M-2 HELP!

Check out the "Super Specials" over at Sprue Brothers.  They have PE details kits for both Vietnam-era and WWII-era cal.50's.  You apply the parts to an existing M2.

The Dragon 1/35 UH-1D model does not have an M2 .50 cal MG in it.  It has 2 M60 7.62mm MGs, one is an M60D with spade grips and the other an M60A with standard buttstock and pistol grip.   The M60D was the standard and most common weapon found on Hueys.  .50 cals were rarely seen on them.  

The Dragon M60s are very well molded and probably the best in plastic available.  The weapons layout in the kit is incorrect though.  Dragon only has one M23 doorgun mount, there should be two (one for each side).  For it to be correct, you would need to either get another Dragon Vietnam Helicopter crew set for the other M23 mount, or Cobra Company has an aftermarket resin set that has the two M23 gun mounts.

If you just have to have a .50 cal, Academy makes a great set of them in plastic that are really nice and pretty reasonably priced.  Beware though, the .50 cal mount for Hueys was very different than what comes in the Dragon kit.

Academy MG set.

Here are a few other pointers on the 1/35 Dragon UH-1D/H kit: 

The Dragon/Panda UH-1D/H/N kits are not that bad overall.  The kits are pretty good, but need quite a bit of work to get them to come out looking great. The details are soft and sparse in the interior. The other issue is that there are parts for many different versions of Hueys in the box and the instructions don't show which to use for which version. You have to know what you are building and which parts to use.  The over-sized rivets are taken care of with a light overall sanding to knock them down a bit too.

The rotor blade is not correct in the Vietnam UH-1D/H version though. The issue is the spine running the full length of the blade. It is actually a 212 (UH-1N) blade. The D/H blade doesn't have this feature. It is easy to fix though, as below.  I have heard that is has been corrected in the UH-1D HEER version.

The top one has been corrected.  The middle is how it comes in the kit.  The bottom one has the area to be removed in red.

I also recommend the Cobra Company Interior and Drive Train upgrade sets for it.  They will really spice it up and make it look great.  I have used the interior set on both of mine.  It just depends on how much money you want to spend on it.

Here are a couple helpful threads too: UH-1D and H model differences.  Dragon UH-1D in-box Review.

Lastly, the decals aren't totally accurate in the kit.  If you are looking for an accurately marked helo, check out the Huey decal sets from Fireball Modelworks; Vietnam Slick Decals and FlatIron MedEvac Decals.

Hope that helps

Rhanks for all the info.  Where do you do all of this research?

Sawdustbob

Rhanks for all the info.  Where do you do all of this research?

Gino has been doing this for quite a while.  If you are interested in Vietnam Hueys, you might want to start HERE.  This thread takes several hours to get through, but we covered many of the aspects of the Huey you would need to know to model an accurate UH-1D/H.  Also, if you will be building a 50 cal bird, you want to look at smoke ships or Nighthawks.  Smoke ships laid down trails of smoke around LZ's ahead of the incoming slicks to mask troop insertions.  This meant they flew low and slow.  These birds were usually war-weary beasts and had special mods to burn oil from a tank in the cabin which was fed through a ring around the exhaust.  Anyway, smoke ships frequently had 50 cals as their job put them right in the enemies front yard and they had to fly slow to keep the smoke from dispersing too thin.  Nighthawks were special birds equipped with a xenon search light and usually a starlight scope. These birds were used for perimeter patrols at night.  They were also frequently armed with 50 cals in one door and a minigun in the other.   A search for both these types here should point you to threads with more info.  Good luck and post some pics of your build!

    Ray

I will post pics but I hope people take into account the fact that this is my first build in almost 30 years.

As Ray said, I've been doing this for a while and have gathered a vast amount of useless knowledge in my noggin.  As far as the .50 cal mounts, here is the M59, amodified M23 mount for the .50 cal.

Do check out the thread Ray referances.  It has a good amount of info on the smokeships and lightships as well.

Good luck.

Thanks again for all your help.

While the DML kit as released only has the one M23 mount from the Helicoptor crew set you have to remember the Panda kit that this is molded from actually contains a pair of weapons sprue that has 2 M23 mounts and 2 rocket pods(one M23 each sprue). So I think best be is that you pick up the Panda kit and you should have enough M23's.

Actually, the Panda UH-1D didn't come with any weapons.  The Panda UH-1N came with the two weapons sprues from the Dragon Vietnam Helicopter Crew figures (2 M23 mounts and 2 free M60As) and M157 7-shot rocket tubes.  Which, by the way, wasn't an accurate weapons set-up for either the USAF or USMC UH-1N depicted.  Getting the Panda kits isn't really worth it though.  The extra PE and more-correct decals in the Dragon boxes far outweighs getting the Panda boxings.