Vietnam Huey

Hi guys! Its been a long time.  Been busy, out of work for a spell...who hasn't? and such.

Just finished this thread and boy oh boy not much has been missed here...pretty much everything has been covered to build one sweet helo.

Sorry, but the sticky seems to have gotten loose.  A little BUMP here.

Steve

Sent a request to re-pin

There are some great shots of the overhead panel at www.scale-rotors.com in the reference section of both a UH-1B and a UH-1H.

Andrew,

Sorry for the VERY long delay.  The book was US Army Gunships in Vietnam, Arms and Armour Press.

Articles:  I did two articles for Air Enthusiast Quarterly covering the development of the Huey and use in Vietnam, and one for Scale Aircraft Modelling detailing markings and unit organization, and 2 for Aviation News, one on my personal experiences and one on the A/ACH-47A Guns-A-Go Go, operational history.

Cheers,

Bob

Papa Echo: what happened to your 1/24 Huey build pics? The 'homestead' links don't  work, and I would surely like to see the pictures of what you did with it. 

Repost, please.

Joe 

Huey Nut

Andrew,

Sorry for the VERY long delay.  The book was US Army Gunships in Vietnam, Arms and Armour Press.

Articles:  I did two articles for Air Enthusiast Quarterly covering the development of the Huey and use in Vietnam, and one for Scale Aircraft Modelling detailing markings and unit organization, and 2 for Aviation News, one on my personal experiences and one on the A/ACH-47A Guns-A-Go Go, operational history.

Cheers,

Bob

HI Bob,

Thanks for the reply.  Now you just know that a blokes going to have to do some reseach on that title.

Cheers

Hi all you Veterans and Huey lovers,

I'm new with this forum and only previously just posted a on-going UH-34 WIP when I chanced upon this post. I don't build many helis, the UH-34 is my second. If only I had the priviledge to have such a great source of info to tap on for my Huey build I did in '92, I'd probably would have done a better job of it.

I'd like to share some pictures of my completed Huey, worts and all. There are some items that should not be in it due to the lack of knowledge and internet references. I'm sure the Vets will have a field day with comments.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers,

Richard

Yeah Richard - a really nice one! But what scale & make is it? Have a nice day

Pawel

Pawel

Yeah Richard - a really nice one! But what scale & make is it? Have a nice day

Pawel

Thanks Pawel, forgot to mention that it was a 1/32 Revell kit with no passenger interior but comes with rocket pods and mini-guns. I didn't bother with altering the front nose as it seems out of shape when looking from the front. The windshield should be larger I think.

I added M-60 mounts from plastic sprue. Ammo boxes were from my spares. The M-60's are actually 1/35 scale from the Tamiya Ford Mutts, I cut off the stocks and replaced them with handles. All the seats were made from plastic sheets and tubes.

The mini-gun ammo box shouldn't be there but I left it on as it looked good and as extra seating for the grunts although since reading from this post, the floor behind the pilot seats is mostly empty.

Got most of my references from 'Eyewitness Nam - Chickenhawk' by Robert Mason's account of the horror of war seen from a huey flaring into a hot LZ.

Cheers,

Richard

Stunning Huey , Richard

I poped another CD into the computer and copied your pic's , a truely inspirational build ;

Especially given you only had a small amount of reference material to start with.

Sir , you certainly are one exceptionally gifted modeler .

Kind regards

                       John .

Thanks John for the encouraging words. Glad you liked the Huey I built.

Wish I had the references like the ones available now on the net.

Cheers,

Richard

It's been a while since I was on this forum and I was happy to see such a great looking Huey when I returned. You guy's seem to know your stuff about helicopters, so if you don't mind, I have some questions about a glue-bomb Huey kit I'm trying to save. (It's the 1:35 Dragon kit by the way). I've fixed the rotors and the rivet detail, but some of the optional parts don't make any sense to me.

I want to build a Huey from 1967, but I don't know which vents on the side of the engine cowling are correct for this time period. Horizontal or vertical openings? Horizontal seem to be more common. There is also a panel on the right side of the tail boom. One optional panel has vents, the other doesn't. Which one is right? Keep in mind this model doesn't have to be 100% accurate. Finally, the M-60's. When did they go from hanging them by straps to using mounts? (and did the hanging M-60's have stocks or handgrips?)

Wow, that's a lot of questions and I will probably have more later. But I suppose that is why FSM has this forum. Any help answering these questions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.   

Welcome back.  I'm pretty sure all of these questions are answered within this thread, but since it takes about 3 hours to get through it, here's the short version.

"I want to build a Huey from 1967, but I don't know which vents on the side of the engine cowling are correct for this time period. Horizontal or vertical openings? Horizontal seem to be more common."

-Yes, by 1967 the horizontal vents were the norm and your bird is probably a UH-1H.  Only a few of the original UH-1D's had the vertical ones.

"There is also a panel on the right side of the tail boom. One optional panel has vents, the other doesn't. Which one is right?"

-The tail boom from the Dragon kit can be built as either a civilian 205 Huey or a Military UH-1D/H Huey.  Civilian 205's have a luggage compartment in the tail boom and Army UH-1D/H's do not.  For your build use the part without the compartment door (part B-13).  Be aware that you will probably have to slather on a bit of filler to get the tail boom smooth over that area.

 "Finally, the M-60's. When did they go from hanging them by straps to using mounts? (and did the hanging M-60's have stocks or handgrips?)"

- MOST (nothing was ever without exception in Vietnam) UH-1D/H Slicks had pintle mounted M60D's with spade grips (referred to as the M23 gun system).   There were a few units/times/individuals that used "free 60's" (M60A's on bungee cords with stocks and hand grips) in UH-1D/H's but most of these were used in UH-1B and UH-1C short bodied gunships.  Unfortunately, the Dragon kit gives you one of each.  You really need a second M23 mount. You can get them from Cobra Company. 

I hope that helps with your questions.  Please feel free to ask if you have others.

     Ray

Wow, thanks again for all the help. The only other question I had was about the interior. There are two sets of seats and I don't remember ever seeing the one with the headrests (right behind the pilot facing the rear of the chopper). Were they part of a civilian version too or put in other variants later on?

The forward troop seat with the headrests was used on Army Hueys.  It was used in Vietnam and after.  It was also common to see it removed to allow more room inside the cabin.

You can barely make out the rear-facing front troop seat w/the soldier sitting on it below.

Gave this a BUMP.  Seems to have lost the sticky.

Regards
Steve

Bump, lost the stick to the "sticky"

Gino

Just checking out this post and I think the guy is sitting in a "jump" seat that is facing outwards,  judging by the bracing by his boot.  We placed ours that way or removed them and folded the forward facing aft seats  up and everyone sat on the floor.  

Bump

Bump

When I flew in Nam I never saw even the rear canvas seat folded down. It was either folded up or removed. The only seats in the rear were for the doorgunner and crew chief. Just thought I would throw that in<g>

When I flew as doorgunner in C Co, 227 AH Bn, 1st Air Cav, 1969-70 we had the rear canvas seat (that went across the width of the Huey, right in front of the gunner and 'chief's seats) installed, that is, set up for people to use.  VIPs or in the case of grunts, 1st come 1st seated... the rest sat on the floor.

We aso flew with the large cargo side doors removed altogether, rather than left attached  to the Huey in the open position. 

As far as I know, this varied from unit to unit, time to time...

Bump

I built  some models....only these you can spend hours flying. I'm close to finishing all the 174th Sharks. Unfortunately being a modeler I am not satisfied. Gotta lot to correct.

One of the good things about model kits is you can actually use them to build 3-D models. I realize I'm a little off scope here but with all of us being such devoted Rotorheads I figured it would fit right in.

I have a question regarding the High Visibility colors for stabilizers for the 174th AHC. Were they the FS Standard safety orange or Red? Working from original pictures it's hard to tell and I dont own the kit to check the plans but the Italeri kit looks to be red for the color.

I'm asking because the real gunship I'm working on has a FS Safety Orange which I assumed was used during Vietnam and later.

Also does anyone have a scan of the Italeri plans?

Thanks.

Im working from these paint chips. Has to be one of them.

http://www.fed-std-595.com/FS-595-Paint-Spec.html

I 'borrowed' 2 pages out of a manual before I came home from Nam, and for the UH-1 and AH-1 it stated the 'entire upper surface of the synchronized elevator painted international orange.'  The shade of OD varied depending upon replaced panels, how long the OD was exposed to the elements, etc.  I saw new panels that looked semi-gloss dark OD next to faded matte OD panels - if you wanted to get crazy you could paint a fuselage in patchwork or checkerboard shades of OD!  Don't forget replacement "glass" panels (i.e. windshield and lower chin bubbles) had a dull smokey-white edge all around.  It came that way and painting it was a low priority.