My First Chopper UH-1D

It looks pretty good. The windshield wipers are missing though.  It also has some features that are newer and incorrect for a Vietnam Huey.  For example, the whip antenna on the roof and the wire cutter under the chin are later features not seen in Vietnam.  Also, you have built it closer to an H model than a D model.  The D had a pitot tube on the nose and two large antennas off the nose as well, along with the absence of the roof mounted pitot and towel bar antenna.  The rotor blades are wrong for an H or D model too, they are N model blades.  Lastly, the cargo compartment on the right side of the tail boom was not used on military Hueys.  It was a civilian feature.  Most of the errors aren't totally your fault, Dragon/Panda doesn't tell you what to use for each type.  They also included the incorrect parts.

Looks good overall, but just not accurate for a Vietnam era Huey.  Great job on the paint and weathering.

Caleb,

As Gino said, very nice job!  The kit itself has a LOT of accuracy issues, but your finish is very nice!  The "hand grip" antennas aft of the pilots doors were a later mod and for some reason Panda decided to mold a baggage compartment door in the right half of the tailboom.  NO Army Huey has had that. 

The differences between the D and H model were minor, most noticeable was the moving of the pitot tube from the nose to the roof and the removal of the FM antennas from the nose.  The upgrade also included going from the T-53-11 to the T-53-13 engine.  After Vietnam the H model was further upgraded to the UH-1H/V and the whip antenna, hand grip antennas and Wire Strike Protection System (wire cutters) were added.  Dragon doesn't tell you any of that in the directions, unfortunately.

Great job though!

Jon

It looks good, nice job on the painting and weathering. I wouldn't know any better as far as the antennas and such, but these two know their HUEYs.

As far as the kit from what I've been reading about it here and elsewhere, it sounds like Panda / Dragon have actually made a nice kit of a Bell 205A++ "Super Huey" (actually "Super Duper Huey" but that just sounds silly, so most just call it a super huey also). As a civilian helicopter it would have the door in the tail boom and uses the transmission / rotor system from the Bell 212, along with an 1800 hp Lycoming engine (same as the Bell 212 / AH-1 Cobra?).

The original "Super Huey" is a modified UH-1H with the same 1800hp engine. 

Guys, the nose pitot does not necessarily denote a D model. Granted almost all D's started with nose pitot tubes, but the roof mounted pitot was a MWO not a model feature. I trained students in the mid to late 70s at rucker in D's that had been converted to H's that still retained the nose pitot. H's that came off the assembly line did come with roof mounted pitots, but the MWO teams that changed the nose to roof mounted pitots did not get all the D's that had been converted to H's at least into the late seventies.  I speared a buzzard with the nose pitot on a night flight with students in a H model.

I do agree this model has many inaccuracies. The cargo door was a civilian Bell 205 tailboom but Panda for some reason places the tailrotor on the army left side. Civilian 205's basically had the cobra tailboom and right side mounted tailrotor assembly with the cargo compartment built into the tailboom.

Anyway, a great job with the model. Love your weathering and painting.

Charlie

Looks Awesome! What technique did you use as far as weathering goes?