Dragon 1:35 UH-1H Huey WIP

Guys- We had to reschedule the party dinner because I was sick with cold.   Can not risk getting his wife sick because her autoimmune system is very weak due to chemotherapy she has been undergoing.  So we are now shooting for this Wednesday. 

Update on the Huey... applied dark washes using heavily thinned Burnt Umber oil paint.

Painted the details on the rotor... both light grey and black.  Some were left in natural steel color. 

Used MM Acrylic Clear Green paint on the top windows then a coat of Future.  I opted for kit wipers as the PE wipers (held by tweezer below) were too fragile and thin.  No way they would have stayed on for long...

It is how it looks now... 

I only need to do two more things before Wednesday... add the M-60 machine gun and attach Huey to the base securely.  I forgot to ask you guys about this MG set up earlier so here's my question...

The instructions from Cobra Company said the crew preferred larger ammo box so it came with the upgrade set.  I have to admit I didn't like it because it is way too big and it is not what I have seen in many walk around pictures.

Check this out... you can see how over scaled it is.  No way the crew would be able to close the door with this bigger ammo box. 

I can't decide if I should use tho ammo box but if I want to use M60 then I have to include the ammo box too, huh?

 Andy, The lights on the tail are both white, the ones on the cabin are red & green like Gino said. On the tail, the light is only the very small rounded bulge on the back so that it's shielded from being seen from in front of it. Hope that makes sense

Looking great.  I like the base.  It looks good with the patch. 

For the base, is the tarmac sheet pressed paper?  If so, the spray tack will not be strong enough.  I would rough up the wood base a bit and use wood glue spread evenly over the whole backside of the tarmac sheet to hold the tarmac on.

The position lights are the same for all on each side.  The left side (when sitting in the helo) is red and the right is green.  The front and rear light are the same color.

Gino & Gene- Thanks for the feedback!  Really appreciate any information to help me paint this accurately. Using grey made sense... I will work on the rotor tomorrow.  Man, only three more nights left...

Tonight I had very little bench time as I had to work on my son's big project for the play next week building a boat that holds five kids inside.  Finally removed the masking tape that protected the rear cockpit... it looks good and touched up the paint on the edges. Then I attached the rear doors on the Huey without any issue and I didn't have to use glue as they are pretty tight! 

Worked on the diorama base for last two days and the wood base has been stained.  I need to find right glue that will hold the diorama sheet on the wood.  What would you use?  I plan to buy special glue you can spray from rattle can at Michael's store tomorrow but is it strong enough???

See Bob's company insigna badge I bought via eBay on the base?  I am hoping that he still has his unit badge because the seller didn't have in stock. 

I forgot to ask you about this few days ago.  I found two lights in the rear near the tail rotor... one has to be red and other side has to be green.

All lights has to be same color on one side?  Or it depends on the view from others behind the Huey?

  Not sure if they changed that, or if some units did, but the mount Gino is referring to is called the "blade grip" and was normally left painted all grey for a reason. The grey color showed up any cracking far better than black, and any crack in that area was serious. The blade grip was a single unit and was not disassembled at unit level, but replaced whole. The adjusting arm that goes to the rear edge of the blade is the same way normally and was also unually grey. repainting over that black might not be easy though. sorry.

Looking even better.  Almost there. 

One thing on the rotors, on the bigger pic of just the rotor head above, notice the whole mount with rounded ends and bolt is grey in color.  On yours, you have the rounded part black like the rest of the blade.  The same on the ends of the small stabilizer bars at the roots of the blades as well.  Some rotor systems were not repainted as your example shows. 

As you are probably noticing, there have been many variations on colors and layouts of Hueys over the years.

Carl- Thanks brother!  Glad you liked the decals... they were great!  If you ever build a Huey, don't hesitate to order a set from this company Fireball Company.  Just buy Gino a for me...

Gino-  Glad I can use them for Vietnam-era Hueys!  Maybe one day you can lead a Group Build for Hueys...  

Guys- Went down to check on my Huey during long red flag at Daytona 500... freak accident, huh?!?!  I was very pleased how it turned out after two applications of flat clear.  The decals are more visible now and the paint is showing its true color too.  I was worried I might have lost the pre-shade after few applications of Future and it hasn't been affected at all. 

I think it needs another coat of flat clear before I go to bed.

Here it is...95% completed Huey

Closer view... no decal silvering.  Thank you Fireball Company, lots of Future and a beer I had when I worked on the decals yesterday!!!

You can see my pre-shading job better on this side....

Next job... more painting on details of the rotor. 

Google results showed nothing looked alike.  I am going for the picture of Bob's Huey which had more steel with minimal black paint. Lookie here...

Are you seeing black at the very top of the rotor too?  I found a picture that may be a good match...

Hope you guys agree?  I will paint the rotor tomorrow.

Not sure if they will work for my future Vietnam War Era Huey?

Yes they will.  They are designed for Vietnam-era Hueys.  The stencils and general markings never really changed though, so they are good for pretty much all Hueys.

I like the color and the decals look great Andy .

Rick- Hey buddy!!!  It was so nice of you stopping by!!! Thanks for the nice words.

I am hoping that I can bring the Huey to Roscoe Turner Show but it is a gift for my friend's 50th birthday and he will get it on March 3rd.  However, I plan to ask him if he can bring or let me bring it to the show.  I think he will want to join me since he really enjoyed modeling when he was young.  Keep your fingers crossed...

12 more days, man I can't wait!

Gino- I am SO glad you pushed me into ordering those decals from Fireball.  At first I was afraid they were fragile but they went on just great!  Still have plenty decals for two more Hueys... good deal $15 for three Hueys you can say.  Not sure if they will work for my future Vietnam War Era Huey? 

Guys- Sprayed two coats of flat clear... now it is starting to look real good.  Can't wait to come back down after the TV show 'Walking Dead'... DVR'ed of course!

Looks great. I told you that the Fireball decals were great. I love 'em. They make it really come to life.

Andy,  It's Armor, it's just flying armor.  It's armor, it's just thin armor.  Looking great.  Is this the secret project for the Roscoe Turner Show?   Rick.

Hercmech- Thanks buddy!!!  Now you understand why I like to do armors and figures... no more than ten decals at most. LOL  Doing decals always make me so nervous and it is probably not my favorite part of modeling.  I wonder if most guys feel that way...

Here's a picture... not a great picture because final coat of Future was still wet when I took the picture this morning. Dare you to find all decals... some are invisible at the angle where decals were applied. There are 18 decals in this picture.

Like I said, it is shiny right now.  Can't wait to spray flat clear tonight!!!

Andy,

Love the paint work!  Only 55 decals? LOL some kits have that many on the ordinance.

Yes it is OFFICIAL!!  I have gone mental... an armor guy building a Huey.  Doing 55 decals... that was the last straw.  LOL  Kidding, actually I enjoyed doing this but it was broken into few sessions or I would have gone postal.  Here's why...

Plenty of decals smaller than Lincoln's head... but got better hang of it after few decals. 

I sprayed final coat of Future this morning.  Oh yes I sprayed two coats of Future before I applied the decals so it really helped prevent silvering at all.  Everything looks good!  Planning to spray at least two coats of flat clear to tone down.

Also I started working on a wooden base yesterday.  More to come...

The paint came out really nice.  Keep up the great work.

Guys- I love it when my wife is out for 'ladies night out'.  Sprayed the base coat of MM Army Helo Drab.  First I had to mask the black section of the roof and tail blades. 

I realize the blue background may have overpowered the paint on the Huey.  Here's a picture without the background...

You can see the pre-shades as they are still there! Tomorrow I get to spray a coat of Future so I can apply decals on Sunday... not looking forward to that part.  I think there is about 30-40 decals...

Yup, it was more common on earlier blades. 

Guys- You are the BEST!  Thank you so much for following my build and taking time to post comments. 

I wasn't sure which color... I have MM black metallic but wasn't sure if it is the right one.  I will go ahead and spray more flat black on the blades then drybrush the edges lightly with MM Metalizer gun metal.

 OK guess they solved that issue, you would have noticed as you can see in this picture it was easy to see

From what I have seen, the paint was pretty duarble and you didn't see much wear on the blades themselves.

Gino;

 With the later model Hueys did they still have the paint wear off the leading edge of the rotor at the tips like we had back in Nam? Or was the paint more durable by then?

Looking good so far.

I'm not following this part though...

"Also all blades were sprayed black too just as a base coat. Then I will spray some kind of metallic paint on the blades BUT first I need to figure out which color is the best fit."

For an '80-'90s Huey, the blades and all rotor mast parts should be flat black with just a bit of metallic drybrushing on the mast parts.  The blades themselves are all flat black though.

This one has pretty much all the features of yours, but is a little more recent.

Gettin closer

Spent two hours pre-shading the Huey... all edges, seams, and details were airbrushed with MM flat black.

A section part of the roof was sprayed.  Bob's Huey had black top...

Also all blades were sprayed black too just as a base coat.  Then I will spray some kind of metallic paint on the blades BUT first I need to figure out which color is the best fit. 

Thanks for looking!

deafpanzer

Carl- Thank you, thank you! and one more  

Hercmech- Yes, very little!!!  I learned that if you add too much thinner it will be like shooting a web.  It happened before when I added too much thinner. I added about 20% of same brand thinner to Mr Surfacer.  And it didn't shoot any of web out of my airbrush so it is safe to say the Spiderman stayed home this time. 

Thanks for stopping by!!!   Wait a minute are you legal to drink yet?

 

Thanks for the info Andy...and I passed the age to legally drink many moons ago.

Carl- Thank you, thank you! and one more  

Hercmech- Yes, very little!!!  I learned that if you add too much thinner it will be like shooting a web.  It happened before when I added too much thinner. I added about 20% of same brand thinner to Mr Surfacer.  And it didn't shoot any of web out of my airbrush so it is safe to say the Spiderman stayed home this time. 

Thanks for stopping by!!!   Wait a minute are you legal to drink yet?

Very nice! Do you thin the Mr. Surfacer before you shoot it?

Nice job , nice job ....................

With the queen away from the castle, I had the Huey cleaned and taped up for the paint job.  It has been primed with Mr Surfacer 1200... love that stuff! 

There was a nasty seam on the nose that required few coats of Mr Surfacer and sanding between coats.  It looks a lot better now...

I am going to allow it dry overnight then I will do very light sanding job before I do pre-shading job.