Revell 1/48 Huey Hog with M134 Miniguns?

Welcome to the Forum, Raven. I'm sure someone here will be able to give you a hand.

Tim

Reven,

 Welcome to the forum.  A few things about the Huey Hog kit you purchased.  You may already know these things if you've read a bunch of threads, but if not perhaps they will help.

- The kit is "supposed" to represent a UH-1C.

- It only comes with MARINES markings

- THe MARINES flew the UH-1E which had amongst other things a totally different weaon system and a roof mounted rescue hoist

-The kit is actually a mix of UH-1C and UH-1B parts.  It can basically be built as a UH-1B OOB with the addition of a new rotor (the ESCI/ERTL UH-1D/H kit rotor would do nicely if shortened a bit)

-If you want to build an accurate UH-1C you will need the Cobra Company UH-1C upgrade set as it has the correct chord tail and horizontal stabs which are not found in the kit.  The only other 1/48 kit with the correct chord tail and stabs is the new Hobby Boss kit, but it has other issues.

-Regarding the M134 miniguns, the Cobra Company set does indeed include rubber ammo chutes as I have one and I just checked.  I understand the trepidation of working with resin, but the parts really are quite nice.

-The ESCI kits do have M134 guns and plastic feed chutes included.  They can be found on E-bay, but there are several different boxings and I'm not sure all include the minigun.

-You can also get the door mounted miniguns in one of the older boxings of the Italeri/Heller UH-1N, but there are no ammo chutes like you are looking for included.

-Assuming you want to build a correct UH-1B or UH-1C you will need new decals.  Fireball Modelworks makes a nice set of HAL-3 Seawolves that I highly recommend or you could get one of the older Microscle 1/48 decal sets.

All the above depends on your quest for accuracy.  If all you want is a Huey with M134 guns, get an old ESCI kit and bash it with the Huey Hog.  At any rate I hope this helps explain your options.

  Ray

PS: I have a ESCI weapon sprue that you would be welcome to, but I'm not sure how much it costs to ship it to the UK from the States.

Thanks for the info rotorwash.

Having read a number of threads here (and the review of the kit on Scale Rotors) I was aware of most of it.  Yes all I really want is a Huey with M134 guns on it, I'm not a stickler for accuracy.

I was under the impression ESCI is also known as AMT/ERTL (as I think I saw the ESCI kit listed as AMT/ERTL in an Ebay auction that had ended), or perhaps the other way around or one is a clone of the other?

Either way as the ESCI kit comes with exactly what I want (M134's with feed chutes) I'd love to get my hands on one, sadly my searches on Ebay have drawn a blank on that - seems most kits with them on are unavailable.

You are correct ESCI.ERTL/AMT Hueys are all the same basic kit.

 Ray

Hey Mel!  Great to hear from you.  Check my latest project out on ARC.  I think it might be right up your alley.

 Ray

OK another quick question (which I feel probably has a long answer) - I'm not a stickler for accuracy but as I'm now considering paint schemes and decals (so I get all the stuff I need together in one go before I assemble the model) I am wondering, is the paint scheme and the USMC markings on the Revell 1/48 kit (both versions, the one with the red tail and the other older kit) accurate?  

I actually quite like the one with the red tail and thought I'd seen a pic of the real life version whilst googling for images.

If neither are accurate what's wrong with them (besides the obvious inaccuracies in the model itself, which have been covered before)?

I'm also looking at buying the Italeri UH-1N kit, as that looks better (I have plans for it that make it more than just a static model) - would it be terribly inaccurate/anachronistic to put 1st Air Cav decals (using Fireball models Slicks in Vietnam decals), or even the decals from the early Monogram/Revell UH-1 (the one with white marines lettering and the yellow warning tail band) on it?

As I said, not a stickler for accuracy, but I am looking for paint scheme/decal ideas for Vietnam era Hueys that I can use on both kits that are semi-plausible.

BTW many thanks to rotorwash for his assistance in sourcing the parts I was looking for, looking forward to receiving them. :-)

The Mairnes didn't use UH-1B/Cs.  The closest they did use was the UH-1E, which was a Navalized C.  It looks pretty much the same, but had a roof-mounted rescue hoist on them.  You can see the hoist arm and blister on the roof below.  The decals are somewhat accurate, but on UH-1Es, not a B or C model as the kit is.

Here is the actual UH-1E for th ered tail decals.

The 1CAV Army UH-1N is not feasble.  The Army has never used UH-1Ns.  The UH-1N was only used by the USMC, USN, and USAF.  The green w/yellow tail band USMC bird would be feasible, similar to this USN scheme.

Thanks.  I've read rotorwash's advice on the differences between B/C and E.  Guess I should have mentioned that.

I can live with that minor difference (the roof hoist/blister)

Since asking I've come across this -

upload.wikimedia.org/.../UH-1N-2.jpg

A UH-1N from 1982 with pretty much the decals I was referring to.  Obviously need to make/source the tail and one or two other one's though.

Any idea what the writing along the top of the USMC Huey "red tail" pic you just posted says?  It looks like Russian?  I'd love to find out what it says so I can find some pics of the real thing (if they exist).

Never mind, I found that pic here - wp.scn.ru/.../1

Just trying to find something for the UH-1N besides the boring USMC grey they paint them in these days (and the colors the Italeri kit is supposed to be).  So far I only have that one I posted above.

Adding to Gino comments.  Assuming you are looking to build a Vietnam Marine UH-1E, there were no high vis Marine birds in country to my knowledge.  That flashy red tail bird would have been a stateside paint job.  Also, the only operators to fly the UH-1N in Vietnam were the 20th SOS of the USAF.  Assuming none of that deters you, just build what you like.  Assuming you just want a nice high vis Huey, I'd personally choose something like THIS.  She's a UH-1E used for training Navy Huey pilots.  I think his is one of my favorite schemes I've seen on a Huey.

   Ray 

Thanks.  I just want to build a Huey (more likely 2 now) as I've recently been watching lots of Vietnam films and TV series like We Were Soldiers, Apocalypse Now, Air America, and Tour of Duty.   They've inspired me to buy/build a Vietnam era Huey model and thus I bought the Revell 1/48 kit, but I've since realised that it's not the best kit in the world (lots of flash on small parts for a start), unfortunately the Italeri Bell AB 212/UH-1N kit seems to be more modern than having seen general active service in 'Nam, but despite that it looks slightly better in quality and is about the only other kit still readily available in 1/48.

I would have gone larger scale and bought a better kit of a Vietnam era Huey but I need it in 1/48 scale for a specific reason.

I'm not really looking for a high-vis one per se either, I just like the look of the HML-267 UH-1 scheme from the Revell kit and wondered if it was indeed a paint scheme based on a real UH-1 (which it appears to be although I can't find out anything about it apart from it's serial number/squadron).

For the Italeri UH-1N I'm basically looking for something that's not complicated to do and isn't the USMC grey they seem to use these days and also isn't the standard paint schemes the kit suggests (2 aren't US and the one that is a US scheme is of a Rescue chopper) - mainly because I can't shade/highlight and do panel lines very well, and to make the more modern USMC grey scheme look good I'd have to do the panel lines, so any dark, green/olive drab, sort of colour scheme will hide my poor painting skills a bit.

Not too keen on Navy dark blue/grey with red/orange though, looks OK but just not to my taste.  

The USAF 20th SOS had a sand/green/dark green camo pattern during 'Nam judging by the pics I've just found (standard USAF pattern of the time as I understand it), which I feel is a little too complicated for me to make look good with a brush, and I don't have an airbrush and I've never used one.

I'm on a tight budget with both of these though (I've not bough the Italeri kit yet though) so buying a bazillion pots of paint just for a heli or two is out of the question.

So, I'll probably stick with that one from the photo taken at NAS Whiting Field, Florida, in 1982, it seems quite easy to do (with a bit of artistic licence), the base colour I can just spray as Matt Olive Drab (Humbrol #155 acrylic spray, unless there's a better colour Humbrol acrylic spray?) and go from there because the rest (besides a few details) is all decals by the looks of it.

Some of the decals I can get from the Fireball models AH-1G Part 2: Snakes with New Skins sheet, I think, might be too small though?.  Not too sure how to do the numbers and the letters/numbers/stars on the tail, but they don't look too complicated and I might be able to make paper stencils or something for those, might even look into printing my own decals.

The Revell Huey is my first model kit in 10-15 years, and possibly the first of this type of model for 20, I used to paint/assemble Games Workshop models more than anything (and they're a bigger scale for a start).  As a kid in my teens (20yrs ago) I did the usual Spitfire/Hurricane/Lancaster along with a Aerospatiale Dauphin (which I painted as AIrwolf, lol), a P38 Lightning and a B17 Flying Fortress and also I think I had a B24 LIberator, but they were all in 1/72 scale and were all done by brush with enamel paints (and you could tell).

I intend to do as little brush work as possible on the Huey(s), relying on an acrylic spray can for the base colour in order to keep it down to a nice and light and smooth layer or two.

What started out as a simple project has actually turned into quite a quandary though.  Lol.

One thing I plan on doing after the main helicopter bodies are assembled is to make the weapons system removable (hopefully by using 6mm or 12mm M2 nylon screws+nuts) so I can take the entire weapons rig off (in 2 halves, one each side) and switch it between each of the Hueys (obviously using those M134's I'm buying from you rotorwash, the quad M60's in the Revell kit are terrible, I might as well use wire or something for the barrels, plus I think the M134 weapons system (M21?) looked better - you can't beat a minigun, or two).  

And as I said I'm hopefully doing something to the UH-1N that means it won't be just a static display model, might end up doing it to the Revell Huey instead though (or maybe both), but I need to gather all the parts/decals/paints and also source some "special parts" to find out which kit they fit best before I proceed any further.

Anyhoo your help has been much appreciated and I'll post pics of progress/the finished helis when I can.

Many thanks.

I bet we can come up with something for you, man.  So it has to be 48th, right?  Would you really like to build a UH-1H if you could get one are or are you now set on the UH-1N?

  Ray

Nah don't worry, you're already selling me the ESCI weapons sprue and UH-1B main blades, that's more than enough.  

Besides my wish for a 'Nam era style Huey it doesn't really matter what Huey it is (so long as it has M134's on it, for that mean gunship look).  It just has to be a 1/48 Huey.  The reason is not really model related, or kit related, it's one of size and empty space within the two halves of the main body.  The Revell kit is just about adequate but requires some rather drastic modification which when you want to maintain the look of a scale model isn't good.  The Italeri UH-1N has the luxury of having a rather large engine housing which appears to be perfect for accommodating what I have planned.

The "special parts" I referred to are not normal scale model parts (I wasn't implying I need more kit parts) and normally have no relevance to scale model kits.  I was just saying I need to get those first, to fit to either the Revell or Italeri kits (most likely the Italeri kit) before I can proceed any further with building the model - no big deal I know where to buy those parts from and they're more common than model kits - many of which seem to be like gold dust these days, lol.

I don't want to give too much away about what I'm planning to do though (besides building the model kits as model kits) because if it doesn't work I'll just be left with 2 ordinary models and I'll look like a dope.

It's nothing special, probably just a bit outside the usual realms of scale modelling, but if it does work it'll be quite cool, in my opinion.

I'll end up with 2 models anyway as I have 2 kits, so that's cool.

It'll be a few weeks but I'll get some progress pics posted, I owe you at least that much seeing as you've given me some very valuable tips.  So far all I've managed to do is see if the two body halves of the Revell kit fit OK.  Lol.

Oh and the modification to the weapon system mounts I mentioned is just something I want to do, not because I don't have enough parts for both, but because I may have to take them off the helicopter anyway so making them detachable is the best way to do it, just so happens I'll be making it so I can swap them over between helicopters is all.

It's probably as clear as mud right now, but it'll all be clearer when I post pics of what I'm doing, when I've got to a stage I can show you I've done something.

Helo parts inbound.  I hope they get there in short order.

 Ray

Thanks rotorwash.  I look forward to receiving them.