UH-1C Academy

Here are three images of my progression. The engine and transmission are not glued in place yet. I just wanted to see how they would fit. The actual colors on the engine look much better in real than in the photos. The flash makes the burner section look redder than it actually is, plus I have not buffed out the Alclad finish yet.

The fit of these items is not very good in this model. The exhuast wall fits sloppy and the engine to transmission mating is not very tight either.

Charlie

I do not think it is the same protrusion. I cut if off and cut off the little nipple on the inside of the case cover. I can only figure they wanted the case top to sit a little higher to give the push/pull rods the proper clearance. I figure if they end up a little too long I will adjust their lengths. I just did not like the way the case top fitted on that transmission with that protruding shaft. The new fit looks much better. I am hoping to post a image with the engine and transmission installed tonight.

Thanks

Charlie

rotorwash wrote:

Charlie,   This is the best pic I have and I don't see anything there.       Ray   " border="0" />

the protrusion is sitting up next to the hydraulic cylinder. It's hard to see but it's there.

Thanks Ray, I am probably going to cut that piece off. Other than making the case top sit a little higher I for the life of me do not have a clue why they have that shaft. Even the instruction drawing shows that shaft, but nothing ever connects to it.

Charlie

Charlie,

  This is the best pic I have and I don't see anything there.

      Ray

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Does anyone know what this horizontal shaft is sticking out of the top of the transmission is for? The only thing I can think of is it forces the transmission cover to sit higher than it appears it should. Any answers/comments are welcomed. I leaning toward shaving it off.

Charlie

One of our crew chiefs, who was on "Red" status, was eating peanut butter and crackers in his huey when a fire mission was called in. He put the lid on the jar of peanut butter and left it on the floor of the AC. During the fire mission the AC took small arms fire and one of the rounds came up through the bottom of the huey into the jar of peanut butter. After the mission was over and the AC returned to the unit, the crew chief found the bullet in the peanut butter when he was  inspecting the damage from the round. Hmm, I wonder what would have happened if we filled sand bags with peanut butter. Could it have stopped a 60mm morter round?

Jim

Could be. He obviously served more than one tour in VN if he was there in '68.

We used chest armor, crewchiefs also sat on it in addition to wearing it. Did you know that peanut butter will stop an AK47 round?

Jim

Geez, you gonna go blind building that tiny stuff!  Seriously, it's looking great!  i acn't wait to see her finished.

   Ray

So you must have served with Bob Mason the Author of ChickenHawks he meantions the "Golf Course" And another location called "Tea Plantation" He was with 1st Air Cav.

Speaking of mysteries, I just figured out a way to roll PE parts. I had a part in the engine exhaust that needed to be rolled so I could glue four mounting brackets thst keeps things aligned. What I did was find a drill bit that was the same diameter I needed and one just a hair larger. Using the plastic (lack of better words) bending wedge that comes with the Bending tool I purchased, I laid out the piece needing rolled, laid the plastic tool underneath the PE part and slowly started rolling the larger drill bit perpendicular to the PE part while maintaining a slight  up angle (Less than 20 degrees), with the bender. You have to pull the bender as you roll the drill bit over the PE part. I did this a couple of time each time increasing the angle on the bending wedge. Then I turned the PE part around and start the same process so each end ended up curved. Then I went to a smaller drill bit to tighten the circle up. Surprising it worked and someone else probably discovered this long before me. I'll edit this later a post an image or two showing what it looks like and the parts I used. I couldn't take a picture why I was doing it because I did not have enough hands Darn-it.

Here are the images I promised, not very good but should give you an idea.

The first one shows how I used the drill bit and the bending wedge. Remember I pulled the wedge while I was rolling the drill bit over the PE piece. You can see the can cap to the left.

The Second image shows what the piece looked like after I rolled it a few times.

Finally the finished product (only took 3.5 hours to build)

Charlie

Charlie,

  I see what you mean.  Yet another Huey mystery.

      Ray

You may be right Ray, but the closer I look at that image it sure looks like there is a color under the Yellow which seems to be darker.

Charlie

Charlie,

  The bell mouth intake was present on several of the first UH-1C's.  The markings are also interesting as they are a mix of high vis and low vis.  The blade is actually primed with chromate green, i believe and the end of the blade had a yellow and red band on it.  I admit the photo makes it look as if the primer coat was yellow, but I feel pretty certain it was chromate green or perhaps one I have heard of called chromate yellow.  By the way, the last bird with the Maxwell System on her is a Bravo not a Charlie model.  Just in case anyone was wondering.

     Ray 

These are great images you posted. I noticed one really partcular thing in the image. Look at the leading edge of the main rotor blades and you noticed the entire blade or at least the leading edges where painted yellow because you can see a yellow band before it gets to metal. There might be some zinc chromate under the yellow but it doesn't show up much. I wonder why they were painted that way. Blades are not stripped in the field so I have no idea why they have that much yellow paint under the outer paint. I also notice these aircraft do not have the modified air intake.

Very interesting images, Thanks Ray.

Charlie

Jim,

  Thanks for the info.  WOW, you knew CWO Maxwell!  I'm very familiar with both the Maxwell system and the M16 gun system but your knowledge about the unit and the area where the photos were taken is invaluable.  The more history we have for the photos, the more significant they become.  Thanks for the info.

    Ray 

Ray,

The two top pics are Headquarters Battery AC, which carried the M60 quad flex guns and the 7 round 2.75" rocket pod. The third pic is a Bravo Battery AC with the "Maxwell" system installed. The Maxwell System was designed by CWO Robert Maxwell, who I had the pleasure to work with. The pics look like they were taken at the 1st Cavalry Divisions base camp at An Khe, VN. The mountain in the background was called Monkey Mountain and the airfield was called the "Golf Course. If you want more info on the weapon systems go to this link:

      http://tri.army.mil/LC/CS/sma.htm#Main

Jim

Jim,

  Thanks for your service, sir!  Here's the full side shot. that red circle, as you can see, is for the Fuel filler.  Can you tell more from this pic, though?

  Ray

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Here's another from the front:

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 So this is a line battery bird then?

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Hey, I think I flew that ARA Charlie model. It is a Battery HQ bird as indicated by the XM16 armament system. The line batteries carried rockets only. Can't tell for sure though which battery it belongs to, but if the red marking in the upper right-hand corner of the top pic is part of a circle then it is a Charlie Battery HQ AC. which I probably have some time in.

Jim

They started day only flight with the old NVG4 I believe around 73/74 for a couple of years. We would let students fly with them with the caps installed. They only got a couple of hours in them that way. The original nighthawk training started in 77 I believe and was still primarily naked-eye with just four hours of fimiliarization at night without the caps. They stayed that way until I left teaching in Jan 81. Sometime after that is when NVG certification started being taught. Never kept up with it because I went into Apaches and we used FLIR which was even scarier until Flir II was fielded.

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 

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

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

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

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

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,

  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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