wet Korean winter turns to sticky mud which then dries and cracks in the sun, is recreated from a small lump of local Triassic rock debris. The MASH aid tent was made from a frame of old plastic sprue and a man sized tissue sprayed with a couple of coats of olive drab. The door and store hut are made from cardboard offcuts left over from my aircraft hanger and the camouflage net is a piece of plastic packaging supported on poles cut from old pieces of sprue and freezer bag wire guide ropes. Add a few US marine figures, an ambulance, jeep, trailer and a few bits and bobs and MASH 4077 is brought to life on a small table top!

H-13 Sioux Helicopter leaves MASH to extract its next casualty

On their arrival in Korea in November 1950, the first attachment of four H-13 Sioux helicopters were assigned to utility, wire laying, liaison, and reconnaissance missions. In January1951, four helicopter detachments were assigned to the 8th U.S. Army surgeon, and it was 1st Lt. Willis G. Shawn and 1st Lt. Joseph L. Bowler who are said to have flown the first Army aerial medical evacuation (Medevac) missions. The H-13 Sioux helicopter was to go on to transport 18,000 of the war's total 23,000 casualties to forward deployed Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals.

The success of the Medevac techniques pioneered by Army helicopter pilots was most dramatically revealed in the reduction in the death rate of evacuated patients before they reached medical facilities from 4.5 percent during World War II to 2.5 percent during the Korean War. Just as the British saw in Malaya, in addition to shortening the time it took for seriously wounded troops to reach treatment, the use of aerial Medevac in Korea eased the extra stress placed on the remaining ground troops who had to carry and care for the sick and wounded not airlifted off the battlefield.

H-13 Sioux Helicopter returns to base

The second momentous development in the Army's use of helicopters in Korea occurred in July 1952, when the 6th Transportation Company (Helicopter) received the H-19 Chickasaw, the service's first true cargo and troop transport helicopter. The H-19 Chickasaw was the same Westland Whirlwind helicopter so successfully used by the British during the Malaya Emergency and the subject of my last scale model build.

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The model

Make: Italeri
Model: AH-1 / AB-47 Light Helicopter
Number: 095
Scale: 1:72
Released: 1998 | Rebox (Updated/New parts)