Nighthawk & Firefly, Vietnam.

Now the Nighthawks that flew with the 57th AHC were fairly standard fare for the 1st Aviation Brigade at that time in terms of weapons layout. 1st Aviation Brigade put out a incountry wide directive in 1970 that all units would have 1 Nighthawk on-station. What is unique to the 57th AHC is there may have been 2-3 Nighthawks with this unit: You have Cougar's Revenge pictured above - There was Revenge II posted by Marko already (different nose art)- There was 68-15591 pictured Greg Donovan with unique nose art (call sign unknown) and then there is Revenge 31 flown by Chuck Brainard and James Nunn on occassion.

To add some relevant and important history to these Cougar Nighthawks, Chuck Brainard named the first 'Revenge" nighthawk in honor of Jeff A. Coffin who was KIA south of Pleiku on 22 NOV 71.

These images are from CW2 James Nunn, 57th AHC Pleiku, RVN 1971

Here are two more from my Nighthawk archives of Cougar's Revenge. 

This first image shows the nose art that matched the pocket patches that were made up. I lost a valuable document with all the details on this crew. TheRealGrumpy if you can fill those gaps back in that would be great.

Here is a great inflight shot of Cougar's Revenge working out showing the other markings including those on the tail and the buzz numbers of the sync elevators.

The 'Bugship' from the 114th AHC was just a flare ship with some heavy fire power. The flare container was fabricated by the 'skinners' (sheet metal repairmen) and worked well per Evan Pinther who supplied this image. The faired container mounted to the M23 door gun mounts. As you can see it got some of that customery artwork popular with Army Aviation in Vietnam.

therealgrumpy

I was the aircraft commander of Revenge from late 72 until 1973. I also created the nose art. One of the strongest UH-1's in the fleet.

Greg is that you?

68-15591 at Camp Holloway 1972 Image from Greg Donovan 57th Assault Helicopter Co

Nighthawk crew 1972 - Kinder, Terry, Ba(r)ker, Bollar, Imboden image by Robert Terry 57th Assault Helicopter Co

Marko,

  Awesome story!  Thanks for the link.

      Ray

Ray,

I did find the photos on 92nd AHC website. Here's the address:

http://www.92ahc.org/nightmare.html

There are some additional photos and the story behind the Night Mare there.

Take care,

Marko

Marko,

  Wow!  that one belongs in the unusual Hueys thread as well.  A all black Huey is nice to see.  Did you find that on the 92nd's website?  I don't remember seeing it there.

    Ray 

Hello guys!

Here is a very interesting UH-1H Firefly/Nighthawk 66-17038 nicknamed "Night Mare". This bird was flown by the 92nd AHC in Vietnam. There are a couple of interesting things about this Huey: 1) the most obvious being that it was painted overall black and sported a very nice and witty nose art/nickname 2) It sported two sets of searchlights - a firefly light cluster on the right-hand side and a xenon searchlight on the left-hand side 3) It was armed with a XM213 .50 cal MG on the right and XM93 minigun subsystem on the left side. Note that this is the XM93 used on the UH-1P gunships as evidenced by the triangular mount base plate. It was in fact obtained from the USAF 20th SOS. Certainly the only XM93 armed Army Huey in Vietnam I've ever seen!

These photos show the 038 as it appeared in early 1971:

Marko

Hello,

The mini guns in 1/72 scale you have to rebuild from scratch, using the barrel only,

that what was on my VNAF bird...

for 1/48 scale some available resource you can take from: Italeri 1/48 UH-1N, or if

you have an Academy USAF Black hawk MH-60C(desert storm box art) there are some set of mini guns you can use

Hope it help!

Let_models

Here is a modified picture of the Judge that Andy posted earlier:

[

The blue arrow points to the M134 mount used with the M156 universal mounting system.  THis part and the M134 itself can be found in the appropriate MRC/Academy UH-1C kit.  The green arrow points to the ammo tray.  Notice it is not the same as the ammo box used with the XM93 system.  The one pictured above is the standard ammo tray used with the M16 and M21 gun systems.  However, every model I have seen, including the MRC kit has four trays moulded together.  The red arrow points to part of the mount that is modified from a Sagami mount used for mounting the M60A machine gun in some units.  There are no kits with the Sagami mount included.  The rest of the mount is an in country mod as far as I know.  Finally, depending on the level of detail you want, you'll have to wire the mini.  You can see bundles of wiring in the above picture.  Here's a pic of an 8th Cav Nighthawk that shows the hand grips:

[img]" border="0" />

As you can see, the grips are basically flat pieces of metal.  Some units used round metal handles.  However, none were as sophisticated as the purpose built grips seen on the XM93 system.  I hope that helps get you started.

   Ray   

Hellcat,

  The M134 minigun was used as both a door mounted and pylon mounted weapon.  You aren't going to find a model with the door mounted M134 as it was used in Vietnam.  Most of the door mounts used there were fabricated in country and all were different than the mounts your will get on some of the Blackhawk kits out there.  I'm not aware of any kits that come with the XM93 mount used on some VNAF birds.  There isn't much way to avoid a little scratchbuilding, I'm afraid.

    Ray

Yes and no are those door mountable. Because im looking for door mountable one.

Hellcat,

  In 1/48th you can find minis in the AMT UH-1D kit.  The Italeri 1/48th UH-1D has no weapons.  In 1/35th, the MRC UH-1C "FROG" BA106 or the "Gunship" BA104 both have minis. The "Heavy Hog" BA107 does not.  You can also find 1/35 minis in the Siminar UH-1B and UH-1C kits, but the MRC ones are much better. the Siminar minis are also in about 50 pieces so they are a pain to assemble.  As far as Uh-1 models, those are the ones I know of with minis included.  the 1/32 Revell UH-1D/H also comes with minis.  check out the Bushranger build to see them.  That any better?

     Ray

No I was talking about a 1/48th mini or a 1/35 scale one. Because I was planing to use the Panda Model's UH-1N Gunship for it or the Dragon UH-1D and there both in 1/35th

Hellcat,

  I assume you are talking about 1/72 minis.  The ESCI UH-1D "Huey HOG" kit comes with minis.  This kit was reboxed as the Italeri UH-1D "Slick."  The detail isn't that great, but at least you got something to start with.  Don't be fooled by the boxart on the Revell 1/72 UH-1H Gunship.  The kit is a rebox of the Hasegawa kit and only has twin M60c's inside. Also, the rotorhead is poorly represented as well.  The Italeri/Esci kit is the best starting place for a 1/72 UH-1D/H model.  I should make the point (someone else will if I don't) that US D/H models never carried the armamant configuration shown on the boxart for either of these models.  RAAF Squadron 9 is the only unit I know of that used the configuration dipicted.  the VNAF used minis and Rockets, but the minis were always mounted in the door, to my knowledge. I'm sure there are other sources of 1/72 minis, but that's the one I know about.  Hope that helps.

       Ray

Where did you get the Mini Gun for the door Because im building a similar helicopter

Check about halfway down this page for some other VNAF huey pics:

/forums/11/767176/ShowPost.aspx#767176

Ray 

rotorwash thanks for your info.

question about the other tread of VNAF bird you mentioned, you have the link?

let_models

Welcome to the forums!  it looks like you are building a VNAF bird.  Here are some pics that I posted earlier in another thread of a VNAF bird from teh 238th AWC. As you can see the Ammo box is against the rear bulkhead.  There is one box for each minigun.  The system is either the XM93 or XM93E1.  the XM93 had a 10,500 round capacity and the XM93E1 had a 12,000 round capacity.

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Here is a photo of the system from the TACOM website: 

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I hope that helps.

    Ray
 

Hello,

Recently I pulled my old built UH-1D to modify the "anti Strella" exhaust and the sides cover engine from scratch... also I want to add the mini guns on the ship too! But I can'tfigure out how the configuration of the ammo. belt feed to the gun? I mean where it starts from the ammo. box? especially on the Left side location? Have any idea???

Notes:The mini guns look

 different than other pictures, which your guys already posted in here,I believed it was a late model...any help with the information are very appreciated it!

Here is the picture I'm talking about:

And the pictures of my model so far:

YOur information is very appreciated!

let_models

skypirate1 wrote:

Marko, Thanks for finding the info for #823 and the Nightsun system! Although i dont have the tail number info, i can confirm that the bird in the pic you posted from A/123rd AHB with the same Nightsun system, was originally a "Pelican" from the 161st AHC and taken in 1968 just after the 161st was reorganised into the 123rd AHB Americal Division. Fantastic shots of that 57th AHC ''Cougar Revenge'' !! I've not seen that ship before so thanks for posting, definitely one worth looking into for more info. Great info on the standard light/scope and minigun setup! But just to avoid confusion for anyone building an early model Firefly with single xenon, although the AN/VSS-3 xenon searchlight was used on the M551 Sheridan, it wasnt the first xenon light used on Firefly ships in Vietnam. The M551 wasnt produced until 1966 and due to technical problems didnt see action in Vietnam until January 1969! However the M60 tank was using 75 million candle power xenon lights as early as 1963! The 2.2kw AN/VSS-1 xenon searchlight, like the one shown in Jons very early 2/20th ARA Firefly ship from 1965, has without doubt been 'liberated' from either an M48 or M60. So lights from M48's,M60's and M551's are all fare game for your Firefly build. Great stuff Marko! Do you have any pics of those ACTIV recoilless test birds? Andy

The 1st of the 1st CAV was using M551's in the fall of 1968 for sure, and it seems like the 17th CAV had them in the summer of 68. Also the 1st of the 4th Cav down south had them in the late summer of 1968. I remember seeing a couple of them in the scrap pile in Chu Lai during a trip to Ordinance.

    I was kinda surprised that they didn't use a starlight scope on the gunships. They made a huge one that was at least a foot in diameter if not bigger. Also did you notice how they built the pental for the fifty? It came off the skids instead of the airframe. A fifty puts out a lot of recoil on the gun mount. Those birds may have been attached to the 101st up north.

gary

I need to get back into gear for this. Last I did was prep the cabin floor with styrene strips and contour putty. I just got a hand drill in the mail, so next will be rebuilding the pilot seat frames to fit a C model seat, extra armor panels and accomodate seat belts and figure how to blend in the cockpit floor.

OH! just remembered something. In a Blackhawk, the left collective is retractable for ease in accessing and egressing the cockpit, was the Huey's fixed or was it retractable too?

Marko,

  Nice pics!  Thanks for sharing.

      Ray

Hi Guys!

Here are some pics of a UH-1H Flare ship ''The Devil's Advocate'' in service with 2nd platoon ''The Death Dealers'', 235th AWC Delta Devils in around 1970 (sorry, no tail number). She was armed with a XM213 .50 cal MG on the right side and a M60D on the left.

Note special external flare containers that could be swung out to dump flares in an emergency. Also, part of the death dealers insignia can be seen on the pilot's door. 

Here's a close-up of the Nose art

Though this is a photo of another 2nd platoon UH-1H it shows the Death Dealers insignia on the door

Marko 

good luck with that toilet bowl~ I have the Fireball models bowl and have often wondered how he did it AND cast it.

David

chopperfan wrote:

Kris? Are you building this "D" in 1/72 or 1/48? If it is in 1/48, let me check. I have promised some weapons to another but, I may have enough to go around. Minis, M-60Ds and M2s. It may take a couple of days as I am inventorying kits for the other member for a possible sale/trade. Have patience.

I only do 1/72 scale. Thanks anyway!