Good luck on restoring the real one.

For the record for anyone else still watching this forum, I found an article in the VN Helo. Crewmembers Assoc Journal stating that after I left my unit, in late 1970-71, the Ghostriders of C Co/227AHB, 1st Air Cav "...had many of our H-models sporting miniguns on the left and .50 calibers on the right.  The inspiration for this configuration was the Nighthawk ship... the CO indulged our weapons choices, even though the 1st Aviation Brigade management did not especially care for a slick company to be armed in this unauthorized way..."  The US was unilaterally pulling out of Vietnam and the diminishing number of guys that were left wanted to increase their odds of coming home.  Some of these guns were simply hooked up to the pintle mounts that were there for the M60s!

Which comes back to one of my Murphy's Laws of Modeling:  Never Say Never!!

Howie 

Dear Skypirate1,

And to all of you good guys who have posted a reply here.  I don't know if it's proper etiquette to add another response to this superb collection at such a late date, however, I have only recently come across this post, so please forgive me.

I'd like to add a comment concerning the use of a C-ration can as a feed guide for the M-60.  I personally used this arrangement and found it to be both simple and satisfactory.  One post I saw referred to a "used" C-ration can.  Anyone who used a "used" C-ration can, ie. a can that had been opened, quickly found out that the can squeezed shut and became out-of-round almost immediately following the first few rounds fired.  This was a "number ten" event.

In selecting a can to use, my personal favorite was "ham & limas."  This is because by using "ham & limas," nobody was likely to remove the can and eat the contents.  Ask anyone who's broken open a fresh case of C's, which meal was the last one taken from the case?  Ham & Limas!

By the way, did anyone else ever use the three prong flash suppressor from the early M-16 to twist open the wire that held the C-ration cases closed?

Tom,   A Co. 25th Aviation Bn (1967) and A Btry. 4/77th ARA (1969)

Tom

"welcome home" and welcome to this forum.  And yep, the C-rat can had to be intact.

Grandadjohn - you LIKED Ham and Lima Beans?  I wouldn't call you weird:  Dinky Dao is more like it!!

Howie 'clear right' C/227 1st Air Cav 1969-70 DG

Tom,

  Thanks for your service, sir!  Welcome to the forum.  I had always heard peaches were the best, but i can sure see how Ham and lima Beans would be better!  You wouldn't happen to have any scanned photos of helicopters you could post woudl you?  We'd love to see anything you have.  

     Ray

Tom,

   I was talking to my dad the other day and he used a can of Speghetti on his 60.  He said it lasted most of his tour and was worn down to bare metal. He was gonna bring it home but some little Vietnamese kid stole it just before he left!  I woulda liked to have had that can just for the history it represented.  I guess he should have used Ham and limas, huh?!

     Ray

Nate,

  Welcome to the forum!  You are referring to the skid shoes that were replaceable thin metal pads which covered the underside of the skids to prevent the actual skid from being damaged when in contact with the ground.  I'll get you some pic up later tonight.

      Ray

here are the pics I promised.  This is a UH-1B at Ft. Rucker's US Army Aviation Museum.  you can see the skid shoe bolted to the bottom of the skid.

icandrawem2 wrote:

Hey thanks for the quick response, all you guys are great with all this huey knowledge! I hate to be the picky one, but do you happen to have a picture of the underside of the skid showing the shoe?  It appears to be a rectangular metal plate that is just screwed onto the skid, with small 'bumpouts' where the screws are.  does it have any texture on it at all or is it smooth? One more question...we are specifically reproducing a huey from the film Apocalypse Now, and I know that films arent always historically accurate, but the heli in the film had an antenna mounted along the length of the tailboom, in a zigzag pattern...stood off of the tail boom about 4-5 inches or so.  Do you know the background on this antenna as to who used it and what models in was mostly used on.  And pictures would be great too.  Thanks so much for all your help!  -nate

Nate,

  First off, if your making a Huey from the movie, you don't want to be building a B model. The movie only used UH-1D/H models.  The B was the short bodied Huey used primarily as a gunship while the D/H model was almost exclusively a troop transport.  Among the hundreds of innacuracies in the movie, the Hueys errors were particularly egregious. Lemme know if you want to know or if you just want to build what's in the movie.  Personally, I think skid shoes  are the least of your concern. The antenna on the tailboom is a "long line" HF antenna. They ran down both sides of the tailboom to the stinger (tail skid).  They were not that prevalent on Hueys in Vietnam and my guess is they were used in the movie because they "looked cool."  However, I have seen them on Army and Marine Hueys in Vietnam photos.

Here's a pic of US Army UH-1D's with HF longline antennas. You can see that one bird does not have them.  I believe they were more prevalent on US ARmy Hueys early in the war.

Here is the illustration from the organizational maintenance manual showing the skid shoe and it's attchments to the skid.

In my opinion, your real conundrum is whether you want to be "accurate" to the movie or accurate to the real aircraft that served in Vietnam.  Let us know.  Hope that helps.

     Ray

The Huey's used in that movie where from the Philippine Army since the US Army didn't like the movie and would not support it

EDIT

That antenne was for a radio in that Huey, not just because it looked "cool". Not all Huey's carried the HF radio

---

Hello Nate,

welcome to our forum.   It looks like you've been in good hands with Ray, and I am glad to hear that the US Army didn't like the film Apocalypse Now - my sentiments exactly!  If you're building a B model Huey you might want to get a copy of the WALK AROUND UH-1 HUEY GUNSHIPS Walk Around no. 36 published by Squadron/Signal Publications mmd@squadron.com.  It has just about all the detail photos you would want from the rotor down and inside the cockpit and cargo compartments.  There are also photos of that zig-zag radio antennae.  The main difference is that these were the shorter B gunship versions while the movie used the troop carrier D/H models armed with just an M-60 on each side but you stated that was out of your hands.  Hope this helps you.  Can you tell us where this theme park model will be hanging?

Clear right

Howie