bhenri;
Chris, with the Cobra Company, took interest in the project right after I first started it, and asked me if I would consider boxing the unfinished project up, and send it to him for research, because they were considering producing a 1/48 Chinook kit. When he was finished and returned it to me, he included a resin Instrument Panel, FFAR Tubes, 5 lead .50 cal's, and a bunch of Vinyl Ammo Chutes.
One can obtain the vinyl ammo chutes from the Cobra Company, and other distributors of such material. In fact, I had already located some to scale cable ties, as you have indicated, to use for mine, but went with the vinyl pieces since they were part of the "Thank You" package. I think the cable ties would work just fine, except they may be a little harder to bend into shape than their vinyl counterparts.
Hope this helped.....
Take care,
Frank