UH-1C Gunship

[Huey195thAHC]

This is my first real attempt at a large scale aircraft.  I have mostly worked in 1/48, but have found that trying to detail anything in that scale is very difficult.  I'm no spring chicken anymore and my eyesight, even with readers and an optivisor, precludes me from working with small details.  I realize after lurking here for a few weeks that my skills are nowhere near what I have seen, but I also know there is only one way to get there.  Watching the likes of Oliver and Chuck and Ben and countless others has inspired me to try to get better. 

 

My subject is the MRC UH-1C.  I ended up with the "Frog" boxing, but looking through it, it appears that you can really do any of the variants from the armament included in the kit.  To give a little background, my Dad was a helicopter pilot in Vietnam in the 195th AHC.  (Hence, my screen name)  He was assigned to the gunship platoon (the Thunderchickens) when he first arrived, but went to the 2nd Airlift Platoon after a few weeks and flew slicks the rest of his tour.  I have since befriended a crew chief from the Thunderchickens and will try to model "his" aircraft.  And for all I know, Dad may have flown this aircraft while he was in Guns.  The actual aircraft is now a static display up in PA somewhere and was also assigned to the PA National Guard.  I have a bunch of pictures of it as a static display, but they are not very accurate, especially for the Vietnam era.  

 

I did get the Eduard BigEd set for this kit, so will use some of that.  And I will be making my own masks for things like the tail number and scratchbuilding some things that I do not like in the kit.  Like the seats.  And that is where I started.  I completely scratchbuilt these and while not perfect, I am pretty happy with the way they turned out.  I still need to add a couple things like seatbelts, and I want to repaint the edges as I tried to freehand it.  That didn't work out as well as I would have liked.  I will also be weathering them.

 

  

 

 

 

[Dadeo911]

Looks like a great start.

 

 

[Troy Molitor]

Looking forward to this one Tom.  I pulled pitch on day one in flight school at Fort Rucker back in the late 80's in Hueys. The Army grounded all their trainers and we flew the UH-1H models on the first day.  I transitioned into the AH-1's back in the Guard.  I defended the Bolshevik hoards from the east invading the wonderful states of Wisconsin and Missouri.  No Bolsheviks ever invaded mind you.  No offense to any Bolshevik out there!  

[John1]

Nice choice of subject, I’ll be following along. From all accounts, the MRC kit is a very nice one.  Still hoping to one day see a new D/H model Huey but not looking likely.  

[Huey195thAHC]

17 minutes ago, John1 said:

Nice choice of subject, I’ll be following along. From all accounts, the MRC kit is a very nice one.  Still hoping to one day see a new D/H model Huey but not looking likely.  

Me too John. I tried to do th KH 1/48 but it just was not working out for me.  It is on the shelf of doom.  Maybe one day!

[shark64]

I have been watching your build. I like what you are doing so far. Any update?

[Huey195thAHC]

On 12/22/2020 at 7:20 PM, shark64 said:

I have been watching your build. I like what you are doing so far. Any update?

On 1/10/2021 at 6:05 AM, MARU5137 said:

Good neat start to your build.

Nice.

How are you doing with this?

thank you.

 

Thanks Oliver and Maru!  I would say that I have not had the time, but it would be more accurate to say I have not taken the time, to work on this.  I have a long weekend off this weekend, so I want to work on it some.  I bought the Eduard BigEd set for this and will probably work on the interior a little bit.  My concern is that since this is going to be a long build for me, all those small PE parts will be hanging out there just waiting to be broken off and lost.  I just need to come up with a way to protect the interior while I continue elsewhere.  I also think I want to redo the armor seating, as I am not totally pleased with the seat cushions.  I have been working it out in my head on how to proceed with that.  I have a tendency to get bogged down with paralysis by analysis.

 

[Huey195thAHC]

Finally got to the bench this weekend and worked on the interior.  I redid the armored seats, altering the kit parts for the cushions.  The frames are all scratchbuilt, as well as the armored buckets.  The rear seats for the crew chief and gunner are scratchbuilt also.  I spoke to a crew chief from the 195th and he told me that had individual seats on either side of the minigun ammo cans.  I was able to find some pictures online.  I know I mentioned I bought the BigEd kit from Eduard, but man, are there a lot of tiny parts in that kit.  I am now officially blind and I think I have a permanent crick in my neck.  I just realized I forgot to add the scratchbuilt map box to the rear of the console for the pictures.  Eduard included a PE one, but I am having a lot of trouble getting paint to stick to the brass, and I thought there would be a lot of handling while trying to get it mounted, so I scratchbuilt one out of sheet styrene.  I will make sure it gets included in the next update after I paint everything.  A long way to go before that happens though.  

 

 

 

 

[Out2gtcha]

Looks great! The PE makes things look suitably scale.

[Grunticus]

Very nice, the PE really enhances this one!