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Questions about color UH-1D Huey


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Hello friends.

I am working on the Italeri 1/48 Kit to represent a Viet Nam Huey but I have some doubts about the colors of the interiors and the rotor.

UH-1D%20Marine%20fire%20support%20base%2
Here I leave a photo of my work so far.

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13442280_10209218874725080_3712184802853

Thanks for the help

Regards

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The interior is all gray on Vietnam Hueys, including the poles; however, theere are frequently areas of bare metal visble where paint ahs rubbed off.  I have found that Mr. Surfacer primer is actually pretty darn close and I use it for my interior gray.  As for the main rotor mast, the mast, push pull tubes and stab bar are all some variation fo natural metal colors.  I usually try to vary them a bit on my builds to give variety.  The boot around the bottom of the mast should be red.  The rotor head itself is painted light gray.  HTH

    Ray

Here is my antarctic UH-1B which has accurate colors for Vietnam Huey rotor components.

 

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38 minutes ago, rotorwash said:

The interior is all gray on Vietnam Hueys, including the poles; however, theere are frequently areas of bare metal visble where paint ahs rubbed off.  I have found that Mr. Surfacer primer is actually pretty darn close and I use it for my interior gray.  As for the main rotor mast, the mast, push pull tubes and stab bar are all some variation fo natural metal colors.  I usually try to vary them a bit on my builds to give variety.  The boot around the bottom of the mast should be red.  The rotor head itself is painted light gray.  HTH

    Ray

Here is my antarctic UH-1B which has accurate colors for Vietnam Huey rotor components.

 

Image may contain: outdoor

Great! Huey! Ray!

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Dark Gull Gray interior is the correct tone for vietnam era Hueys. Now for the rotor head, there are some parts painted in Aircraft Gray and others are bare metal, the mast could be gray, bare metal silver or brass. 

As Ray said, Mr Surfacer is a great match for the interior gray.

 

Rod.

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I do not remember the clever old CE I got this from but I have a painting document and this is just one part of it.

 

Huey colors - Rotors, rotor head, scissor, push rods, links, swash plate and mast

 

Viet-nam era UH-1 pylons (UH-1B,C, D, H, and M) were all painted roughly similar. Components were mixed and matched with out regard to color. So you could have a pair of "drive links" for example of which one was that gloss light gray with the other being just anodized and left that metallic silver color.

 

Mast boots varied from orange to red to black. The slicks (D&H) had one boot above the scissors and sleeve assy, while the guns (C&M) had two, one above the scissors and sleeves, and one below from the swash plate up to the scissors sleeves. The later protected the "uniball" Teflon coated bearing surface on which the swash plate rode. D&H used a "u-joint" arrangement not unlike that found on an auto drive shaft.

 

Swashplates were generally just coated and left to the elements. Some however, were painted that light gray during overhaul or repair. Swashplate and support assemblies were generally treated alike (being one assembly.)

 

The mast is a steel alloy and is plated in a process known as Cadmium Plating giving it that silver-goldish color. The same can be said for the Yoke (center) of the main rotor hub.

 

Blade grips, that part of the hub where the main rotor blade is attached to the hub is aluminum and was almost always gloss light gray. On the guns, a plastic dust deflector was attached to the leading edge of the grip assembly, this was left it's natural primer grey looking color. (Similar to the color of the floor and some sound proofing blankets on the bulkhead.)

 

Stab bar is subject to all of the above being made up both steel (outer bar and counter wights), and aluminum, the inner bow shaped pieces being aluminum.

 

Hardware was often replaced on the pylon at the periodic inspection (100 hr) and maybe either gold Cadmium or Steel Gray/Silver color.

 

Tail Rotor as above Yoke the gold Cadmium or Steel Gray/Silver color. Grips are painted the gloss lt gray.

 

Huey trivia...For maintenance purposes a small dot of paint was placed on each component Red on one side, White on the other denoting the left and right side of the rotor system. Typical write-up might be "Red scissor arm has axial play." or "White mixing lever has radial play." (We were lucky the crane drivers had Red, White, Blue, Yellow, and Black to contend with....)

 

UH-1B HAL-3 Seawolves

33439348922_45306357c2_b.jpg

 

UH-1D/H

33467150031_8a8366cc34_b.jpg

Edited by snake36bravo
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24 minutes ago, rotorwash said:

Oh dang, that top shot if gorgeous, Lloyd!  Where did you find it?

    Ray 

Ray, I've got a bunch of 35mm slides from Operation Deep Freeze 1963-64 with those first Hueys from Ft. Lewis. That was in the bunch. He was also at An Khe later on in 1966. They are scanned in at 4416x2944

 

32753686634_a9c8132baf_b.jpg

 

 

 

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Nice Pics you've got snake. Really nice shots of the rotorhead!

 Love that pic of the orange D model. That's pretty cool.

I think that assignment would have been last on my choice list because I can't stand the cold!!!

 

Tim

 

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Just to echo the above the interior is 36251, although a lot of chipped paint and patch up's. For the rotor head I mixed 36440 with Silver about 50/50 when I did my AB205.

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Here's some period shots of a UH-1B rotor mast and head from the US Army Aviation Museum archives.  This would be accurate for a UH-1D/H rotor minus the blade counterweights sticking up from the blade grips.  You can see the slight variations is color of the metal parts as mentioned above in Lloyd's post.  Also, you can see the dapner link on the first shot is chromate.  You can see this on various parts from time to time, including the arms of the stab bar and other rotor links.

  Ray

Image may contain: sky and outdoor

 

Image may contain: sky and outdoor

 

Image may contain: sky and outdoor

 

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2 minutes ago, jimm33 said:

Lots of great info guys! One question: would the instrument panel, shroud and the windshield framework be flat black? Then, all else inside 36231?

Thanks again!

 

Jim

 

No, Jim, only the shroud would be black.  Pre-NVG eevrything else was gray except for the instrument bezels, overhead console and center console.  here is a beautiful shot of a Vietnam era correct instrument panel from UH-1H 67-17832 from 1968. Photo is part of the Bell historical archives. HTH.

  RayNo automatic alt text available.

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52 minutes ago, rotorwash said:

No, Jim, only the shroud would be black.  Pre-NVG eevrything else was gray except for the instrument bezels, overhead console and center console.  here is a beautiful shot of a Vietnam era correct instrument panel from UH-1H 67-17832 from 1968. Photo is part of the Bell historical archives. HTH.

  RayNo automatic alt text available.

This will be my new wallpaper image on my laptop :worship:

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  • 3 months later...
On 22/03/2017 at 11:43 PM, snake36bravo said:

Ray, I've got a bunch of 35mm slides from Operation Deep Freeze 1963-64 with those first Hueys from Ft. Lewis. That was in the bunch. He was also at An Khe later on in 1966. They are scanned in at 4416x2944

 

32753686634_a9c8132baf_b.jpg

 

 

 

 

Do you happen to have any photos of the UH-1D operated by the US Army/Navy during 1969/70?

 

I believe the a/c was 65-09740.

 

Thanks!

Edited by RGS
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And, ....... the Engine deck, the flat surface the the engine rest on, is stainless steel,  This deck is always nice and clean, even in Vietnam the Crew Chief's made it so!!  The reason was to permit a quick search for any spots of oil/fluids that were leaking.

 

Bottom line, do NOT paint that deck ZC Green or ZC Yellow.  Keep it nice shiny Stainless Steel!!

 

Bo 

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