1/48 UH-1N weapons

Usually, the setup is an M134 Minigun on one side and an M2 .50 cam MG (not a cannon, just a heavy MG) on the other.  You can find both of these in Cobra Company's MH-53 Weapons Package.  It comes with 3 .50 cals and 2 M134s, mounts, ammo boxes, and all other associated hardware for them.

www.cobracompany.com/48049.htm

The 7-shot launcher you have should be fine.

Oh it's a Ma Deuce I've been seeing.  Couldn't really tell from most of the pics of models (and I've not seen many in photos of real birds either).

I had a feeling Cobra Company would have something.  Silly question but does that set come with all the proper mounts that would look correct on a UH-1N?  Can't tell from the pic, certainly doesn't look like it comes with anything that could pass as the mounts the rocket pods hang from (probably because MH-53's don't use them), I'm guessing I'd have to scratch build those.

EDIT - Having just done a little digging I think it will be easy to add those Ma Dueces and fix the rocket pods on.

Looking at these pics it seems the Ma Deuce attaches in the same or similar way the M60 does on a UH-1D -

Looking at that last pic the mount that attaches to the fuselage looks just like the mount the 1/48 Revell UH-1 Hog kit has so I could probably use that, just cut it in half and shorten it underneath the fuselage as I know the real one isn't one piece like the one in the Revell kit is.  And to mount the Ma Deuce (and/or M134) I could use the centre part of MG3 mount (the horizontal bit, with the vertical pintle mount, that goes between the two side bits that fit to the fuselage) that comes with the Italeri kit and put that between the two sides of the mount from the Revell kit and mount the gun on top as you would MG3's.

Don't know about the tubular structure that has the semi-hoops on it, I doubt my skills go as far as scratch building that - what purpose does it serve anyway?

Yes, you would have to scratch the mounts that attach to the helo and hang the rocket pods from.  To my knowledge, there are none in 1/48.  The USMC mounts are not the same as Army ones either.  

The first pic you posted is the Vietnam-era .50 cal mount.  As you can see, the modern USMC one is not the same.

You can see the weapons mounts and the bar that keeps them from shooting the rocket pods below them below.

.50 cal

M134 minigun

Basic mount and rocket pod connection

Cool, handy pics.  I also found this one on google, which shows some of the mount from the back from within the cabin -

And this one of a UH-1Y with a similar mount -

I can see the centre bar (the horizontal bit I mean) from behind in that pic.

The sides of the mount that attach to the fuselage definintely look like the one's on the Revell UH-1 Hog.  They'll do for an approximation at least seeing as I'll have to scratch build that part of the mounts. 

Considering no-one makes the exact mount, and the old Italeri kit #847 is impossible to get (and even then I don't think the mounts on that were 100% accurate) what I can cobble together will have to do.

I actually think if I buy the Cobra Company set scratch building/kitbashing the parts of the mounts I need (or an approximation of them) is within my skill set.  Which makes a change.

Raven Morpheus

Don't know about the tubular structure that has the semi-hoops on it, I doubt my skills go as far as scratch building that - what purpose does it serve anyway?

Missed this before.  The bar is a guard that limits the travel of the barrel so they don't shoot the rocket pods below them

Oh I see.  Yes that makes sense now.

Considering the scale though, and my lack of skill, I'll probably have to leave those off.

At least I know now what to get and what to use, I can get it all together ready for when I want to start on the kit.  Still got my 1/35 Bell 47 HTL-4 to finish (mostly painting, really should post some pics of that some day), my 1/72 Jolly Green to finish (also mostly painting), a 1/72 Sea King to start (should be fairly easy as I intend to paint it in RAF SAR Yellow), and my Academy 1/35 UH-1C to continue building. 

I might also actually attempt to build my 1/48 Revell UH-1 Hog (which I found to be a shockingly bad kit when I looked at starting it) as I intend to order the XM-23's from Cobra Company for the ESCI UH-1D rotorwash kindly sent me, then I can use the rocket pod/M134 weapon system from that kit on the Revell kit as I originally intended.  Seems only fair as rotorwash did send me the kit because he was sending me the M134 system that I wanted for the UH-1 Hog.

Just don't seem to be able to do much this time of year as it's winter here in the UK and light fades quickly where I live (and I don't like using artificial light).

Sounds like you are off to a good start.  For the guard bar on the mount, in 1/48, I would take acouple  straight pins and bend them into the basic shape, then glue them to the top of the mounts.  I think they would look close enough.

Ah, yes.  Now you've said that I've had another thought about those hoops - I could use paperclips.  They come pre-bent at both ends and I could probably use the same wire from the paperclip to make the horizontal bars on that tubular structure, just need to find some the right size and in-scale, I have a ton of them lying around somewhere I could try out so that shouldn't be a problem.

Gino with the 1/48 UH-1N #2692 how would you modify the MG3 in the kit to be a M60 the recievers look the same but how would one modify the barrel?

The M60 and MG3 in my eyes look nothing alike. Apart from maybe the receiver cover. The MG3 is far skinnier then the M60, and you'd basically have to scratch the whole gun maybe using the mg3 as a skeleton.

Personally I planned on using these if I put M60's on my UH-1N -

www.cobracompany.com/48050.htm

But I'll probably go down the route of using the MH53 weapons kit Heavyarty previously mentioned, because I prefer the look of a minigun on one side and a ma deuce on the other.

Mikeym_us

Gino with the 1/48 UH-1N #2692 how would you modify the MG3 in the kit to be a M60 the recievers look the same but how would one modify the barrel?

I wouldn't.  I would do like Raven Morpheus suggests and get the Cobra Company set.

I actually found some resin M60s on ebay in a infantry weapons set just have to buy them and have to choose whether to modify them to the late version with the spade grips or leave them as is. Nice thing is that the UH-1N kit does come with the XM23 system all I need to do is move the ammo box to the cylindrical support at the base and come up with a flexible ammo chute.

HeavyArty

Mikeym_us

Gino with the 1/48 UH-1N #2692 how would you modify the MG3 in the kit to be a M60 the recievers look the same but how would one modify the barrel?

I wouldn't.  I would do like Raven Morpheus suggests and get the Cobra Company set.

Just so you know, the M23 doorgun system only used/uses M60Cs (spade grips).  It would be better to get the CC set as they also come with the correct ammo box and spent shell bag.

I would do like Raven Morpheus suggests and get the Cobra Company set.

Yeah I'd do like I said as well...

...but just lately I keep asking for advice here, intending to do something, such as this UH-1N project, then I run into financial "bumps in the road" that stop me.  

Definitely plan to buy at least one set of those XM23 kits from Cobra Company though, I need them to go on my Esci UH-1D.

What a coincidence I plan on that too or either take the weapons from my Huey Hog kit to replace the ones missing from my Esci UH-1D kit that just came in yesterday. The entire weapon sprue is missing off of mine. BTW the Monogram Huey Hog is a very good source of M60C MG's if I got the Cobra company update set for the Hog I wouldn't need the M60's since the set has the miniguns and that would solve the problem of sourcing out the M60C's and the ammo belts. I do want to get the XM23 for my Esci kit too I just wish Chris put out a Huey weapon set in 1/48 scale like he does in 1/72 scale.

BTW Raven are you still going to be using the weapons from your Esci UH-1D I could use them as mine are missing everything else was there except for the weapon sprue Though if I get my hand on another Esci UH-1D I may try my hand at a Medivac bird.

Raven Morpheus

I would do like Raven Morpheus suggests and get the Cobra Company set.

Yeah I'd do like I said as well...

...but just lately I keep asking for advice here, intending to do something, such as this UH-1N project, then I run into financial "bumps in the road" that stop me.  

Definitely plan to buy at least one set of those XM23 kits from Cobra Company though, I need them to go on my Esci UH-1D.

Yeah sorry, I plan on using the weapons from the Esci UH-1D on a 1/48 Revell Huey Hog I have in my stash, if I ever get around to building it.  Ray (rotorwash) sent me the Esci UH-1D because I was wanting M134's for a UH-1B/C gunship I wanted to build in 1/48 from the Revell Huey Hog kit and I couldn't source any without paying silly prices for a whole kit and it was just as cheap for him to send me the whole kit as it was the parts (I was very surprised to receive a whole kit and I'm eternally grateful to Ray).  1/48 doesn't seem to be all that well catered for in terms of aftermarket parts such as M134's.

Cobra Company does have the M134's in the UH-1C update set including the rotary magazine for the 40mm grenade launcher.

http://cobracompany.com/48028.htm

And it just seems it is just the UH-1D and UH-1N are under represented in the 1/48 aftermarket market.

Raven Morpheus

Yeah sorry, I plan on using the weapons from the Esci UH-1D on a 1/48 Revell Huey Hog I have in my stash, if I ever get around to building it.  Ray (rotorwash) sent me the Esci UH-1D because I was wanting M134's for a UH-1B/C gunship I wanted to build in 1/48 from the Revell Huey Hog kit and I couldn't source any without paying silly prices for a whole kit and it was just as cheap for him to send me the whole kit as it was the parts (I was very surprised to receive a whole kit and I'm eternally grateful to Ray).  1/48 doesn't seem to be all that well catered for in terms of aftermarket parts such as M134's.

Yeah I can't recall why but Cobra Company at the time weren't an option for me when it came to getting M134's for my 1/48 UH-1C/B gunship (this was 2013 (or possibly even 2012)) and thus Ray offered to send me the parts.  

Also from what I can tell that set doesn't include the correct M21 weapons system mounts, the ESCI UH-1D kit does/did.

Think the problem at the time was CC not being able to take Paypal payments, and as I live in the UK, and I don't have a credit card, it looked impossible for me to order from CC.  Turns out they take Western Money Union payments though, but at the time I wasn't aware of that, and I've not yet tried as I'm yet to order from CC...

UH-1 of any sort in my opinion are under-represented at the moment across the market in any scale bigger than 1/72, in terms of availability of full kits and aftermarket parts.

Although having said that Italeri recently re-released their 1/48 UH-1D kit, not sure of the weaponry on that though, if it even has any.  I've considered buying that as well as their UH-1N (when I can cobble the money together to do so) as I fudged several parts of the ESCI kit Ray sent me and think I could do it much better again (primarily because I'd build it as a static kit, not as I intended previously with moving parts and a fuselage that splits apart for maintenance of said moving parts). 

I'd love to get my hands on a 1/35 UH-1D/N but Dragon don't sell them any more and eBay sales of them seem to have dried up or gone to what I consider silly prices for the kit (or just prices I can't/won't stretch to).

I had trouble sourcing a 1/35 Academy UH-1 (B or C, I forget which it is?) Frog gunship kit, ended up finding one on an obscure French model shop website and probably paid a little over the odds for it.

All the academy UH-1 gunships are C model gunships and they are always on Ebay. Now I do wish Academy did a version with the quad M60's there is just too many minigun armed UH-1C out there. As for the 1/35 UH-1D just go for the Panda kit they show up on Ebay once in a while and they are the exact same kit. Though the Dragon helicopter crew is extremely rare and I wish they repepopped those too. As for the CC set I think they expect you to use the miniguns in place of the M60s plus they also include the flexor sights and the fixed sights which you might of mistaken for the weapon mounts.

whiIe was flying in the uh-1n,  I enjoyed shooting the mini gun