Huey question

In Vietnam era, rotor hub and mast area were a silver color. In the late 70's the whole hub and mast area was painted black. The blades are black. It depends on when you are depicting your model from. Academy is spot on for Vietnam era.

Thanks HeavyArty, That clears that one up for me.

I have some ref photo's and they show black and some Nam era one that are black and white so I can't see the colour.

James

Hi James,

In the era of the "Hog", operational UH-1 rotorheads displayed an almost oxidized appearance, near camouflage grey, and steel colors on the actuator levers and rotorshaft, with black or dark gray boots....



Again, during the Hog era, rotors on the ones I saw had flat black undersides, and some hue of OD on the topsides...



Also, aircraft exposed to hostile fire, many times painted either one or two white stripes, longitudinally, across the mid part of the upper blade in order to make the aircraft visible against the jungle canopy to aircraft overhead.

Take care....and make sure to take some pictures!
Frank

I have seen some HUEY's with OD(fuselage color) blades and orange boots.
John
Helicopters don't fly, they beat the air into submission

Thanks Frank, those pics are a big help as well as the info supplied. As for john's advice I might mix and match the two concepts as this might be a bit of a battered 'HOG' that’s seen a lot of action.

Thanks again,

James

QUOTE: Originally posted by HeavyArty In the late 70's the whole hub and mast area was painted black. The blades are black.

Hi Gino,

Interesting, do you have any pictures of a late 70's HOG with the Rotors, Mast & Hub painted black?

By the late 70's, most "C" & "M" Model UH-1's had been turned over to National Guard units, sold to the civilian market, or retired to the bone yards. From 1977 through 1981, I was stationed at Simmons Army Airfield at Ft. Bragg, with TDY's at Ft. Campbell and Ft. Rucker, and maybe I was just in the wrong place, but I never saw UH-1's of any configuration with black rotorheads/shafts as a standard color application. Even the new (then) almost black OD "S" Model Cobra's had rotorheads that appeared oxidized.

James: here's a treasure trove of good reference information / pictures from several different Army units which used the Hog.
http://www.vhpamuseum.org/

Take care, and thanks,
Frank

QUOTE: Interesting, do you have any pictures of a late 70's HOG with the Rotors, Mast & Hub painted black?

Frank,
I meant UH-1 series in general, not Hogs. Maybe it was a few years later for all black hubs and masts, could have been early '80s, but most I have seen in later service had black masts and hubs.
Not sure when this was taken, but this is what I am talking about:




Check here for more images: http://www55.tok2.com/home/oh1ninja/details/H-1/H-1_e.html

Thanks Gino,

Like you, I think we were referring to two different decades. James was talking about a "Heavy Hog" configuration build, and I responded to that end. However, I do remember a couple aircraft with the 1/17th Cav that received experimental IR paint jobs, early in 1981, but they were the flat-window-paneled "C" Model OH-58's.

I retired in 1984 and went to college. The UH-60's and AH-64's were populating Army inventory, and I didn't really keep up with changes after that time.

Take good care and thank you for the insight!

Take care,
Frank

Hey guys I'll throw my 2 cents worth in on this one. My Guard unit retired the UH-1H in 1996. Up til then all of our H models had semi-gloss black rotor heads and associated mast, dampers, pc rods and so forth. I also have the fortunate luck to still have an old CW4 in my unit who flew the C,D,H and M models in Viet Nam. I recently asked him the same question (among others) you asked. His response was that newer ones in country had black painted blade grips and yoke assembly with the rest of the main rotor head left unpainted. He said that as aircraft were used in service and parts were replaced it was the individual crew chief or other wrench bender that touched up the paint. Some guys used black, some gray some didn't paint them at all. As for the blades the info given to you by other responders seems to be his recollection too. I hope this helps and if there is anything else you would like me to ask him, post it here and I'll see what I can get for you.

John

Keep the spinnin' side up and the greasy side down.

Should mention that tail rotors followed the same color schemes, tips on both colored (black and OD) were yellow
John
Helicopters don't fly, they beat the air into submission

I have to make a correction/clarification to the info I provided earlier. I stated that newer aircraft arriving in country had their main rotor heads painted black. This was true of the late model D's and new production H's that arrived after 1967-68. My source tells me that all of the C's and M's he flew had medium gray painted blade grips and yoke assemblys (the part where the blade grips mount to the main rotor mast). Occaisionally the stabilizer bars were gray as well but also arrived in natural, unpainted metal with brass colored counter weights on the ends. The pitch change rods were usually gray as were the pitch change horns on the blade grips. The masts were usually unpainted metal as were the stabilizer bar dampers and associated links. My source served with F troop 8th Cav at Chu Lai for most of his first tour and this was when he flew the UH-1 series aircraft. Hope this helps.

John

Keep the spinnin' side up and the greasy side down

QUOTE: privateer17 wrote: (the part where the blade grips mount to the main rotor mast).

On our aircraft (Chinooks), the FE's called this connection the "Jesus Bolt"!

"If it fails, only Jesus can save you!"

Take care,
Frank

Hey all,

Just a note, the second Hog that Frank's posted here is "Ace of Spades" from the 174th AHC "Sharks". The MRC Huey Frog kit comes with these markings (albeit somewhat inaccurately). The bird has quite a history and was finally lost for good during Lam Son 719 in Laos in 1971. There have been a few really good reference shots published of her though.

If my memory is correct in the "80's" sometime they went from oil in the main grips of the main blades to grease and that is why they changed the color of the grips to denote the difference.