A question about Medevac Huey's in Vietnam ?

First off , a big thanks to Dave Harvey for posting those links to Aussie modeler , there are some awesome Bushranger Huey pics on those forum pages . Also a big thanks to Ray [rotorwash] the information on that Bushranger Huey site was extremely informative , Thanks guy's .

I've been agonizing over the twin machine gun set these past couple of day's , trying to scratch build some more accurate looking guns is beyond my skills . Instead I went and looked around a few hobby stores today and picked up an Italeri 1/72 M113 A1 Armoured personal vehicle . The kit has two nice looking M60 guns on the sprue , so I've decided to go with these and I'll buy a few more M113 kits to have enough guns for three Bushranger Huey's . I also found another UH-1B and UH-1D Huey kits , The recently purchased UH-1D I'll finish in the 80's Tan and Green comouflage scheme .

I suppose it's the expensive way to go about trying to get some nice looking machine guns , but I really want all the Huey's to look accurate , so at least I can concentrate on the builds now .

                          Thank's again everyone ...   Kind regards  John

John, Those are much better looking 60's than the OH-13 kit guns.  If you want to try to find the PE guns, they are made by Extratech. Go here for a pic of the fret:

http://www.onthewaymodels.com/reviews/Extratech/extnatoguns.htm

Unfortunately, each set only makes one 60!  There are three parts sandwiched together to make one gun.  Looks like you can order them here:

http://www.tracks-n-troops.com/Extratacc.htm

Set number is  EXV72016

 Good luck!

  Ray

G'Day again John, Have a bit more Bushranger info for you.

The RAAF used 2 different types of minigun ammunition carriage. The earliest type was a large rectangular box like the US C model gunships had. It was mounted just aft of the pilot seats (looking at your photo of your kits in assembly the box on the RH side with your "weapons Cache" in it the lower RH corner the Grey box is what you'll want) I believe this config was used until midway through 9 SQN In Vietnam until they changed to the pyramid looking Hopper style boxes 2 per aircraft behind the pilots seats again.

The ammo feed I believe for the Vietnam just ran behind the Quarter door and to the gun I'm not 100% but I don't think it was until after vietnam they had the holes cut in quarter doors for the flexi feed. Same with skinning over the windows on the quarter door that was a reasonably late addition too I think.

For doorguns the M-60's from the M-113 kit look spot on just might need the folded bipod added if they don't have it. However in 1/72 that might be getting a little too picky it's up to the individual! The doorgunners also had a rack mounted to the aft bulkhead on each side holding 5 M18 smoke grenades you might like to include that too?

About the other only major gunship thing I can think of would be the inclusion of the gunsights. The best i could describe them would be they looke like a mustang or similar aircrafts gunsight but inverted and hanging from the top of the windscreen pretty much! Unlike the US aircraft which had a complex looking system with a handle and a series of long arms to control the hydraulics on the guns which the RAAF removed.

I hope that wasn't too confusing just trying to give you what I have off the top of my head. If there's anything else I can help with fire away

Cheers
Cairnsy

Hi John,

As has already been said, the 1ATF didn't have any dedicated medivac helos.

The bushranger gunships didn't run the feed belts through the door until fairly late in the piece.

The twin M60 door gun arrangements were actually the standard infantry M60 with just the receiver guard removed.  Nothing special about them at all, they certainly weren't the C or D versions.

It can be confusing with so many pics of the American equipment on the net and of course the Aussie stuff wasn't nearly so well documented.

Cheers,

Andrew