UH-1C Academy

Holly Hell Charlie,

P/E in 1/35 is bad enough let alone doing it in 1/48!

But all the hardness aside keep up the great work it is looking great.

I know what you mean 'bout the P/E cause i am doing a 1/48 B-17G with the Eduard Big Ed Set WOW talk about time consuming!!

All the best with the build and keep us updated.

Cheers

Rob 

Thanks Rob

 I too have the B-17 with all the PE parts and I want to wait until I have a couple of other PE models completed before I build it because I really love the B-17 and want it to be one of my bests.

I have been working on the seats the last two nights and hopefully I will get another picture posted when I get the cockpit seats installed. I'm attempting to build the hardness tonight.

Thanks again for the support and kind words.

charlie

Well I'm quiting for tonight. The PE parts and small seat parts are killing my old eyes. Here are two more images of my progression. I put some of the PE armor seat panels on the seats and put the seats together. Recommend anyone building the Academy model to quickly insert them into the floor pin holes to help align and straigthen the seat assemblies. I noticed the seat pins are a little wider than the floor pin holes. I probably needed to sand down the cushions a little to get a better fit, but it is too late for that now. Tomorrow seat belt harnesses and cleaning up the paint job on the seats. With luck I might even get the rest of the armor plating on. I'm never going to finish this model.

More to follow, thanks for looking.

Charlie

Charlie,

  Looks great so far!  Glad to see you are finally tackling this old girl.  I'm glad you are posting pics as well as I intend to build one soon with all the bells and whistles.  What markings are you using?  Can't wait to see more!

     Ray

Again Charlie It Is Comming Along Good

It will look even more better when the seatbelts are in.

Put up a pic or two when you get to that stage hey.

All the best

Robert

Here is Sunday night's progress after working more than 12 hours over the weekend on a single seat and all the little-bitty PE parts. Boy they are driving me crazy. As you can see I still have to finish the shoulder harness and put the little bracket on the top of the seats that holds the harness in place. Then I have a bunch of touch-up work (painting) and clean up on this seat before moving on to the next seat. With luck I will have the next seat done by next weekend. I sure missed my projected milestones on this baby. I figured Friday night I would have both seats done and cleaned up. (NOT)!

Thanks for viewing.

Charlie

Looking Good Charlie.

Are the seatbelts color P/E ?

I tend never to set deadlines/plans for a build i just plug along and build to my own speed.

Thats just me but mate, keep us posted

Cheers

Robert

Hey there Gunpilot.............look'in good.  Mines on the stash waiting.

Suggestion for you and the PE.  Tough to roll PE but if you put the part under a flame for about 10 seconds or so and let air cool (don't cool in water) that will let you roll the part neatly over a drill bit or nail (of the correct size of course).  That would lay those Bell rudder pedal PE parts down nicely for you.

Regards
Steve

Charlie,

Does the PE for the tail rotor pedals say just "Bell" or "Bell" and "Huey"?  I've got a "real" set with "Bell" on the left and "Huey" on the right. 

I used a Coke can to scratch build my map case box. 

I guess you know the cups for the M/R pitch change links are upside down on the kit.  You have to cut them off and turn them up and scratch build the PC links.  Parts 44 are the long push pull tubes from the scissors up to the mixing levers in the Stab Bar. 

Do they give you the Emergency Cargo Hook release pedal to put between the right hand T/R pedals?  I don't remember if the Charlie(no pun intended, heh, heh) models had them or not?  May have to put a magnfying glass on some pictures. 

Keep up the good work!

Thanks Robert, Steve, and Mel and good suggestions, comments and questions.

I may but probably will not invest the time on this model to roll those pedals. The actual PE kit and instructions wanted me to build the entire pedal assembly with a lot of scratch parts which I just do not have the skill to do at my level yet. Maybe the next model and plus no one will ever see these pedals anyway because it will end up in a display case at the Concepts and Requirements Directorate (CRD) where I work. I will try your idea on my next project or if I have to roll any further pieces.

Mel, both pedals say Bell. I too was hoping the right pedals had Huey printed on them but they did not. I have not reviewed the pitch links yet, but I am glad you mentioned it. I definitely will research the pitch links and make sure I have them correctly. The cargo hook release pedal did come with the PE kit and I flew Mike models but I too cannot remember whether they had the hook or release pedal installed. If my history is correct all Huey models had a requirement for the hook but most did not have the actual hook installed. This would have at least required the release pedal to be installed.

Sorry I have not posted anymore images but I have been working all this week on the left seat and hope to have a new progress image posted this weekend. I would like to finish a little more of the front cockpit first though.

Again everyone, thanks

Charlie

Charlie,

  She's coming along real nice.  i can't wait to see more.

 Mel,

   Glad to see you survived the one-two punch LA got over the last month.  Take care down there, my friend.

Ray

Just an update:

First my old age is creeping in. I cannot believe I have been discussing this model all these weeks as a 1/48th scale model it is 1/35. I guess I need to start taking memory improvement pills.

Second, I ordered a Iwata Air Compressor this week and should have it in Friday, so hopefully I can start getting things done. I have been procrastinating the last couple of months buying one and finally said what the heck, you only live once.

Anyway, my apologies for the wrong scale and hope to have some pictures up this weekend. I did finish the co-pilots seat and want to do some air brushing before I post my next image.

Charlie

Awesome work. Those seats and your IP look great. Like the fire extinguisher.

mason 

Finally, I got a little more done so I can show my progress. Friday I received my Iwata Smart Jet Pro air compressor which I wrote a review and posted some images in the AB and compressor section for anyone interested. In my opinion it was worth the extra dollars.

Anyway, here are a few images of my progress, albeit very slow. I'm starting to think this might be a 200 hour model at my skill level. I semi-finished the instrument panel and the red decal areas look much better in real than they do under a marco lense. I need to do something about them, maybe print out some color decals I can just glue on. I still have a bunch of touch up painting and finish work left in this area. In the second image you can see my ammo can being assembled. Those PE lock-latches took all day Saturday. Now all I need is some PE locks to stick in those latches. NOT!

Anyway, thanks for looking and the support.

Charlie

Charlie,

  Looking good.  keep those updates coming!

      Ray
 

nice stuff. i've got a huey waiting to be built too.

question, what color are you using for that pale green ?

Thanks for the comments everyone.

The Pale Green is actually Model Masters Pale Green (FS34227).

Charlie

I know it has been a while, but between work, the honeydos, and other things I have been able to make a little progress. I am still stuck in the cabin area but making some progress. Here is a new image of my progress.

Charles

Charlie,

  Nice looking cabin!  I was wondering, did your birds have gray armor cause every Vietnam bird I've ever seen had OD plates with black trim.  No matter, that is one sweet looking bird!  Keep us posted.

     Ray

Sweet build! The cabin looks great. Keep up the good work.

 Andy

Thanks guys, As to the grey armor I have seen pictures of both grey and OD armor plating. If I had to guess the gray was probably the first armor plating installed and later they all went OD to later black.  The reason I did gray was the seat frame was painted gray. I'm not sure when seat frames became black, but I would assume that happened when we started flying more night missions and also started flying with NVGs. Much of the gray interiors in the front part of the cabin became all black when night missions became the norm. I never really paid that much attention to the evolution of colors in the helicopters, but I guess I need to start researching this evolution more.

Anyway, currently I like the gray armor for the contrast more now, but I may change my mind befor I close her u.

Again, thanks averyone.

Charlie 

Charlie,

  The gray does look great and I'm sure some unit somewhere did it.  "never say never" but here are two pics of 2/20th ARA UH-1C from about 1965.  This is one of the earliest in country Charlies you will ever see (note nose mounted FM antenna, bell mouth intake, and M16 quad 60 system) and as you can see the seats are OD with balck trim.  BUT, the seats are still red and the seatbelts are gray.  Build to please yourself, though.  Can't always do everything "by the book!"     

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Thanks for the images. There is a picture on page 33 of the Squadron UH-1 Huey Gunship Walk Around that shows the gray (darker than mine) seat armor. It did have the all black cockpit though, and I did not paint mine as an all black cockpit.

You did bring up a good topic though by pointing the color out. I should have determined the colors of the ship I was going to build. I really was not thinking of trying to build a specific serial numbered aircraft and I should have. I got so consumed with the PE parts I really did not think this project through as much as I should have. Well, I'm sure I will build another one after I finish a few more other models and next time I will try to be more color accurate. This model was more a project to hone my lost modeling skills after taking a 20 year break. I am sure rusty and hopefully this model will help me build my next model much better.

BTW, my next kit will be the OV-1. I bought it with all the PE stuff. Hopefully I will finish this one by Christmas and I can start the OV-1. I want to take a break from Helicopters. I will build the H-21 after that. Also next time you come down here I need to let you see and try out my Iwata Power Jet Pro. I really love it . It is really quiet and operates great. I wrote a review in the painting thread.

Charlie

Charlie,

  I'll be heading your way Dec 16th or 17th.  Gotta get back to the Rucker archives.

  The photo you refered to is of a restored UH-1M at Tobyhanna Army Depot.  Looks like they left the NVG compatible cockpit in her, although the color in the pics is kinda bad.  As far as I know, NVG all black cockpits were introduced in the early 80's.  Maybe someone like Grandadjohn could give us a more specific date.  Don't sweat it though, cause that is a superb cockpit you got there!  Now what kind of teeth is this bird gonna be sporting?  

    Ray

Hey send me an email when you finalize your trip down here. If you plan on going over to the storage area I will take a day off and go over with you. I want to get some images for myself. Also, we have a free bedroom with a private bath if you want a free place to stay.

As to the picture I was referring to, I figured the NVG cockpit was not in sync with the armor plating color, but I liked the gray armor plates. Actually, the Hueys at Rucker started getting the front cockpits all black in the mid-seventies. I was instructing down here then and the ones coming out of the paint shops painted the cockpits black. We were just starting to teach NVGs at that time.

Charlie

Thats amazing work for 1/48th scale my eyes hurt just looking at all the detail lol keep up the good work and welcome back to the hobby. I'll stick with 1/35 and car models lol

John

This is a 1/35 scale model, I incorrectly mentioned 1/48th scale early in my discussions but meant 1/35. It is still small for PE and it has really taken 90% of the time so far. I also just noticed I broke on of the bench seat legs when I was reviewing the photo I posted. I just finish ading a drop of CA glue to it and pushing it into place to dry. Amazing how photo highlight every error you make in a model.

Thanks John for the comments though and I'm still hoping to have this finished by Christmas.

Charlie

Charlie,

  Wow, I didn't realize NVG was that early.  Thanks for the info!  Believe me, when I come down next month I want you and Brock to come too so we can get some good shots in storage.  Trust me, it helps to have a Helo mechanic along when you're in there (having a Huey driver doesn't hurt either)!

    Ray