Another question about Monogram's 1/48 UH-1C

First off, very nice models.

 I noticed there is a lot of discussions on the F model Huey tailboom and while I never paid much attention to this model, on close examination I believe the F model used a civilian BGell 205 tailboom with the military tailrotor anddriveshaft. The civilian 205 used the tailrotor used on the 212 and cobra and it was mounted on the right side of the tailboom.

The reason I am assuming this is because I have never seen a military 204/205 tailboom that had a cargo compartment in the tailboom. The only place I ever saw this configuration was on the civilian birds and these F models. To properly meet the new configuration of the 204 for a F model, Bell might have used the civilian tailboom.

My two cents on a best guess.

Charlie

John,

What a great pic of all your Hueys. Very nice indeed. Good luck with your F project.

Rich

John,

  Holy crap, man!  You been holding out on us.  Built a "few" 1/72 Hueys you say.  Looks like you got your own friggin helicopter company!  Good luck with the conversion and thanks for posting the pics.  Some sweet lookin birds there. 

      Ray
 

Hi Gerald and Ray ; Thanks for the additional info Ray , I greatly appreciate you taking the time to post quite a comprehensive summary . I've built a few 1/72 scale Huey's , so I've been thinking of venturing into the 1/48 scale Huey arena .

As you say where the tailboom meets the back end of the fuselage , It does seem to be the most challenging part of the conversion . At first I thought it was just because the base of the engine fairing on the Bravo model sits over the top of the tailboom , compared to the Delta model tailboom fitting up against the fuselage ; but I now understand what your saying about the difference with the taper . I suppose this might be why Italeri's 1/72 F model has the tailboom join just forward of the elevators and not at the begining . Thank's again guy's , I'll keep researching the project . Kind regards john

John,

  I have been thinking about this one for a while and I think you are basically correct in your summary of the major changes to the Huey Hog kit.  Here are a few images I'll put up for the discussion to follow.

First a couple of 20th SOS UH-1Ps (armed UH-1F):

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A stateside UH-1F from 1975 at Whiteman AFB:

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A UH-1D of the 190th AHC (photo was taken by a 68th AHC member):

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OK, so here goes.

1. Yes the UH-1F had a lengthened tailboom to accomodate the 48 ft rotor (same as UH-1D).  however if you look at the top photo and the bottom one you'll see that the D/H model tailboom has a shot section at the root of the tailboom that is a constant diameter while the F model has a  evenly tapering tailboom beginning at the root.  To further confuse things, in the photo of the Whiteman Field F model, it appears that a UH-1D/H talboom may have been used. iIf you look at the area where the tailboom joins the fuselage, you can clearly see that there is a change in the slope of the bottom of the tailboom.  Not sure what's up with that.

2.  The UH-1F has the narrow chord, symmetrical horizontal stabs characteristic of the B model.  You can see that in the top photo.  Luckily for you, the Huey Hog kit comes with the narrow chord B model stabs instead of the correct C model ones.

3. If you are building a 20th SOS bird, note the twin blade antennas on the roof that was characteristic of in country birds while the stateside Whiteman F model only has one.

4. The F model has a nose mounted pitot tube like the Bravo model not a roof mounted one like the Charlie.

5. While the in country UH-1F's had particle separators, all the photos I have seen of stateside birds have either the bell mouth intake (not as much dust stateside I guess) or a totally different intake configuration (see Squadron UH-1 Huey in Action page 35). I believe this is the type of itake on the Whiteman bird above, but the area is covered.

6. Fuel filler is on the left like the UH-1C.

7.  I think you have covered the exhaust issues 

I think those are the major differences I have noted.  Good luck with the build and please keep us posted. 

    Ray
 

Italeri offers a F in 1:72. I would think the hardest part would be the turned to one side exhaust the F featured.