My Super 61 (Walcott's bird) in progress

Helo blades droop at rest on the ground.  

 CW3

Doug Wolcott

Aviation Maint Officer

151AE

Andy,That is a awesome looking Blackhawk you've built.It looks like the real thing.You really outdone yourself with that detail,especially with the rotorhead.My hats off to you on this one.ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!!!!!!!!!Does Salbando still surf this forum?If so,I need to PM him about the C2 bird on that mission that day.It sounds like he was there.

  Thanks Doug!

And welcome to Best Helo Forum on web!

 

Andy

I agree with Ray. 

 I have never heard Cliff referrred to as Elvis in the 7 years I was in unit.  I never heard Ray or any other in any mission brief or war story speak as such.  I was confused when the nick surfaced. 

 CW3

DOUG WOLCOTT

Great looking MH-60L Andy. Looking forward to that article!

Right now I am still building Academy's Huey C from 121th Assault Helicopter Company (Vietnam)

Stucked a little making transmission and engine (I opened it from both sides)

Interior is allmost done though so hopefully it wont take too long.

Also at the same time I am building F-15E from Revell 1/48 (great kit! One of the best from Revell)

and a little diorama of Mog street with HUMVEE and 7 rangers...

Next will be AH-6J (Somalia again :-) ) I did not decide yet which one - probably Star 41 (still need some info)

Thats about it)))))

Andy

 

 

That explains it. 

What's up for your next challenge Andy?

Thanks guys...I am really glad you like it.

Sal, about this chulck markings of "Velvet Elvis" and "Sitting Bull" I wrote here allready - they lasted only few weeks. BTW not long time ago Ray Dowdy (left gunner) post a topic on Somalia Descussion Forum (bhd93.com) about these drowings on Super 61. Here is quote:

The real ELVIS! Many know in the book, and in the movie Cliff Wolcott is referred to as Elvis as a nickname. This all came about due to the pictures I took plane side. http://www.nightstalkers.com/tfranger/memorial/wolcott/default.html http://www.nightstalkers.com/tfranger/memorial/briley/default.html These are my pictures. Mark Bowden when he was gathering the info for his book came across the pictures on the NS web sight. He took what he saw and thought that was his nickname. Well I am here to tell you that is all BS!!!!! What happened that day the graffiti appeared on my ACFT, the boys came out and put what you have seen on the ACFT as a joke. There was a lot more not shown in the pictures. I took the pictures when we came back for a deception flight. Now for the Elvis stuff. For many years after Elvis died there have been reports that he has been seen, and is not dead. Therefore the stuff like “Elvis has left the building” or he is a CIA agent someplace. So while we were in Somalia whenever someone informed us (TFR) about General Adid whereabouts, it was an ELVIS sighting. ELVIS was General Adid! Not Cliff Wolcott! When Somalia came about I had been in the 160th for four years. In that time I was lucky enough to have flown with MR. Wolcott MANY times. Never did I hear ANYONE call him Elvis as a nickname. OR Elvis at all. The Joke written on the ACFT became much bigger and something it was not when the book came out. Donovan was an Indian; no one I know ever called him sitting bull. His nickname was bull, but for a very different reason. If any of this does not make since, or f*cked up spelling, blame the Jack Daniels.

_________________ Left gunner Super 61 Nightstalker Aug 89 - Jan 98 Daps rule kilo's drule     Andy

 

Andy,

OUTSTANDING my friend!  Brings back memories...some good, some bad. 

From what I remember there were actually lots of grafitti markings.  Some were G-rated and some were not.  Since they were done in chaulk they'd fade and wouldn't last long.  I'm pretty sure that "thunderstruck' was painted with the same gray color as the interior.

 

The diorama is pretty good as well, except that during the real event the tail rotor and most of the vertical stab departed the aircraft.

 

FMF Doc wrote:

Fantastic!!!!!! I can't remember where, but a while back I saw a diorama in 1/35 of the downed bird using Dragon figures for the rescue team. I think it may have been at WWW.ARMORAMA.COM . Keep up the great work, it's an inspiration to us all.

 

Yup, it is by Pablo Roig Sanchez, titled "Super 64", and is at Armorama.  It depics Durant's bird as Shugart and Gordon arrive to secure the crash site.  A great dio.

 

A few more pics here.

Fantastic!!!!!! I can't remember where, but a while back I saw a diorama in 1/35 of the downed bird using Dragon figures for the rescue team. I think it may have been at WWW.ARMORAMA.COM .

Keep up the great work, it's an inspiration to us all.

This is just SO one off the coolest threads on this site.
A Project.
People contributing all the way to make it happen.
And a result that is something at least I have never seen before.
Hats off, this is the just so cool...
And the result is just stunning!

More, PLEASE!

Svenne

That's a great build. Be proud, you earned it. It's also very touching. I again take my hat off to the vets of "the Mog".
With alot of us vets, any day can be memorial day...

-60

OK, got the situation.
Well as you said, stencils are so small they probably were hardly seen on a dusty helo.

)))) No..no. I dont have ALPS
I made decals on white decal paper with black around the letters just like you and Gino. Silvering its not the right word for this effect that I got. The black color of decal background did not match dusty black on the model. It looked pretty bad with all these square decal marks all over the hull. Besides if you look on the light - decals where glossy but the rest of the surface - flat. Really wild look As I said before - I did not planned to apply 3 or more coats of Future. I spent 3 weeks doing rivets - so could not let them disapear.

Sorry to hear the decals didn't work out.
But I don't understand what's silvering got to do with that; did you use the clear version or the black one?
From your answer I guess you made a clear version so ... how the hell did you do that ? Do you have a dye sublimation printer (Alps)?

Anyway excellent build! I agree on the black color thing; even though beeing flat black it has a cool dusty wear to it.

))))) guess what was one of my first questions to left gunner of 324, Ray Dowdy
And here is his answer:
"chalk drawings of Elvis and Bull were not there on the 3rd, they only lasted a couple days."

Exactly the same answer I got from Pat Powers (65)
" The crew chiefs had written in white chalk on both sides of the aircraft in the vicinity of the pilots door "velvet Elvis" on the left, and "Bull" on the right. On the 3rd of October, I don't believe the chalk markings were still visible"

You are right about "Thunderstruck" - it is very light grey. Maybe I should make it a little darker))))

Oh well, still looks great. Have you thought about getting a white colored pencil and drawing the grafiti onto it, would look pretty cool. Also, in the above group pic, the word "Thunderstruck" looks like it is in a Gunship Grey color, just like "Venom" on Super 64 was.

Gino,
I donno maybe my printer sucks, maybe not enough glossy serface... oh well...Nothing is perfect
I have only one excuse for that... Maybe Salbando will correct me, but it seems like in Somalia they where pretty dusty and the paint was faded so that small markings could be hardly seen. But of course next time I wont skip on this
Once again - all pics of Super 61 that I have:
Clif (Elvis) Wolcott

D. Briley

All together


Andy

Sorry to hear that our decals didn't work out well for you. They came out great on mine.
Maybe it was the decal paper you used or something like that. I did put two coats of gloss on mine, decaled, then 3 thin coats of flat. No problems with loss of detail.

QUOTE: [i]Originally posted by AvusJust one thing ... what happend to all the stencils? Didn't you get a copy of our DAP-Decals?

Yes I did... And they are great! Thanks to You and Gino for them.
But I did not apply them. Well, its a long story First of all I wanted to imitate the flat black surface like on Nightstalkers birds so I used NATO black from Tamiya (works good especially if you wipe the surface after the paint is dry with a tissue - all raised detail becomes darker but all hollows and gaps stay just a little brighter which makes it look dusty. At least to me ) So finally when I was going to apply decals I faced the problem with rough surface, which makes the silvering effect. I covered it with one coat of Future but it did not help a lot. I printed 2 sheets of your decals and tried to put them anyways. The result was as I expected - messy In other case I would probably apply one or even two more coats of Future but it would kill ALL MY RIVETS.... So I took everything off and made just "major" stencils like "UNITED STATES ARMY",tail number, 61 on the door window and "THUNDERSTRUCK" on the coaling. These markings I made with real stencils So basically this is one of the weakest parts on the model.
I tryed but it did not work out

Thanks
Andy

Congratulations! You are a Master Modeler. I can only wish that my work was any where close to the quality you produce. I thought you posted pics of a real aircraft on a flightline somewhere!

WOW! That is one AMAZING build! I can't wait to see the website when you get it up and running. The amount of detail just posted in THIS thread alone is spectacular.

Great job!

Wow! Outstanding helo!
Hope mine will look only half as good as this one!

Just one thing ... what happend to all the stencils?
Didn't you get a copy of our DAP-Decals?

Excellent job... That tail rotor is awesome. Even the grass on your base looks good.

Dave
-DPD Productions - Custom Scanner, MURS, & Ham Antennas-
http://eje.railfan.net/dpdp/dpd1

WOW!!!! Congratulations on finishing the project. That's definitely something anyone would be proud.

Came out looking awesome. I love the cabin roof. Excellent job.

"Finito la comedia"

Done! Finished! Complete! etc.
No matter which one is the best attack helo in the world - Black Hawk is my favorite chopper in the world!!!
All critique is welcome and appreciated











Currently working on web page with all explanations on the build and all collected info on MH-60L...
Special thanks to ALL you guys who participate in this project - I will definitely mention your names on that page.
Thanks again!!!
Andy

Just read all the way through this thread for the first time, and wanted to comment on all the great info. Looks like you will definitely have a show stopper when it's finished.

It's a shame all the photos and info can't be moved to a permanent place to save, so it won't all be lost eventually. It wouldn't be too hard to save everything and archive it on a page. Looks like some of the pics have disappeared already though.

Dave
-DPD Productions - Custom Scanner, MURS, & Ham Antennas-
http://eje.railfan.net/dpdp/