Blackhawk and Chinook Model Question

The Academy/Minicraft Blackhawks are pretty good, (if a bit simplified) kits.  With the amount of resin and PE out there, you can turn them into some really nice models.  As for the Chinook, Italeri's got their 48th scale series (ACH-47A, CH-47C/HC.1 and now the CH-47D) I've got two A models and a C right now.  The kit overall is rather nice!

Jon

I'll second what Jon said about the Hawks.  If you wanted 1/48 simply for a bigger model, you might consider the Min/Acad 1/35 kit.  It really isn't difficult to build and it is fairly accurate.  Granted, the 1/35 kit does need a fair amount of real estate when it is finished but it is a nice kit.

Nhorton wrote:

I'm looking for good kits for Army versions of the UH-60 Blackhawk and CH-47 Chinook helicopters. My Grandfather shepherded early development of the Blackhawk and some of the development on the heavy lift. I think it'd be neat to build two of the helicopters he had watch over in his time at AVSCOM. Preferably 1/48 in scale. Thanks!

As Jon pointed out, the Italeri CH-47 series are fair representations of CH-47As and Cs. The "C" comes with passable troop seats and nicely done cabin interior. I would suggest going with the Edaurd interiors (both cockpit and cabin)...the only drawbacks on the kits are the companionway (the area between the cabin and cockpit) which are complete works of fiction, and the HF antenna standoffs (those are the stem like parts that go on the left side of the fuselage...They need to be shortened for U.S. versions), the aft landing gear and gear wells are not 100% accurate and neither is the ramp, but they are "close enough". 

I believe the instructions call for painting the clear cockpit parts above the pilot and co-pilot clear green as on those found on UH-1s...in reality, the "eyebrow" windows are clear not tinted.

The kits are a big improvement over the old Aurora CH-47A, with much more internal detail and can be made into a reasonable facsimile of the real aircraft. Be careful when installing the forward and aft rotor heads...they are counter rotating with the forward head rotating in a counter clockwise direction and aft head rotating in a clockwise direction when viewed from above.