First off let me say this is one of the top two or three Huey models I’ve ever seen. Real nice job! (Wow)
Huey trivia…
Most of the stuff I point out here is the kind of thing you could only “know” by being there. Model companies miss 99% of this stuff when they cut the molds so it’s not the builder’s fault. (I would love to hear a critique on say F4 Phantom kits by a crew chief of that era.)
Here is what I noticed…
1. Crew line cords (intercom sys) are not curled in army Hueys. (A lot of crew chiefs would beg longer cords from the avionics guys, so they could stand by the pilot’s doors during run up after engine start.) Point of confusion: there is a map light that hangs above the pilot’s and copilots head by the overhead console that has a curled cord.
2. Pitot tube on the roof should be over to the right and does not sit on a block; the “blade” antenna should be about where you have the pitot tube. Ant. is black in color. The pitot tube is steel/unpainted from just behind the little “shark fin” on top of it, forward.
3. Pilot seats were O.D. Green with black rubber edges.
4. Above the AC’s seat (right) is a rotor brake actuator, Uncle Sam didn’t buy rotor brakes for his army Hueys. (Many’s the time we wished he had, I’ll tell ya. In a good stiff breeze the rotor would continue to turn long after it would have normally stopped…Grumble-grumble.) “The Bet”... Long standing tradition holds that if the main rotor stops in line with the fuselage the Crew chief buys the beer. If it stops 90 degrees to the fuselage however, the Aircraft Commander buys.
5. TB 746-93-2 The Painting and Marking of Army Aircraft shows the correct position for the Medavac markings on the roof to be centered on the engine cowling. I mention this in passing as we never heard of the TB in question, and there were lots of variations from company to company, aircraft to aircraft. The TB is a handy reference because it gives locations for all of the markings on aircraft in the army inventory.
6. Another manufacturing faux pa, the windshield on the right side has a corner filled in (The stub end of the Outside Air Temp guage sticks out here.) the windshield represented, shows this to be a post RVN glass windshield.) The little triangular sheet metal windshield wiper stops are missing also.
7. Tail rotor blades are O.D. with yellow tips. Black blades had red-white-red tips and a red band at the root. They phased out about mid ’69.
8. Search light missing from belly (same appearance as landing light, only it could swivel)
9. Cargo hook not common on RVN Huey’s, (maintenance access issue in the “Hell Hole”)
10. Lateral servo tubes are O.D. the bearing rod ends are silver at the swash plate end. There are 3 servos sticking up out of the transmission well, the right, left laterals and the collective in the back.
11. Towel bar antenna in from of the transmission cowl is the wrong shape should be curved at the corners not squared off.
12. Tail stinger looks like it sits at a wrong angle, should be shallower in relation to the tail boom.
13. There is another hand hold on the roof just behind the right side green house window. (Yeah, we had some idiot actually climb onto the roof in flight on a bet...needless to say he was sent to motor pool there after. Much reduced in rank)
14. Main rotor colors… the official scheme at the end of ’69 was the out board 1/6 to be flat white on top, flat black on bottom, with yellow tip. Other schemes one blade white and one blade black on top. An the mid 1/6 of each blade upper surface flat white. (For quick recognition by the guns, Charlie-charlie, aka. command and control ship, and/or fixed wing “fast movers” in the area.)
Able Audacious Army Aviation Above All!