UH-1C of the PoAF - FINISHED - Page 2

[DogfighterZen]

After the end of the colonial wars in Africa, the PoAF was restructured and the new generals in charge wanted to renovate the inventory basing their choices of hardware on the experience gained in battle. They had a list of airframes they wanted to buy and in the list the AH-1Q was the attack helicopter they wanted but, with the short budget they had, they didn't get half of what they wanted. My idea for PoAF UH-1C gunships is based on that reality and my deviation comes in where they would end up getting these older, 2nd hand Hueys at lower prices. The Huey could be used as either a gunship or a troop transport helo but it would be preferred in the gunship configuration as it could deliver a more varied assortment of weapons than the Alouette III, which was only used as gunship with a 20mm cannon mounted on the rear compartment. The PoAF later integrated rocket pods on it but only because they had nothing better suited for the mission so, in my whif PoAF, they got some older choppers that were being retired by the US army after the end of the Vietnam war.

So, i'm using the Hobbyboss 1/72 UH-1C kit which has it's quirks and lacks certain details but, it's still a nice kit and it's good enough for the purpose so, this is what i've done so far...









Gonna install the ammo boxes now and see what i can do about ammo feed chutes...

[Old Wombat]

Nice start!

[DogfighterZen]

Nice start!

Thank you, mate! 
I think that the start was the calm before the storm cause i'm beginning to doubt that i'll be able to have the sliding doors open... the interior of the rear part of the cabin is very weak... I'm now working on getting the foldable rear seat in place over the ammo boxes like in the real thing.
I have to do this in order to see where to drill to make the holes for the ammo feed chutes to go through and also to find their correct length, all the way from the ammo boxes over to the miniguns.
The miniguns themselves will have to be corrected and i'll also have to scratch the connecting mechanism which holds it to the pylon. Hobbyboss simplified the whole set up and the instructions show a completely wrong attachment point as it's not even in the correct pylon... and to top that, they didn't even include the correct pylon parts for the MGs...
Let's see what comes out of this mess...

[Old Wombat]

Ah, the joys of modelling!

And we do this voluntarily, as a hobby, right?

[DogfighterZen]

Ah, the joys of modelling!

And we do this voluntarily, as a hobby, right?

Right, fun and relaxation...
Now, i have to be fair and admit that at least, HB's parts are well molded, all crisp details, zero to very little flash on the parts and they're cheap.
Can't ask for much more for the 12 euros i payed for it.
Also, I'm not complaining, just saying that there are some details that are simply wrong and that a simple google image research would've shown them that... The details that aren't there probably wouldn't have been too hard to represent... But still, we're talking about a kit which doesn't even allow the modeller to build the variant it's supposed to be without some serious mods so, missing detail is something that doesn't surprise me much...
With all that said, I think we're lucky to have such a variety of kits available and with a quality that keeps getting better with each year that passes.

Regarding the build itself, I've made some progress and i believe it's on the right track. I'll get some pics uploaded tomorrow.

[zenrat]

1/72 Scale Hueys need weight in the nose to stop them tail sitting.  I suggest a coin under the cockpit floor as a start and then take it from there.

[DogfighterZen]

1/72 Scale Hueys need weight in the nose to stop them tail sitting.  I suggest a coin under the cockpit floor as a start and then take it from there.

Thank you for the warning and suggestion, Fred! 
I was already aware of the weight issue but hadn't thought about how to solve it. The coin idea is very good as there's almost no space to hide weight. 

So, last night i still managed to drill and square out the holes in the cabin floor for the ammo feed chutes which will be a simple strip of thin styrene sheet...



I won't be able to do what i initially wanted which was to have a single piece of styrene going from the ammo boxes over to the guns but the way the kit is engineered makes that too much work to be worth it so, i'll just cut each strip in 2 and problem solved.   
I'll be working on this during the rest of the day so i'll have more to show later today.

[zenrat]

I pinched the coin idea from someone else, but it is a good one.

Ignoring the poor detail of the added on weapons, what's the basic UH-1 kit like?

[DogfighterZen]

I pinched the coin idea from someone else, but it is a good one.

Ignoring the poor detail of the added on weapons, what's the basic UH-1 kit like?

Fred, sorry for the late reply... The kit is ok, fit is not perfect but not bad overall. There is a problem with the length of the main rotor blades, from what i've read in online reviews, they're too short for the C version but i'm not going to try to fix them. There are also engraved details that shouldn't be there like the fuel tank cap, which should be only be on the right(starboard) side and lower than it is on the kit. HB has also forgotten one of the kick steps on the top fuselage on both sides... These are minor for me but for someone wanting to build a realistic representation of the UH-1C or even the B variant, it's better to go with the Italeri kits, which also have short main rotor blades but the detail is more accurate on most of the airframe.

So, although i'm going through a bad period of my life due to work related issues, i've been slowly recovering my mojo back up to where i feel comfortable sitting at the bench and do some modelling.
Haven't progressed much but few advances are better than none, right?

So, i've managed to finish the cockpit and close up the fuselage with a couple of steel washers under the cabin's floor, after checking if that was enough...




I had to cut the vertical section of the rear seat as it didn't look like anything i've seen on photos of the early Hueys, also had to cut the supports and reposition them in order to fit the ammo boxes underneath the seat, according to reference pics.
Dabbed a bit of putty on the rotor housing side that faces the interior of the cabin and engraved the lines to match the rest of the molded detail.
Today i finally picked it up again, painted the top middle section with some Tamiya Nato black and glued the gun aiming device in there. After that, sprayed some clear green on the top windows...



This means all that's left to do before putting the clears parts on is to mask them so, let's see how long that takes...

[zenrat]

No worries mate, thanks for the reply.
In 1/72 I've built the Italeri UH-1B (albeit a Tamiya rebox) as a RW ADF bird, and kit bashed the Monogram "Huey Chopper" snaptite, and I have an Italeri UH-1C gunship in the stash.
I'll pick up a Hasegawa UH-1D when I find one in the appropriate "box art & font" boxing and I was wondering about the Hobby Boss kit as I keep seeing them at the LHS.

Yours is coming along nicely and you are going to a lot more effort that I would to make it accurate.

[DogfighterZen]

No worries mate, thanks for the reply.
In 1/72 I've built the Italeri UH-1B (albeit a Tamiya rebox) as a RW ADF bird, and kit bashed the Monogram "Huey Chopper" snaptite, and I have an Italeri UH-1C gunship in the stash.
I'll pick up a Hasegawa UH-1D when I find one in the appropriate "box art & font" boxing and I was wondering about the Hobby Boss kit as I keep seeing them at the LHS.

Yours is coming along nicely and you are going to a lot more effort that I would to make it accurate.

I don't know how much they're asking but it should be cheap, i think the HB kit is very much worth the money, i think you should buy one, really. The weapons alone are worth the money. Check out the sprues: https://www.super-hobby.pt/products/UH-1C-Huey.html
Don't know much about the Hasegawa kit but it seems like it's a bit crude, the Italeri UH-1D looks very good in the box.

[DogfighterZen]

Well, the Huey is slowly progressing...



I've done more work on it since this pic was taken but i didn't upload any pics of that so, those will come at a later date...

[DogfighterZen]

So, the Huey is finished and i just have to take some better pics and write the backstory. Camera's battery is charging so i'll probably do it today.

[Captain Canada]

Great little build ! One of my favourite machines the old Huey, and I'd say you nailed it.

[zenrat]

Ooooh!