Grandad,
sounds like you may have a better answer than I do.
John,
Thanks for the compliment. Means a lot coming from the 72nd huey king! I hope you and your family are safe. Those fires down there sound very bad indeed. Our prayers are with you all.
The rotor blade wear was actually very simple. I just painted the rotors aluminum, then chromate green, then OD and sanded back down to the aluminum coat. This whole project was brush painted, no rattle cans or airbrushes.
As for how I do the greenhouse, well it ain't the best way I'm sure. I started out mixing green food coloring into future, but it never seemed to look right. This time I dipped the parts in future and applied the food coloring straight from the bottle with a brush. It actually looked pretty good till I went over the entire bird with future after painting and flound out the food coloring dissolves in future! If only I had applied it to the INSIDE of the part i think it would have been OK. I'm trying that next time.
As for the M-5, well actually many UH-1B gunships didn't have that system on them. The UH-1B was underpowered when armed anyway and the crew chief of Big Train said she was a real pig when it was fitted an her. The UH-1C was a much more powerful bird and could carry the M159 pods and the M-5 more easily.
I can't wait to see what you build next!
Ray