1/48 UH-1B

Nice Huey. I have a few memories of riding around in them during my days ARRS out of Scott AFB.

Darwin, O.F.

John,
Thanks for the compliment. I had the Fujimi B. Which is why I decided to hack up a perfectly good Esci D model to get the blades. The big differences, which you would know better than I, were in the rotor hub and mast area. The Esci kit has the 48 foot blades which are easy to correct. The blade chord is correct for the B model. I seem to recall some "balance thingies" on the B model hub, but I thought the basic mast/ control tube/swashplate configuration were about the same on the B and D. I could be very wrong on that (I was the driver, not the doctor) . The more I think about it, the more I want to start hacking and build a better B.
I think Mel was questioning whether Monogram goofed and put the longer boom on the kit. I can't tell from the kit photos or remember the boom dimensions on my original kit.
We did fly some very tired old A models during training (July '68 to Nov. '68).
I think we used them during initial transition to the UH-1. I recall flying D models most of the time , but have a distinct recollection of an IP RedXing an A model during pre-flight which we were scheduled to fly for my checkride. Tac training took two routes. Contact training for slick drivers on D models and B models for the gun track.

Particle seperator was introduced on the B and C models during production runs, not all had them, many were added during rebuild.

Monogram never stated B or C on the kit, we assumed C, but not totally accurate for either
B models did not have the longer F tails. They were used only on the For P(P was an armed F) models only and contained a door on the tail boom for luggage storage. If you can find the old Fujumi B model kit you could get more accurate blades for a B model. Since built this kit 20 years ago I think you did a good job seeing how the was only minimal reference material out there. Tail boom in the kit is more accurate for a B then a C.
Snakedriver looks like when you were studying them at mother Rucker I was working and flying around on them. When you made this you had the same reference material I did(lost alot of it over yhe years). Did they still have the A models in school for you to work on? We had an H model with 13 hours on the airframe and damaged beyond repair for flight when they filmed the "Green Beret" movie with the Duke

Mel,
You're correct; I did shorten the blades to 44 foot diameter. I think the F tail boom added about two feet to the length of the aircraft. Since I no longer have the model , I'll need to check my stash to see if I have a kit around. At the time I still had my tech manuals and Bell Helicopter product guides for reference. We trained on tired old B models at Mother Rucker during the Tac phase of advanced training so I got to know them well. Glad I didn't have to fly one in RVN. Nice to have the extra eyeballs in back, but with all the gear you guys tried to stuff into them, I'm surprised they got off the ground.
When I took the photos, I dont think I was finished with the rotor system. It appears to be too clean, although I wanted the blades to appear relatively new as those were changed frequently due to "foreign object" damage of the 7.62mm variety.
Since I got back into modelling after a divorce induced sabatical, I've been toying with the idea of another"labor of love" project.

Mike,
They called it a Charlie model, but it had the tail of a B model and the stabilizers are too narrow in chord. The C model stabilizer was 30.5 inches in chord vs.22 inches on the B
model. The C model fin is wider in chord and is "cambered" to provide more directional stability. The partical seperator on the Monogram engine air inlet is correct for most C models (I've seen them without it), but I don't think they were installed on the B model.
You also need to be careful (depending on the bird you are depicting) with antenna placement.

wasn't the Revell Monogram Hog a C model?

Snake Driver,

It's hard to tell from the picture but did you need to shorten the 48 ft dia. main rotor blades to the 44 ft dia of the B. I'm not sure but the old Monogram B kit may have had the "F" tail boom which was longer and used the 48 ft dia main rotor blades. I'm back at work offshore today so I'm away from my referrences and model kits to check that out. I'm fairly certain the newer "Hog" kit has a shorter tail boom.

Looks good to me, seems like you made the right changes to the kit to make it more accurate.

OOOP's wrong thread!

Frank,

I was mistaken on the 19 shot pod with the 40 mm becasue there is a shot of Shark "157" in 1969 with the 19 shot pods and a thumper. Don't know if the larger 40 mm ammo bin was carried then or not.

Nice looking B model. Good idea to rob parts from the old ESCI kits. I have a couple of the old Monogram B's lying around and several of the ESCI D models.

Hey Jim,

Beautiful job on the B model!! Also, nice job on modernizing the rotor shaft; it made an "iffy" kit look realistic again (plus gave me an idea)

Thanks for posting, I like it!

Take care,
Frank