Chief Snake

The choice is yours. Either way could be correct depending on what type of weathering you choose. A newly painted aircraft they would definitely look flat black. An aircraft that was some time out of painting would have those panels beginning to fade to a grey-black look. An aircraft long out of painting the panels would be more to a grey color. The longer exposed, the more grey they appear. Many of the UH-1s I worked on had the walkway on the roof anywhere from black to a chalky grey, again the time out of being painted producing what you saw. Since those areas are on the top of the surface

Those are walkway panels, they were supposed to be painted on in flat black which often faded to a very dark grey. The 1/32 Revell AH-1G kit of that aircraft provides those panels as white decals so if Mastercraft used that artwork as a reference they may have just perpetuated a mistake made originally by Revell. Hugh mills flew that AH-1G for a short period of time. He browses this forum and may be able to answer your observation with first hand knowledge. Chris M

Oops, my bad. Winnie wants to do a HAL-3. Chris M

If you go to the HAL-3 web site the serials of all the UH-1's they flew are listed. Some have the modex number too. They flew UH-1B, UH-1C and UH-1M aircraft. Chris M

This information is correct. The blades had issues, sagging and chord width. Putting a wire in the mold was not effective, the molds would flex and the wire would show on the blade surface. I just completed the same build you want to do, a HAL-3 Seawolf. There is a boxing of the Seminar kit that is supposed to be a UH-1C, it's the B kit with a couple of new frets that give you the tail fin, bigger flat top elevators, the tropical filter and modified cowl doors. They do not change the main rotor, the instructions have you leave some parts off. I used the fin, the filter and the cowl doors

A picture you see is only as good as the moment it was taken. Two days later it may have a new marking applied... Chris M

The white blade was a measure taken to alert an aircraft at a higher elevation that there was traffic below. There are variations such as one three foot wide white stripe on each blade. Another practice was to paint the top of the synch elevators orange. Some of these practices were dictated by higher commands while others were instigated by the unit commander. Chris M

Werner's Wings makes a resin detail set that gets most of the needs done to make a 1/32 scale UH-72. They also make decals for the UH-60 to be marked as a Medevac. They are 1/48 scale but proportionally the decals work very well on the 1/32 scale UH-72. I used both and was very pleased with everything. I also purchased a very comprehensive photo etch set from France called RFLIGHT and sold by Renaissance Models. It is called EC-145 but many of the parts enhance the detail of the Revell kit no matter what you make it to be. They do have a web site-http://www.renaissance-models.com/

Neither of those would make a fix. The relationship of the position of the scissors to the head is correct. The arms of the scissors are reversed, the only fix for that is to make an entirely new scissors assembly. The dampers are correct in their "clock" position but there has been discussion as to their height on the mast. Some folks say they appear a bit too high. Since the control tubes in question run correctly from the scissors to the stabilizer they appear awkward only because the lower end of the control tube is moved aft to attach to the scissors arm. Anything done to the dampers

The scissors were produced incorrectly, a flaw by the production team. They are reversed so the connector points are on the wrong side. That makes the control tubes appear in such a severe angle. It's a shame this happened because they were supplied with excellent references by Ray and Floyd. Chris M

I had not thought of the tab being able to remain "stationary" as the elevator moved. I have to agree that this could very well be the case. What ever impact the movement of the elevator had on the wire must be minimal or it would not have been done. Pictures of the opposite side of these aircraft do not exhibit any kind "tab" on the elevator. Must have been a one side application only. Since the wire seems to be missing on other pictured aircraft kind of makes me think the application may have been temporary or it didn't function well enough to be retained. The single wire may have been subje

It would be foolish to put a tensioned wire on a moving part. The movement of the elevator would harm the wire and likely the wire could impede the movement of the elevator. Look again at your photo and follow the wire as it passes over the elevator near the tail boom. Follow it along that line and you can see it in the dark band of paint and that line goes precisely to the area where the U shaped antennas ( VHF/Omni) would be. I'm a bit skeptical that it would terminate on the tail skid, continue on the angle of the line and it passes below the tail boom before it could reach the skid. As f

I doubt very seriously that wire is attached to the synch elevator. Movement of the elevator would change tension on the wire and surely break it. Instead I believe it passes over the elevator and connects to the tail boom were the military U shaped antennas would be fixed. Chris M

No huey. Just the current art from the AH/MH-6J with the words changed. Chris M

I have that sheet. I have used one of the Battalion crests and the B Company squares. I do still have the A Company triangles and the C Company circles. I don't anticipate using them. If you need those I can just mail them to you. I think you should know that these are very delicate decals and prior to using them they should be over coated with a decal film liquid. Chris M

I am pretty sure the small square is indeed a form of gps tracking. It was called Blue Force and that sure looks like a known antenna for it. Not sure the round one is the same type of thing, might be. Chris M

The original MRC/ Academy instructions also show the seat armor sliding panels installed up-side down. May also be a carry over to the new release. Chris M

https://www.shapeways.com/product/K899H3669/bell-212-412-1-35-bended-exhausts?optionId=64464624&li=marketplace Chris M

As I have some long term experience with making masters and casting, I don't think the problem is generated by molding but by error in making the master. Those radical differences are not consistent with mold creep. Molds do change a bit over time, but the usual result is seen as a reduction in thickness of the parts. Since you say you have three sets with the same problem, it indicates the flaw is consistent. Chris M

Aurora made an HOK-1 in 1/4" scale. They sell for all kinds of prices across the board. Collector condition is pricey, builder condition much less. You get something that provides the basis for an HH-43 but it would take a significant amount of scratch building to get there. Chris M

Academy/Minicraft makes one, the best starting point in my opinion. The kit is #2139. Ebay has a couple in the $30 range. Chris M

The only difference between a UH-1C and a UH-1M is the engine. You can't tell them apart if you are looking at them. If you can see that the blades on one kit are not correct, maybe you can swap them out for the blades of another. The first UH-1M's were introduced in Vietnam in 1970. The first three were equipped with the INFANT night fighter and tracking system. All others were upgraded from the UH-1C by swapping out the necessary parts that were provided in the form of a "kit". This was usually done at phase inspection, but not always. The aircraft serial numbers remained the same as th

The evaluation report identifies one UH-1B/ 540 with serial number 63-8684. It was flown for 47.4 hours during Feb-Mar 1965. It also reports that Bell produced a civil 204B (N73977) with the 540 rotor system that was flown for 20 hours in January 1964 and was done at no operational cost to the US Army. Chris M

It's already been vehemently noted over on hyperscale. Chris M

Since I engineered the Cobra Company UH-1C set I can tell you all in full about it's origins. The first intent was to give modelers the ability to go in a more reasonable direction than the kit initially gave them. I figured that the most needed things were the cambered tail fin and the sync elevators. Since the fin looked like an AH-1G fin all I had to do was modify an existing kit fin. The sync elevators came from a UH-1D/H kit since they had the same cross section. I also learned that certain UH-1B helicopters had them intentionally. The test bed aircraft for the 540 rotor equipped UH-1B ha