Huey stensiling

Andy,

  Holy cow, man!  Now THERE are great questions. Basically, Hueys with high vis paint jobs (say 62-66) would have yellow stencils, whereas Hueys with low vis OD paint would have black stencils.  It's gonna take me a bit to dig up good examples of each.  I have several pics showing both high vis birds and low vis birds together which is why I say youmay still see some yellow stencils as late as 66. Here's one example of the mix you referred to in your question.  I'll dig up some more later.

  Ray

Here is an example of both black and yellow stencils on the same bird.  This is an early M-16 armed UH-1C from 1965 that served with the 2/20th ARA.  She has nose mounted FM antennas and the old bell mouth intake as well.  You'll notice the Army stecil is black, but the data stencil andvarious warnings and info stencils are high vis yellow are the kick step markers. The insignia red turbine warning band, Fuel filller marking and kick steps are also part fo the high vis scheme.  The helicopter itself, however, is painted in the basic OD that became the standard paint scheme after about 65. This is one of my favorite pictures.  I hope i can build her one day from teh Academy kit as i have the M-16 resin kit from Cobra Company.

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Andy,

I have an Army Tech Bulletin Painting and Marking of Army Aircraft. It's dated Jan., 1971, which l think shows what and where all markings go for all Army aircraft of this era.. This includes size and shape as well.The TB supercedes a June 1967 issue. I guess so that the Cobra, OH-6A, and chinook could be included.

When I can get a scanner I will start scanning parts of the TB and if someone needs some specific info I will do that also and post the scans on the forum or send by E-mail. Just let me get my scanner first.

Jim

Jim,

I actually have both the 71 and 86 painting and marking manuals scanned.  I think I may know someone who can host em.  Let me check and I'll post the link here.

   Ray

  Gentlemen, thank you very much for the info!

I would love to take a look at those markings manuals if its possible!

 Ray, if I understand correctly, it is really rare to see hi-vis and low-vis markings on the same machine at the same time? The reason I ask is - I ran across couple of photos from 68 AHC with yellow and black stenciling together...

like this one - note the black stripe and kick step on top and yellow on the bottom.

  maybe the panel was replaced in the field? or re-painted?

if it was - most likely it was the engine cowling panel.... here is the second photo of the same bird - yellow stencils...which I assume where the original ones?

Andy

Andy,

   My guess would be you are correct and the high vis kick step marker was on a panel from another bird that was used on this one as a replacement.  I know you already know this but for those that don't, the two indentions on the back side of the panel indicate that the panel was designed to swing out for maintenance and is easily removed.  68 is way late for any high vis stuff in most units.  BUT, I NEVER say NEVER!!

   Ray

Note by the way that the kick step itself is OD not red (not really an issue, see below).

Edit: been doing a little research, more to come on the 68th markings soon.

Ray,

I'm fairly certain the Red kick step panel was to denote where to insert the fire extinguisher if there was a fire on start up.  If you notice it is larger than all the rest of the kick step panels and I'll bet the stenciling will note this.  On later low-vis birds I believe these panels were black.

Mel,

  You, sir, are correct. I never paid enough attention, but only the upper kick steps on the left and right were painted red on early birds.  I had always assumed that i just couldn't see the lower ones because of the weapons mounts, but I can't find a single example (even alpha model trainers) where the lower kick steps were red.  Thanks for clearing that up.  Also, as you mention they were later changed to black. Howver, I think you will find many were just overpainted OD with black stencils as well.

     Ray

Andy,

  It also seems that the 68th AHC had UH-1C's with yellow kick step markers for the bottom steps but with black ones for the upper steps well into 68.  Heck that was the configuration on the bird you built so i guess you already know that.  I assume this is the bird you build, you can see the light lower kick step markers and the black upper one.

Here's a high vis bird from 66-67 showing the full on high vis scheme with the red kick steps above the engine deck as Mel has mentioned.  Also notice that all the kick step markers are yellow.

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Ray,

that is my bird right there!

You see, when I was building it I did not know all this and painted the upper kick steps red on both sides allthough they clearly dont have yellow markers!!! It is really easy to confuse red with faded black on B/W photos LOL.

at least I got the lower ones painted OD what seems to be correct!

Learn something new every day )))))))

 Andy

intruder_bass wrote:

Ray, that is my bird right there! You see, when I was building it I did not know all this and painted the upper kick steps red on both sides allthough they clearly dont have yellow markers!!! It is really easy to confuse red with faded black on B/W photos LOL. at least I got the lower ones painted OD what seems to be correct! Learn something new every day )))))))  Andy

Andy,

  Who cares.  Your bird is the benchmark by which all other Hueys will have to be judged IMHO.  She is just beautiful.  But yes, I agree, I learn something new every day!  I used red kick steps on my "Big Train" build for the bottom steps as well as the top ones.  Thanks to Mel, we both know better now.  That's what I like about this hobby, learning new stuff.

     Ray