Helicopter Crew - Vietnam to Desert Storm?

James,

It might take a little surgery and scratchbuilding, but you can convert Nam-era figures into Desert Storm ones. The SPH-4 helmet was introduced in 1968 and is still being used (SPH-4B) in most services until the new HGU-56 helmets have completely replaced them. All you'd need to do is put an NVG mount on the helmet, modify the "chickenplate" body armor a bit and paint the uniform a different color. The Nam figures have jungle boots on, if I'm not mistaken, and they look really good when painted as Desert boots.
Hope that helps!

And remember, there are no stupid questions.... only stupid people.

Will be only using them as pilots so won't see much of
them anyway. Especially the boots. LOL!

Thanks! Looks like they will pass for DS figures.

James

James,
This may help you out,CMK brought out some Blackhawk crew figures last year in 1/35th scale. They look OK but are expensive.

Darren.

Darren, I saw those. 2 pilots and a door gunner.
$23.00 - half the price of the kit.

I think I will play around with the Dragon ones. LOL!

James

You might want to do something about those "bloused" Nomex flight suits.
In RVN we wore two piece flight suits that were "tailored" to look like the combat fatigues. Some brass encrusted relic didn't want aircrews to look any different than the rest of the Army so we did not get the one piece sage green coveralls that we would have preferred. The Nomex was a vast improvement over the one-piece grey cotton jobs we had and the standard jungle fatigues early aircrews flew in, but the one piece Nomex would have been better in a fire.
In some units it was an instant Article 15 to fly in jungle boots. The nylon uppers would melt in a fire and cause burns that would require amputation.
Leather combat boots were less comfortable in the heat, but safer.

Thanks for the info.

I am sure I will be back with detail questions once I start on the figures.

James

Two-piece BDU style flight suits are still used, called Aviator BDUs. Bloused boots and all, so that part still could be left alone. They look like normal BDUs but have pocket and pen holders on the upper sleeves like a flight suit and more pockets on the lower leg, I think.

QUOTE: Some brass encrusted relic didn't want aircrews to look any different than the rest of the Army so we did not get the one piece sage green coveralls that we would have preferred.

Guess that same General is still kicking around.

Yep, ABDUs are in use and look quite cool... BUT, they are not appropriate for Desert Storm. The new ABDUs were adopted in 1994. I've got a set of 97 dated ones. The earliest I've seen a set dated was 96. They are really cool though... feels like you're wearing pajamas.