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1/72 Bell 205 question


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I dug through the stash and remembered I had some Mike Grant decals for an Air America Huey, so I'm looking to build a Bell 205. What would be the best starting point in 1/72 scale for that? A UH-1H kit I assume?

Deke

Deke,

The civil Bell 205A is essentially a UH-1H with a tractor (right side) tail rotor. The standard US Army UH-1H has a pusher tail rotor. AS far as a good 1/72 kit goes, that's a different story. the best solution I have thus far seen is to use a Hasegawa UH-1H and graft the nose from an Italeri short bodied Huey kit (UH-1B, C, F) onto it. You would also need to modify the main rotor as bit as the Hasegawa kit has the stab bar fused to the rotorhead. Anyway, that's how I plan to build mine. Good luck and post some pics! HTH

Ray

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Hmmm theres only UH-1D/H kits in 72 available, although the 205 is the civil version of it, practically identical, but the only available kits in 72 are the Hasegawa, Italeri and Revell ones, and all 3 are crap, they lack of details, most parts are way wrong, etc, i remember seeing a photo of a guy that kitbash a Italeri N/212 to make a civil 205 and got a pretty nice model, i think he used parts of the Italeri UH-1D, the cowling and nose, dont remember where i saw this; I would suggest to make it in 1/48, the Italeri UH-1D is the best opion in 48 and would make a nice model, you could even use the Eduard PE set to make it more real.

Rod.

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Hmmm theres only UH-1D/H kits in 72 available, although the 205 is the civil version of it, practically identical, but the only available kits in 72 are the Hasegawa, Italeri and Revell ones, and all 3 are crap, they lack of details, most parts are way wrong, etc, i remember seeing a photo of a guy that kitbash a Italeri N/212 to make a civil 205 and got a pretty nice model, i think he used parts of the Italeri UH-1D, the cowling and nose, dont remember where i saw this; I would suggest to make it in 1/48, the Italeri UH-1D is the best opion in 48 and would make a nice model, you could even use the Eduard PE set to make it more real.

Rod.

Rod,

the Italeri UH-1D is just the old Esci kit so you have to get you nose from one fo the short bodied Italeri Huey kits.

Ray

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Couple of minor nuances to note on the civil 205A vs. UH-1D. First, the chin bubbles are larger on the civil 205A vs. the Huey. Never would have believed it until my Huey-driver buddy pointed it out on the 205A-1 we were using for a test project, and darned if it wasn't true. Probably wouldn't be noticeable in 1/72. Second, most (if not all) civil 205's have a baggage door in the tail boom.

I'm not a 1/72 builder, but I think I'd bash a 212 with the Italeri cowl and the nose from the Italeri 204

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Couple of minor nuances to note on the civil 205A vs. UH-1D. First, the chin bubbles are larger on the civil 205A vs. the Huey. Never would have believed it until my Huey-driver buddy pointed it out on the 205A-1 we were using for a test project, and darned if it wasn't true. Probably wouldn't be noticeable in 1/72. Second, most (if not all) civil 205's have a baggage door in the tail boom.

I'm not a 1/72 builder, but I think I'd bash a 212 with the Italeri cowl and the nose from the Italeri 204

Matt,

Very interesting about the chin bubble. That makes no sense to me, but I know you know your stuff so I believe it. I'd love to see a side by side comparison. You are definitely correct about the baggage compartment. I'm not sure every one had them, but most civil 205's I've seen have. Regarding your idea of using the 212 and adding a UH-1H engine cowling and nose, I'm thinking that will be musch harder than it sounds. It has always annoyed me that Italeri didn't just make their UH-1H from the 212 kit (instead of the crappy Esci rebox) like they did in 48th scale. After all it is the SAME KIT just scaled down! It would have only taken a new nose and engine cowling to get the basic parts correct. Grrrrr!

Ray

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Most of Air America's 205s were early types equivalent to the UH-1D. Air America also received a substantial number of UH-1Hs bailed from the US Army later as well. I would recommend consulting Dr. Joe Leeker's excellent resources on Air America aircraft for information on the particular subject you're looking to model: http://www.utdallas.edu/library/specialcollections/hac/cataam/Leeker/aircraft/index.html

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Rod,

the Italeri UH-1D is just the old Esci kit so you have to get you nose from one fo the short bodied Italeri Huey kits.

Ray

Thanks for that Ray, yeah, why the heck didnt Italeri scaled down their 1/48 UH-1D just the same as they did with the 212/UH-1N???

Rod.

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Deke,

The civil Bell 205A is essentially a UH-1H with a tractor (right side) tail rotor. The standard US Army UH-1H has a pusher tail rotor. AS far as a good 1/72 kit goes, that's a different story. the best solution I have thus far seen is to use a Hasegawa UH-1H and graft the nose from an Italeri short bodied Huey kit (UH-1B, C, F) onto it. You would also need to modify the main rotor as bit as the Hasegawa kit has the stab bar fused to the rotorhead. Anyway, that's how I plan to build mine. Good luck and post some pics! HTH

Ray

Ray,

Thank you for the info; I assume the front of the Hasegawa kit has some major issues? If so, at what point would you bash the two kits? I thought I had seen somewhere a year or so ago a bash of the front end of a 1/72 Huey, which I assume is because of the issue you brought up.

Most of Air America's 205s were early types equivalent to the UH-1D. Air America also received a substantial number of UH-1Hs bailed from the US Army later as well. I would recommend consulting Dr. Joe Leeker's excellent resources on Air America aircraft for information on the particular subject you're looking to model: http://www.utdallas.edu/library/specialcollections/hac/cataam/Leeker/aircraft/index.html

Thank you, I have seen that reference before, it's excellent. I was looking at one of the helos listed there as a subject: XW-PFG. Here are a couple of photos of it.

CIABell205XW-PFG2.jpg

CIABell205XW-PFG1.jpg

The website listed above identifies it as "Bell UH-1D (205D) XW-PFG". Looking at the photos, there are two things I find confusing. First, the tail rotor is on the left side, so I assume it's actually a UH-1, not a Bell 205. Second, the website says it is a UH-1D, but the pitot tube is mounted on the roof, not the nose, which I thought distinguished the UH-1H from the earlier UH-1D. Finally any idea on the main blade color for Air America Hueys? It's tough to tell from the photos, so I was going to use olive drab. Again, thank you for the help and any comments.

Deke

Edited by Deke
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Could easily be an error in identification based on the actual primary source documents (which I haven't seen, but could easily just say "Bell 205" or something to that extent without any additional details). I would agree that the things you've pointed out in the pictures are generally indicative of UH-1Hs.

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I am not understanding what is wrong with the Italeri uh-1d kit? I always thought it was great. The cargo doors are a little off, but besidess that it is pretty good.

The Italeri UH-1D/H is the same kit as the ESCI UH-1D. Issues I see are engine cowling is too wide, the engine cowling screens look too small to me as well, but that's an easy fix if you are installing pe or mesh screens. I'm not a big fan of the tailboom on the Esci/Italeri kit although I have been told I'm nuts. The greenhouse windows are too small as well. For my money, it's the engine cowling that really bugs me the most. I can fix the rest with parts from either an italeri short bodied Huey kit or the Hasegawa kit. I just think the Hasegawa kit has the better fuselage and engine cowling, although the front end sucks pretty bad. I have a post somewhere where I did a detailed comparison of the two kits and the real thing, but I can't seem to find it. Both kits look like Hueys when they are finished, but I guess I'm a rivet counter with regard to Hueys and close just isn't good enough for me anymore. Most folks probably feel the way about Hueys I do about Sherman tank models. They all look like Shermans to me!

If anyone is insterested in the Hasegawa/Italeri short bodied Huey kitbash, Here are the cuts you need to make. The dark green nose bits and roof is from an Italeri UH-1B. I wish I could remember the modeler's name that first posted this technique so I could give him credit. The end product of his efforts was the most accurate 1/72 UH-1H I have yet seen.

Ray

Italeri-Haskitbash1_zps17c79c1a.jpg

Italeri-Haskitbash2_zps19447df0.jpg

Edited by rotorwash
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