Dragon 1:35 UH-1H Huey WIP

Yup, it was more common on earlier blades. 

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...

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

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...

Andy,

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

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,  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.

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

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!

I like the color and the decals look great Andy .

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.

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.

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.

  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.

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?

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.

 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

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?

Remember I broke one of the pintles earlier while sanding and I contacted the company for a replacement.  Paid for the postage.  The replacement has arrived but it wasn't the right one.  It was not even part of the original M-60 upgrade set. 

Do you have any idea what this is?  

Because time is short, I will just add M-60 to one side of the Huey only.  

Andy , Since your short on time i'll offer my answer on what the parts might be . They could be the "cartridge case ejection control bag ". I'll post pics .

"Cartridge case ejection controlbag "

UH-1D/UH-1H, M23 armament system .

CH-47 , M24 armament system .

Carl- You have been a great help!  I wonder why the guy sent me the wrong part BUT I like this better because the original controlbag bag came with the set was too big. I will take a picture of both later tonight.  

Thanks buddy!

I just hope i'm correct Andy .

The helo is looking great so far.  I agree that the part you got is the empty shell bag.  It looks pretty good too.  I have seen the larger 40mm ammo cans used in place of the small ones as part of the M23 gunmount.  The larger can would be removed an placed inside or stored in the arms room when not in use, so it wouldn't be a problem with closing the side cargo doors.  Either way is correct, it's up to you.

Andy;

 I'd say go with the empty shell bags and the small cans. This was Germany in the 80s not Nam where we used the big cans and no shell bags. those big cans may not have even been available in Germany at that time. BTW Gino, most of ours were 20mm cans not 40mm, but then that's what we had. Small can and bag come with the system and a "by the book" commander would require them, so that's the best bet to me for your time and place.

 Overall, I say it couldn't look better! Great job Andy!

Guys- Thank you so much for the comments!  Yes I will definitely go for the smaller shell bags.  The set part was huge!  I will post more pictures when I have the chance.  I have been sick with cold then now sinus infection and unfortunately my wife has it now. 

We are hoping that we can meet on Saturday at the model show here in Indy since Bob enjoyed modeling when he was a boy. 

Stay posted...

Get better Andy ! I think you need to go out and eat pizza and drink lots of beer ..............it wont cure the cold but a least its fun ................

Carl- Believe me we had pizzas for two nights in a row... leftovers on second night.  With me and my wife not feeling 100% better so delivered pizzas sounded great!   Thanks buddy!  Sorry no beer yet... maybe this weekend after the show. 

Guys- Finally an update on the Huey and its base... attached styrene rods to the ladning skid so they can be attached to the base securely.  It worked like better than I expected except for one part where I accidently thrilled a hole thru the skid. 

While removing one of Tamiya masking tapes I used to cover the base to prevent damages from drilling, I accidentally torn a part of base off.  But it was an easy fix with AK Engine Oil wash...

Now the Huey is securely attached... no glue needed at all.  That way Bob can take it off if he wishes.

I feel a lot safer carrying it around as long as it is secured to the diorama base.   However I accidentally snapped the tail rotor off while applying MIG dust pigment to the Huey.

From now on I will attach steel rod or nail to make tail rotor stronger.

The tail rotor is now firmly secured... hope it will stay that way!  Tomorrow I will remove excessive MIG dust pigment with a firm brush and hopefully it will look less clean and new...

Thanks for looking!

Looking good.  Ah yes, the hazards of being right at the end of a build.  Looking forward to seeing it finished.

Looks great Andy! That base is really nice.