ICM AH-1G 68-15012 "#1 Du Me Mi" - F Troop, 4th Cav, Phu Bai, 1972 (mostly) Finished!

[Out2gtcha]

This is one I've had my eye on for a while since it was announced. Timing was good since I really needed another MoJo pick me up to start the upcoming cool weather modeling season. 

I haven't built a helo since I was a teenager, so this will be an experience for sure. I will be doing this one mainly OOB with some scratch work in the cockpit area, along with a Quinta Studios set, as well as some custom masks I'm going to make using my Silhouette cutter. 

 

Although this build will mainly be OOB, I will be scanning in the OOB decals and making my own masks for #1 Du Me Mi. 

 

 As I have been told, this name may not actually be Vietnamese, but a form of French.  Apparently there was not a whole lot of distinction made by the local Vietnamese between the French and Americans. 

"du me mi" appears to roughly translate to mean "Your Momma," from the words "de maman," pronounced "doo ma ma."  In the war slang vernacular, it was apparently an insult.

 

As insulting as the scheme possibly was, I love the look, as well as teh toilet bowl exhaust:

 

 

 

 

 

The kit itself seems really nice, with just a few flaws that can seemingly be overcome fairly easily. Great surface detail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since the OOB kit contains no belts, I got a Quinta Studios set to cover the belts and get a nice set of IPs too:

 

 

Well see how this progresses! I'm off to do a bit of work on my first helo in way more than 30 years.

 

Cheers! 

[Citadelgrad]

Oh, I will watch this with interest. Very interested, as well, in the Quinta products, I have seen photos but never a description of how they go on.  

[Uncarina]

Outstanding Brian, this’ll be great! I’m looking forward to seeing you work your magic with this kit.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[Uncarina]

1 hour ago, Citadelgrad said:

Oh, I will watch this with interest. Very interested, as well, in the Quinta products, I have seen photos but never a description of how they go on.  

Here’s one example:

 

Cheers,  Tom

[John1]

I'm in for this one.   Nice to see a Snake WIP!   

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks gents!

The kit doesn't really have a lot of parts and in just a few min Ive made some progress on it.

After a quick dry fit, things are looking REAL nice.

[brahman104]

Nice one Brian! I do love a good helicopter build . I'm also very interested in the Quinta Studios stuff too.

 

Craig

[Out2gtcha]

After just a couple minutes of sprue snipping I had the tail section glued onto the fuselage halves. I wanted to get this out of the way before gluing the main fuse sections together.

ICM provides a very positive joint here with lots of overlap, and plenty gluing area:

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a few minutes of curing I had an opportunity to dry fit things and the initial fit is really great.

You can see the clear ruler below the helo that will give you an idea of size:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also got a chance to scrape the OOB cockpit detail off of the tub in preparation for the Quinta set:

 

 

 

 

 

The cockpit tub fits extremely well in the fuse on initial trials:

 

 

 

More next time....

 

Cheers!

[easixpedro]

Digging this. Makes me wish they’d do a whole series of Hueys. I just broke out the Revell D I’d started, and promptly put it back.

[markiii]

Nice work Brian, I'll be following. 

[quang]

8 hours ago, Out2gtcha said:

 

 As I have been told, this name may not actually be Vietnamese, but a form of French.  Apparently there was not a whole lot of distinction made by the local Vietnamese between the French and Americans. 

"du me mi" appears to roughly translate to mean "Your Momma," from the words "de maman," pronounced "doo ma ma."  In the war slang vernacular, it was apparently an insult.

The interjection/insult is typical Vietnamese (not French at all). The correct spelling is :” Đụ mẹ mi “, meaning a casual ‘ motherf…er’.
There are other much more ‘significant’ Vietnamese insults but their pronunciation is much more … delicate.  

Cheers,

Quang

[dodgem37]

Good show.

 

Nice connection and rivet alignment.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[blackbetty]

will watch closely, i see one of these in my future....

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks gents, so far this one seems simple and straight forward, which is what I need. The interest of something new/different seems to be keeping my attention too.

[Out2gtcha]

Bit more progress................

 

I started off by addressing the port side fuselage vent. OOB this vent and screen was not very appealing nor realistic. I dug into the spare PE box and got a couple screens, one of which was a screen for the belly of a P-51. I realize this screen look is not accurate for the Cobra, but looks much better than the solid OOB piece. 

It looks like it could be accurate:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I used a section of raised section of fuselage from an OV-10 to seal up the area behind the vent, to give it a bit more depth:

 

 

 

 

 

Then glued in with some fast evap Tamiya thin:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Again, end result is not 100% accurate but looks much better than the OOB provided piece:

 

 

 

 

 

Next up was adding the engine access hatches, capable of being posed open or closed. I am definitively a "panels closed" kinda guy, as believe too many open panels or hatches really spoil the lines of any aircraft you are trying to model IMHO.

 

So I prepared for some filling.................

 

 

Nice surprise, none needed!  Just a couple of passes with the sanding stick and a needle and things were all good. The fit on these panels closed is really great:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interior got a spritz of Mr Surfacer black 1500. I also did some slight mods to the cockpit (nothing major) but will show that later as I didn't seem to take any pics of it prior to painting:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got some paint down, including the interior gray and some color on the seat cushions...............more pics later!

 

Cheers and thanks for stopping in on me,