Vietnam Huey

When I flew in Nam I never saw even the rear canvas seat folded down. It was either folded up or removed. The only seats in the rear were for the doorgunner and crew chief. Just thought I would throw that in<g>

Bump

Bump

Gino

Just checking out this post and I think the guy is sitting in a "jump" seat that is facing outwards,  judging by the bracing by his boot.  We placed ours that way or removed them and folded the forward facing aft seats  up and everyone sat on the floor.  

Bump, lost the stick to the "sticky"

Gave this a BUMP.  Seems to have lost the sticky.

Regards
Steve

The forward troop seat with the headrests was used on Army Hueys.  It was used in Vietnam and after.  It was also common to see it removed to allow more room inside the cabin.

You can barely make out the rear-facing front troop seat w/the soldier sitting on it below.

Wow, thanks again for all the help. The only other question I had was about the interior. There are two sets of seats and I don't remember ever seeing the one with the headrests (right behind the pilot facing the rear of the chopper). Were they part of a civilian version too or put in other variants later on?

Welcome back.  I'm pretty sure all of these questions are answered within this thread, but since it takes about 3 hours to get through it, here's the short version.

"I want to build a Huey from 1967, but I don't know which vents on the side of the engine cowling are correct for this time period. Horizontal or vertical openings? Horizontal seem to be more common."

-Yes, by 1967 the horizontal vents were the norm and your bird is probably a UH-1H.  Only a few of the original UH-1D's had the vertical ones.

"There is also a panel on the right side of the tail boom. One optional panel has vents, the other doesn't. Which one is right?"

-The tail boom from the Dragon kit can be built as either a civilian 205 Huey or a Military UH-1D/H Huey.  Civilian 205's have a luggage compartment in the tail boom and Army UH-1D/H's do not.  For your build use the part without the compartment door (part B-13).  Be aware that you will probably have to slather on a bit of filler to get the tail boom smooth over that area.

 "Finally, the M-60's. When did they go from hanging them by straps to using mounts? (and did the hanging M-60's have stocks or handgrips?)"

- MOST (nothing was ever without exception in Vietnam) UH-1D/H Slicks had pintle mounted M60D's with spade grips (referred to as the M23 gun system).   There were a few units/times/individuals that used "free 60's" (M60A's on bungee cords with stocks and hand grips) in UH-1D/H's but most of these were used in UH-1B and UH-1C short bodied gunships.  Unfortunately, the Dragon kit gives you one of each.  You really need a second M23 mount. You can get them from Cobra Company. 

I hope that helps with your questions.  Please feel free to ask if you have others.

     Ray

It's been a while since I was on this forum and I was happy to see such a great looking Huey when I returned. You guy's seem to know your stuff about helicopters, so if you don't mind, I have some questions about a glue-bomb Huey kit I'm trying to save. (It's the 1:35 Dragon kit by the way). I've fixed the rotors and the rivet detail, but some of the optional parts don't make any sense to me.

I want to build a Huey from 1967, but I don't know which vents on the side of the engine cowling are correct for this time period. Horizontal or vertical openings? Horizontal seem to be more common. There is also a panel on the right side of the tail boom. One optional panel has vents, the other doesn't. Which one is right? Keep in mind this model doesn't have to be 100% accurate. Finally, the M-60's. When did they go from hanging them by straps to using mounts? (and did the hanging M-60's have stocks or handgrips?)

Wow, that's a lot of questions and I will probably have more later. But I suppose that is why FSM has this forum. Any help answering these questions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.   

Thanks John for the encouraging words. Glad you liked the Huey I built.

Wish I had the references like the ones available now on the net.

Cheers,

Richard

Stunning Huey , Richard

I poped another CD into the computer and copied your pic's , a truely inspirational build ;

Especially given you only had a small amount of reference material to start with.

Sir , you certainly are one exceptionally gifted modeler .

Kind regards

                       John .

Pawel

Yeah Richard - a really nice one! But what scale & make is it? Have a nice day

Pawel

Thanks Pawel, forgot to mention that it was a 1/32 Revell kit with no passenger interior but comes with rocket pods and mini-guns. I didn't bother with altering the front nose as it seems out of shape when looking from the front. The windshield should be larger I think.

I added M-60 mounts from plastic sprue. Ammo boxes were from my spares. The M-60's are actually 1/35 scale from the Tamiya Ford Mutts, I cut off the stocks and replaced them with handles. All the seats were made from plastic sheets and tubes.

The mini-gun ammo box shouldn't be there but I left it on as it looked good and as extra seating for the grunts although since reading from this post, the floor behind the pilot seats is mostly empty.

Got most of my references from 'Eyewitness Nam - Chickenhawk' by Robert Mason's account of the horror of war seen from a huey flaring into a hot LZ.

Cheers,

Richard

Yeah Richard - a really nice one! But what scale & make is it? Have a nice day

Pawel

Hi all you Veterans and Huey lovers,

I'm new with this forum and only previously just posted a on-going UH-34 WIP when I chanced upon this post. I don't build many helis, the UH-34 is my second. If only I had the priviledge to have such a great source of info to tap on for my Huey build I did in '92, I'd probably would have done a better job of it.

I'd like to share some pictures of my completed Huey, worts and all. There are some items that should not be in it due to the lack of knowledge and internet references. I'm sure the Vets will have a field day with comments.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers,

Richard

Huey Nut

Andrew,

Sorry for the VERY long delay.  The book was US Army Gunships in Vietnam, Arms and Armour Press.

Articles:  I did two articles for Air Enthusiast Quarterly covering the development of the Huey and use in Vietnam, and one for Scale Aircraft Modelling detailing markings and unit organization, and 2 for Aviation News, one on my personal experiences and one on the A/ACH-47A Guns-A-Go Go, operational history.

Cheers,

Bob

HI Bob,

Thanks for the reply.  Now you just know that a blokes going to have to do some reseach on that title.

Cheers

Papa Echo: what happened to your 1/24 Huey build pics? The 'homestead' links don't  work, and I would surely like to see the pictures of what you did with it. 

Repost, please.

Joe 

Andrew,

Sorry for the VERY long delay.  The book was US Army Gunships in Vietnam, Arms and Armour Press.

Articles:  I did two articles for Air Enthusiast Quarterly covering the development of the Huey and use in Vietnam, and one for Scale Aircraft Modelling detailing markings and unit organization, and 2 for Aviation News, one on my personal experiences and one on the A/ACH-47A Guns-A-Go Go, operational history.

Cheers,

Bob

There are some great shots of the overhead panel at www.scale-rotors.com in the reference section of both a UH-1B and a UH-1H.

Sent a request to re-pin

Sorry, but the sticky seems to have gotten loose.  A little BUMP here.

Steve

Hi guys! Its been a long time.  Been busy, out of work for a spell...who hasn't? and such.

Just finished this thread and boy oh boy not much has been missed here...pretty much everything has been covered to build one sweet helo.

Might  I suggest this site for photos of built Hueys.  About half way down is a 1/32 Revell build.  There is also a build of the dragon kit as well.

    Ray

http://www.scale-rotors.com/gallery/utility-helicopters/uh-1-huey

rotorwash,

Thanks for the welcome to the world of 'Rotorheads'. With all this information I have received my head is spinning so fast it feels like a rotor. This info has re-started my interest in helicopters which had taken quite a dive after my failed attempts to finish the revell 1/48 'huey hog'. (it was going so well too.) But now all of my car models are back in the box and the helicopters are back! I found an academy 1/35 MASH bell 47 in the vast unknown of my kit colection which will make a nice re-entry into helicopters.

You mentioned the revell Huey kit as an improvment over the rivet detail in the dragon kit (and after looking at the dragon kit as well as some photos on this forum I agree that the rivet detail is off the mark). I don't mind the lack of detail that has been linked to the revell kit, and would like to see some completed models (or in progress). Are there some pictures already posted? I'm still trying to find my way through all the great stuff on this website. 

Howie,

  Good to hear from you, man!  I hope life is treating you well these days.

car-crafter,

My real preference for the Revell Huey (which I am at the moment converting to a Flat Iron UH-1V) is mainly in the rivet detail.  Those golf balls on the Panda/Dragon kit just turn me off big time.  However, they can be sanded down and the other issues corrected as I have seen many times.  I just happen to be lazy when it come to sanding rivets!  At the end of the day either kit looks like a Huey, it just depends on what your personal preference is, I guess.  By the way, built out of the box the Panda/Dragon UH-1D/H builds into a quite nice Huey II. The Huey II is an upgraded UH-1H with a UH-1N tail boom and rotor.  Whatever you do, enjoy the hobby and welcome to the world of Rotorheads!

    Ray

car-crafter  -   be careful which 1/35 Huey kit you buy as they don't all come with P/E or the crew figures w/ M-60s.  Panda and Dragon originally released the kits as "just" the helicopter model, w/o P/E, crew or guns.  I'm not sure what comes in the Dragon German UH-1D/H.  I think you'll enjoy an out of box Panda/Dragon UH-1D/H build and final results much more than the 1960s ca. Revell 1/32 UH-1D/H.  Revell might be dimensionally 'spot on' (I don't know if it is or not) but it's 1960s state of the art.  The front doors were meant to be operable and have hugely oversized hinges.  Their armed version has armament that "probably never" appeared on D/Hs and no cargo area seats.  Their troop carrier (slick) has seats but no armament at all. 

I've seen Panda/Dragon kits do well in model contests without any accurizing or correcting... no laughing judges at all.  Normally most contests won't hold it against you if you built what the kit mfr gave you - but if another modeler went that extra mile and did it well, then he'll do better than you.  You're ahead of the game if you trim the rotor blades or replace them with Cobra Co parts. You'll need a 2nd DML Helicopter crew figure set for your 2nd M-60 or buy CC's.  The more CC parts you use, the better finished results.

As I think everyone has said:  enjoy it!!    Howie 

Thank you so much for the info on these decals. I never even knew this decal site existed. With all the clutter on google (and similar sites), finding anything on the web now is near impossible. Armed with these decals and the cheaper (and easier to find) german Huey from dragon, I'll be able to build another UH-1D with a little scratch-building.  

Hueys that were set up with .50 cals and mini-guns were usually the "Night Hawk" birds or maybe set up for a in house unit rescue bird.  The mini-guns were scarce in regular Army Units except for the UH-1C's and AH-1G's.  The VNAF birds some how got them and of course the Green Hornets had them on their birds.  The .50's really could tear up the hardpoints on UH-1D/H's so were not normally used except as mentioned above.  I left Vietnam April Fools Day of 1972 so that was the begining of the end.  April 2nd was the Easter invasion of South Vietnam.

The Pand/Dragon kit is sad for the state of the art models of today.  MRC/Academy needs to put out a UH-1D/H to compliment their UH-1C! 

car-crafter wrote:

A note on Dragons 1:35 scale kit: It is great! the pre-painted photoetched metal and bonus helicopter crew really add to the build.

 Not really.  Read up on the other treads on it here to see its issues and how to fix them.  It is far from great.

the Cobra company is at http://www.cobracompany.com/ . 

FYI  Ray (rotorhead) on this thread, compiled a list of useful Huey FSM threads.  Go to  /forums/809205/ShowPost.aspx to see them.

I believe there's also a forum on MSN on Hueys but I'm not sure where it is. I recall it asked about other weapons on UH-1D and Hs (as did this thread) and crewmen responded that YES, they did.  Someone from my unit (C Co, 227 AHBn, 1st Air Cav ca 1971) confirmed an M2 .50 cal m.g. mounted on the gunner's pedestal instead of the usual M-60 on one, a minigun on another.  They may have been "end of the war one-ofs" but they happened.

clear right

Howie