Time for a BIG catch up post
This thread is coming along nicely, Theres some great info, pictures and links and its helped out loads with my first attempt at building a huey in 22 years, so just want to say thanks to everyone that has contributed so far.
My 1/32 Revell UH-1H is coming along very slowly as i want to get it right this time, The last huey i built was in 1985. It was the old 1/48 monogram "Rambo" gunship and i threw it together in about an hour with glue that came in a tube (most of which ended up decorating the seams and windows) eventually moved onto building galleons and became pretty good at it, i could probly make the shrouds and rigging with my eyes closed now but try to do a wash or weather a huey and im 12 years old again.
Washes, weathering, scratching, spray painting and putty are all new to me, in my day if you had a gap you filled it with as much glue from that tube as you could and painted over it with paint that had the consistency of cream cheese and a brush as thick as your arm and hard enough to take chunks outa plastic lol and if you could ignore the lumps, bumps, bubbles, melted plastic and glue strands you had a beautiful thing.
Anyway, after seeing some amazing model hueys built by people on here and on other sites it is as inspiring as it is frustrating to see what can be acheived with the right know-how. And thats why i started this thread to pick the brains of the experts to help the newcomers like me.
As far as my huey project is concerned im stuck, im still looking for something that is the right scale for the crew seat poles in the cargo section in 1/32, I think a cocktail stick is the right scale for the support pole on either side of the huey, but trying to find something hollow and thinner than a cocktail stick for the front pole for the main back seat is becoming a mission. also i wasnt happy with the the gull gray (grey) for the interior, as compared to the pictures its way to dark, so ive mixed my own but this could be a problem as i still have 3 other hueys on the shelf and one on order so would love to know what you guys use so i can go and get a few pots.
Now to olive drab, in the UK the main paint suppliers are humbrol and revell and i have humbrol matt 86 light olive which i used on my AH-1G and it looks about right for Vietnam era helos, then i discovered humbrol 155 olive drab which looks alot browner but still the right color so im not sure which to use for my huey, to add to the confusion i found a local hobby shop that sells tamiya olive drab spray cans (the aerosol type) so if anyone knows which is best please let me know
For all those wanting to build a huey i will try to sum things up so far...
If you want to build a slick or medevac..
1/32 = Revell UH-1H Gunship
This UH-1H comes with options for miniguns, XM157 rocket pods and M60C quad guns.
Leave the armaments off unless your building a RAAF Bushranger Gunship in which case although the forward mounted miniguns are accurate the rockets are not, you will need M158 7 tube rocket launchers and mounts placed behind the jump doors. The US did not have any UH-1H helos armed with external guns or rockets, the main reason was weight.
The gunships role was to go ahead of the UH-1H/D troop slicks and prep the landing zone ready for insertion and then to hang around and provide support untill the last of the slicks had left. Even the smaller UH-1B & C model hueys employed for this role were deemed to slow as due to the weight of the armaments they had trouble getting ahead of the main group to prep the LZ, so the huey cobra was created for this role. So you can see why the UH-1H was not used by the US as a gunship, although some had their door mounted M60s replaced with miniguns and and spotlights for night fire support they did not qualify as "gunships".
The Revell model doesnt come with crew seats, Gunners or the door mounted M60's.
For door guns in both 1/32 & 1/35 aswell as armoured pilot seats go to
http://www.cobracompany.com/index.htm
For Crew figures the Dragon/DML 3311 US helicopter crew set, are your best bet, although out of production they pop up on ebay at times for a price!
1/35 = Panda UH-1D 1st Air cav, although the rivets are a bit on the big side.
1/48 = Esci UH-1D Medevac, i dont know how good the kit is but it looks ok.
For those wanting to build a Gunship the best kits are..
Academy/MRC 1/35 UH-1C Heavy Hog
Academy/MRC 1/35 UH-1C Frog
The Frog is the best option as it comes with all the armaments of the Hog ship aswell plus some extras.
1/48 monogram/Revell huey hog comes with M6 quad M60 machine guns and rocket launchers, in some of the kits there is also an option for the nose mounted M5-40mm grenade launcher, this armament configuration is wrong. For weight purposes the gunships were most commonly armed with either..
Rockets & Quad M60's
Rockets & Miniguns
Rockets & M5 grenade launcher
Door guns were mostly sling mounted
I think that covers quite a bit, i need a rest now lol
Andy
While the rest of the crew may be in the same predicament, it's almost always the pilot's job to arrive at the crash site first.