1/72 Bushranger Huey

Aaronw wrote:

Nice to see another of your Hueys. I'm curious about the gold rockets, I would have assumed they would be OD like everything else.

 I got the idea of painting the tubes a light gold/brass color , as in Squadrons UH-1 Huey gunship book.

I'll need to paint the tips of the tubes a darker metalic gray like in the pic .

I'll also need to touch up the decals on the cockpit doors , I guess one of the advantages/disadvantages when we post pic's , is that when you click on the image to enlarge you can see more of the minor error's you dont see when she is sitting on the workbench .

Anyway some more Aussie Huey decals arrived today .

The decal set is for a Camouflage Kiowa , Blackhawk , Huey and an overall white Huey scheme . Thankfully I have some spare Engine Heat Shields and Exhaust Deflectors [toilet bowl] , they were left over from my on-going Flat Iron Huey builds .

The main thing I like about this set of decals is that they include stencilling data positioning sheets for each helicopter .

Thank's for the kind comments Aaronw and Grimmo on my RAAF Huey .

                                           John

I painted the tips of the rockets metalic grey and I removed part of the rear seating ;

The back rest was sitting to low and I didn't like the overall look .

I'll call this one finished and move on with my other Huey builds .

                                                 John

The dark tips does look better. I've never seen the gold tubes before, it does help add some color to an all OD helicopter.

That stencil diagram should take care of the decals you were looking for help with a few weeks ago.

Those other RAAF hueys will be nice to see too, what was the white one used for? It is kind of unusual to see a white military helicopter.

I have the same decal set in 1/32.  All of the aircraft are/were part of the ARDU, the Autralian Research and Development Unit.  They test and evaluate new aircraft for the Australian military.  Here is an article on the history of the ARDU. I haven't used them yet, but the decals look good.  I plan on building the S-70-B Blackhawk in 1/35 with them. 

 Aaronw , the white Huey is certainly different .

For many years I mistakenly thought that the "ARDU" means [army reserve defence unit] , however I've since now found out that it stands for Aircraft Research and Development Unit.

So I think that the white Huey's were used overseas as part of Australia's UN commitment .

Along with the AA-08 ARDU S-70B-9 , UH-1D/H & Kiowa decals ; I also bought the AA-06 AAAC UN S-70B-9 , UH-1D/H & Kiowa decal set .

I'm not 100% sure if the overall white scheme on the first decal set was part of a fleet of Huey's used by the RAAF "MFO" [Multi National Force & Observers] to the Sinai Desert 1982-1986 as on the pic I posted above .

I also liked the overall white scheme on the Army Blackhawk , which was part of a small force of UN peace keepers during the 1983 Cambodian Regional Elections .

I have two Italeri 1/72 Blackhawk kits I'm currently rebuilding , one will have RAAF markings from 1986 with a camoufalge scheme , the other will be an Army bird with a similar paint scheme with markings from the East Timor commitment .The new Hasegawa UH-60 kit will have the overall white scheme along with another white Huey from the 1982-86 Sinai Desert role .

I'll need to get another set of those ASE [aircrft survivability equipment sets] from Fireball Modelworks for the engine heat shields and exhaust .

I also bought some decal scissors , hopfully they will cut a cleaner edge than the ones I used on my first Aussie Huey build .

So lot's of Huey's to build , 16 Huey kits on-going at the moment along with some Blackhawks and H-34's Seahorse's ...... I better get busy building

                                           John .

Thank's for the link Gino ,

I was slowly typing my post while you added yours .

It will be interesting to read up on the history of the ARDU .

Thank's again .

                    John .

John,

  i like your bushranger!  As for the M-158 rocket tubes. I'd call em more brass than gold.  here are some closeups from the b model at Ft. Rucker.  I also like the pods better unloaded. I wish kit manufacturers would give you a choice.  

    Ray

" border="0" />

[/img][/img]

[img]http://

[img]http://

" border="0" />[/img][/img]

 Ray ,

Thank's for awesome pic's of the M-158 rocket tubes ; I'll try adding some metalic gray or silver to the gold paint for a more realistic finish .

I only have four nice color pic's of RAAf and Army Huey's in my files ,

I did notice that on post Aussie Vietnam Huey's that there is a metal shield over the top of the rocket tubes , as in the pic's you posted Ray , just under the support bracket . So I've made a couple of shields from the top halves of two 19 shot pods .

I have an hour to spare this morning so I'll airbrush the interior of two more Huey's and later tonight I'll continue with the other builds .

I also like the pic of the Huey on floats ; I have on backorder a Hobbycraft DHC-2 Beaver float plane , I think the kit comes with the standard landing gear and wheels as well . If so , I might think about building a Huey on floats some time later .

I also bought a couple of those inexpensive magnifying sheets to help me see things a bit better .

                                       John

John,

  Can you say right click, save, repeat.

   http://www.adf-serials.com/3a2.shtml

     Ray