Huey UH-1D - Finished

Andy,

  Nice job!  I wish my first chopper looked that good!

         Ray

No wonder your boss was made up. I can see a promotion in the near future!! Very nice build and I like the door guns, something that is lacking in 1/72. I'm in the process of building one of these. Any major issues/fit probs you can make me aware of. I'm going to attempt to decal it in the German army flyout colours which will be a bit of a challenge for me, and as the doors will be closed, I'm not going to spend too long on the interior, just put belts on the pilot seats and maybe a bit of wiring here and there.

Thanks for sharing.

Rich

richgb wrote:

No wonder your boss was made up. I can see a promotion in the near future!! Very nice build and I like the door guns, something that is lacking in 1/72. I'm in the process of building one of these. Any major issues/fit probs you can make me aware of. I'm going to attempt to decal it in the German army flyout colours which will be a bit of a challenge for me, and as the doors will be closed, I'm not going to spend too long on the interior, just put belts on the pilot seats and maybe a bit of wiring here and there. Thanks for sharing. Rich

Thanks Rich.  I think the door guns really made the build.  The final look more than justified the hours spent (included all the failed attempts!) fabricating them.

I was really tempted by the German scheme, but decals are often a nemesis of mine and combined with the fact that Pam flew in the Army, led me to go for the Army version.  The decals went on really well.  I used Testor's decal solvent on them, and although they didn't crinkle up before flattening down, they did snuggle down quite nicely.  I did use a toothpick to press them into the panel lines.  I think I was going to build another one for myself, I might well go with the German scheme. 

The biggest issue I had were the windows.  The windscreen in particular was just ugly.  When I test fitted it to the fuselage, the thick edges just stood out like a sore thumb.  So I sanded the interior surface to thin down the edges and generally give a smooth shape.  I then worked it over with a polishing stick, coated it with Future, and it was a vast improvement.  Had I had more time, I could have even done more, because it still distorts and magnifies a bit.

The windscreen, cockpit door, and cabin door windows also all had some major gaps.  In an ideal world, I would have liked to have painted it, and then glued in the windows afterward, but the windows were so loose, that I had to glue and fill during assembly, which necesitated carefully masking everything, and even then the results weren't perfect.

The next major fit issue I had was with the cabin interior when gluing the fuselage together.  There were a few interference issues.  I did a lot of test fitting and sanding, although even then, I think I still missed an interference area in the forward cockpit floor.  If you look carefully at the head-on shot, you can see that the right side of the cockpit floor has a slight lean to it.  No doubt that was caused by it being just a tad wide, causing it to slide up the the side of the fuselage a bit. 

All in all, it's not a totally bad kit, but neither is it a box shaker.  Be preprared to spend some time test fitting.

Andy

Hi Andy,

Cheers for those tips. I see what you mean for that windscreen...a bit on the chunky side. I've built a few Italeri kits and never had any probs with the decals, they've always gone on well like you said, so I'm hoping I wont have too much trouble with those German ones.

Rich

PS. I love that head on shot with the guns sticking out

Rich,

Good luck with yours.  Look forward to seeing it in the rather bright livery.

Andy