PeepingBear

Hello, Florent, your work looks really great. I am also interested in buying the "Armee De l'Aire" resin sets you and your friends are planning to release. So right now I am curiously waiting for the finished parts. Something els: Could you please tell me the source of the PE parts for the MFDs? It seems they have raised buttons, contrary to Eduard's PE sets, in which the buttons are indentations. (That's realism at a high price ) Cheers, Jan

Hello, the ammo flex-chutes aren't that bad, after cleaning the flash and a good drybrushing they should look convincing. The old Eduard set for this kit doesn't offer replacements for the chutes, IIRC (my set is in store at my parents home). But Eduard's set for the ESCI UH-1D has PE replacements for the chutes, but only for a minigun-equipped chopper (1 chute per side). I am really curious if the folding and bending of these fine parts will work out right. Cheers

That kit is the old Monogram Huey Hog UH-1 B/C mixture with USMC UH-1E decals. Maybe you want to search this forum and Hyperscale.com's forum for threads concerning this kit and it's pitfalls. Once there was a PE set from Eduard for this kit. but it's OOP for several years. The set is not bad, offering a 40 mm grenade ammo drum, the usual instrument panels and some other parts (most useful among them the weaponsights). As an alternative you could use a UH-1D PE set (AKAIK still in production from Eduard) for the instruments (OK, OK, the B/C had a much simpler instrumentaiton than the D/H, bu

Hello from Germany, RoG's NH90 kit in 1/72 is several years OOP. The kit can be found on eBay, and sells for round about 20 US$ (You know how eBay prices vary). It is a very good replica of the prototype as it looked in the mid-90es: fine, recessed panellines, a cockpit with 3D instruments and all controls, good cabin detail with nice seats, only a cabin roof is missing. Fit of parts is komplex (due to ext. shape) but good. Wheel wells are detailed, the tail can be folded. Decals are for a Prototype (Le Bourget, 1991), fictional French and German army variants and a Dutch UN helicopter. So

Hello from Germany, IIRC, it has been stated on this and on other forums that the Seminar AH-1 kit is a re-pop of Fujimi's very old AH-1G. (One-piece fuselage halves -no separate engine housing-, port-side tailrotor -> it's the prototype). In that case it is a model of the AH-1G prototype and you'll have lots of work before you. Check Heli Kit News Nr. 80, par. 7 for further information. Comparing Seminar's kit to the Monogram AH-1S is almost an insult, Monogram's Cobra may suffer from raised fuselage detail in combination with a need for putty. BUT the kit has a fine & high level o

Hello from Germany, IIRC, that plug closes the original exhaust opening, when the "Black-Hole" IR-plume suppression system is used. You should be able to see a pair of 90°-bent, kidney-cross-sectioned (almost like sugar-scoops) exhausts on both upper sides of the aft fuselage. I think only some of the newer five-bladed, T-tailed variants use this IR suppression. HTH, Jan AKA PeepingBear

Hello from Germany, the CE resin cockpit (CEC 48037) is still available (e. g. from Meteor Productions). It offers additional parts for the earlier landing gear style and a better exhaust. I really like the CE add-on and the model, but you will have to do more enhancements to build a good looking H-34. Alas the RoG kit will not reappear in the shops, because the molds have degenerated. (Some RoG official said so on the WWW) HTH Jan

Hi from Germany, according to W. Mutza's "UH-1 Huey in Color", the UH-1E you are going to build is overall glossy Field Green (FS 14097). There is a photo in the book showing exactly that aircraft. I think semi-flat will be a good choice, due to the ageing of the paint. But there IS still gloss visible in the photo. The interior color will most presumably have been Dark Gull Gray (FS 36231) with Instrument Black (FS 27038) console panels and Orange-Yellow (FS 33538) outlines of the inner door faces. Only a few UH-1 in Vietnam got black NVG-friendly cockpits, the literature says. Seat webbin

Hello, with a new and really sharp blade, you don't have to use much force to cut through the masking tape. So the plastic below will get no or just very slight cuts. With some canopies the problem lies with keeping the knife exactly "on course". So work slwly and carefully, that's all. Cheers, Jan, AKA PeepingBear

Hello, methinks that Revell's flat No. 66 is quite close to the real polyurethane-based F.S. color. Especially if one remembers that the color fades and turns grimy under operation conditions. Other modelers, who work with the real US Army helicopters have posted that Model Master's paint is a dead match. HTH, Jan