@GMorrison: Thank you for your advice concerning a photo-etch kit for my Italieri UH-34D chopper. I will look into ordering it.
I like Morrisons Second Law of Modeling: "There is never enough time to do it right, but somehow there's always enough time to do it over". Is there a first law? Perhaps it should be, "The amount of time it takes to complete a scale model is ridiculous." A third law might be this: "Never work on a model unless there is an adequate supply of alcoholic beverage available!"
My Vietnam wound was severe — a bullet, possibly from an M-14 in the hands of Viet Cong or NVA soldier — hit me on the outside of my right thigh just above my knee, shattered my femur, and blew a chunk of meat out of the inside of the thigh. I spent some 10 months at Balboa Navy Hospital, including 111 days in traction. You never really get over a wound like that, but I do pretty well if you don't consider things like bad knees, hearing problems, arthritis, etc. My doctors attribute problems with my gait and back to the wound. I was diagnosed with PTSD in 2008. My disability rating of 40% (20% for the wound, 20% for PTSD) helps me enjoy my model building.
I'd forgotten that Full Metal Jacket scene you mentioned, but that movie is one of my favourites. I could listen 24/7 to that drill sergeant's cadence calling. In boot camp I was intrigued by my Recruit Company Commander’s cadence calling. For a few days, I was hearing what sounded like “Hair-lip, hair-lip, hair-lip rah, leh… Hair-lip, hair-lip, hair-lip rah, leh,…. I finally figured out what he was calling: “Your left, your left, your left right left… Your left, your left, your left, right, left….
On the bench: A diorama to illustrate the crash of a Beech T-34B Mentor which I survived in 1962 (I'm using Minicraft's 1/48 model of the Mentor), and a Pegasus model of the submarine Nautilus of 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas fame.