Question about Italeri's 1/48 UH-1D[H]

John,

  I'm not sure about the Cav's configurations in 1970, but I couldn't find the tail number from the decal sheet in the Army Gold Book data I have.  Also, you might consider the awesome 1/48th Slicks in Vietnam decals produced by Joseph Osborne of Fireball Modelworks:

http://webpages.charter.net/osborn82/fm_D04.htm

There are three D models and three H models on the sheet. Not bad for $12.

as for rotor blade colors it depends on the unit's SOP.  My father's unit had olive drab rotors with yellow tips in 1969 and a magazine I have shows a 1/7 cav bird with the same configuration from 1972.  My experience has been that the large white bands on the rotors were more common in the early part of the war. However, i'm sure there were some still painted that way later on.  Good luck with your build and keep us posted.  by the way, there really should be two m23 mounts ith M60D's in the doors, but i'm not sure where you can get them.

    Ray

Thank's for the reply Gino , I should of said that the instructions say the Huey is from the 7/1st Cavalry Vietnam 1970 . Also the painting guide suggest the rotor blades are black and white , would this be right for vietnam Huey's ??  Kind regards John

You basically have it right.  The 1/48th Italeri kit is the same as the 1/35 Panda come Dragon kit.  It is the kit that was up-sized to 1/35, so the errors are the same.  It is an H model, not a D on the box top.  Either version can be made from the kit though, using the right pieces.  I don't know how accurate the markings are for the type of helo depicted though. 

For a Vietnam H model, the long antenna on the roof is a post-Vietnam FM antenna, so leave it off.  The wire antenna down the tail boom was an earlier model and was used in Vietnam.  It was mainly seen on command birds with extra radios inside. 

The rotor blade in the kit is incorrect for either the D or H model, Bell-205, Huey.  It is a Bell-212 (UH-1N) rotor blade.   Here is how to fix it:

The middle blade is the straight 212 blade from the 1/35 kit.  On the bottom blade, the red areas are the areas on the 212 blades that need to be removed to make them into 205 blades.  The top blade has been reshaped into a 205 blade. 

Hope that helps.