JesusNut Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 Just wanted to say hello to everyone. I have been lurking for a couple days looking at everyone's builds and man, are ya'll good!. I am just coming back to the sport, errr, I mean hobby after a 25-30 year layoff. I recently purchased the Revell 1/32 UH-1D "Gunship" kit and have kinda started it. I am going to replicate my Dad's ship from Vietnam. He flew with the 195th AHC, in the 2nd platoon, "Skychiefs", after a short stint in the Guns Platoon, "Thunderchickens". I have several reference photos that I will try to share once I figure out how to do so on this forum. I realize I have a lot to learn, and re-learn, as I start back in this hobby. But it also looks like I have come to the right place for help and advice. Please bear with me as I will probably ask lots of questions, and any critiques will be taken with an open mind and as an opportunity for improvement. So far, I am not real impressed with the Revell kit, but I am going to do my best to stick with it and see it through. I have started assembly on some of the cockpit so far, and the seats, quite frankly, suck! So I am going to try to scratch-build some of the armored seats. I know there are some after market kits available, but I want to try my hand at the scratch-build first and see what happens. With that being said, does anyone happen to know or have any documents that have the dimensions of the seats? I also want to put the XM23/M23 system on it, but that is far down the road, and I am not sure I am going to be able to scratch-build that. And it also looks like I was a little late to the Cobra Company party for those aftermarket parts, so if anyone has one of those kits available and would be willing to part with it, I would probably be willing to try to work something out. My long range plans include this kit, a Charlie model Huey, an OH-58 and maybe a Cobra at some point. If you have any advice on kits that I should explore, or more importantly, kits to stay away from, please share. I will most likely stay in the 1/48 and 1/32 and 1/35 scales, so let me know what you think. Also, when I last built models, enamel paints were really the only game in town. I think I would prefer to use these new acrylics, but am a little overwhelmed with all the choices, so any advice on brands would also be appreciated. Well, I have taken enough of your time for today, so I will bid farewell for now. Thanks for reading! Tom Quote Link to post Share on other sites
salvador001 Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 Hello Tom. Welcome aboard, we all are happy to help, and a couple of guys including me are big fans of the Huey, so you came to the right place. Rod. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CharlieUH-1H Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 Welcome back Brother! Have fun! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
crushkill Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 Welcome to the site man! I'm also just getting back to the hobby, starting with a Huey also. Looking forward to seeing your work Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rotorwash Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 6 hours ago, JesusNut said: Just wanted to say hello to everyone. I have been lurking for a couple days looking at everyone's builds and man, are ya'll good!. I am just coming back to the sport, errr, I mean hobby after a 25-30 year layoff. I recently purchased the Revell 1/32 UH-1D "Gunship" kit and have kinda started it. I am going to replicate my Dad's ship from Vietnam. He flew with the 195th AHC, in the 2nd platoon, "Skychiefs", after a short stint in the Guns Platoon, "Thunderchickens". I have several reference photos that I will try to share once I figure out how to do so on this forum. I realize I have a lot to learn, and re-learn, as I start back in this hobby. But it also looks like I have come to the right place for help and advice. Please bear with me as I will probably ask lots of questions, and any critiques will be taken with an open mind and as an opportunity for improvement. So far, I am not real impressed with the Revell kit, but I am going to do my best to stick with it and see it through. I have started assembly on some of the cockpit so far, and the seats, quite frankly, suck! So I am going to try to scratch-build some of the armored seats. I know there are some after market kits available, but I want to try my hand at the scratch-build first and see what happens. With that being said, does anyone happen to know or have any documents that have the dimensions of the seats? I also want to put the XM23/M23 system on it, but that is far down the road, and I am not sure I am going to be able to scratch-build that. And it also looks like I was a little late to the Cobra Company party for those aftermarket parts, so if anyone has one of those kits available and would be willing to part with it, I would probably be willing to try to work something out. My long range plans include this kit, a Charlie model Huey, an OH-58 and maybe a Cobra at some point. If you have any advice on kits that I should explore, or more importantly, kits to stay away from, please share. I will most likely stay in the 1/48 and 1/32 and 1/35 scales, so let me know what you think. Also, when I last built models, enamel paints were really the only game in town. I think I would prefer to use these new acrylics, but am a little overwhelmed with all the choices, so any advice on brands would also be appreciated. Well, I have taken enough of your time for today, so I will bid farewell for now. Thanks for reading! Tom Tom, Glad to see you jumped in with us. I just started using the Vallejo Air acrylics and they are fantastic! Honestly, you just add one drop of flow improver to every 5 drops of paint and it flows like a dream right out of the bottle. This stuff will be my go to paint form now on. The regular Vallejo acrylics also work great for brush painting. Ray Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JesusNut Posted March 30, 2017 Author Share Posted March 30, 2017 7 hours ago, rotorwash said: Tom, Glad to see you jumped in with us. I just started using the Vallejo Air acrylics and they are fantastic! Honestly, you just add one drop of flow improver to every 5 drops of paint and it flows like a dream right out of the bottle. This stuff will be my go to paint form now on. The regular Vallejo acrylics also work great for brush painting. Ray I will try that Ray! Thanks! It seems like Vallejo has the widest range of colors available, so I will give them a try. I am sure my technique will need as much work as any paint I use. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JesusNut Posted April 5, 2017 Author Share Posted April 5, 2017 Ok, here are some pics of my first attempt at a scratchbuild. I was not happy at all with the seats that came with the kit. So I am gonna scratchbuild them. This was my first attempt, and I am not really happy with them. I cut the sheet styrene freehand with an x-acto knife and tried to trim them up a little bit. And that's not gonna work for me. But I learned something and will use that knowledge to make the next one better. These are just the armor bucket, so I have a lot more to do, but here we go! And here are some pics of the bird I am going to replicate, or try to. The third pic is my dad. He was the AC of this aircraft. Some of you will notice they had the spraying rig for Agent Orange. At this point, I do not plan on adding that in, but I may give it some thought. Probably not too many models out there with that on them. ANd especially with camo make-up on. As far as my Dad understood, his unit, 195th AHC, was the only unit in Vietnam with a camo scheme. While I am not on Ray's wavelength, I have not come across any other pictures of helicopters with it, so Dad might be right. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JesusNut Posted April 5, 2017 Author Share Posted April 5, 2017 And just realized my first mistake. Forgot the slots for the seatbelts in the side armor! Oh well! Glad I knew going in it was just a trial run! Hahaha! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
crushkill Posted April 5, 2017 Share Posted April 5, 2017 Excited to follow this! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JesusNut Posted April 5, 2017 Author Share Posted April 5, 2017 Armored seat rendition 2. Happier with how it looks. Criticism desired. Is it still too sloppy with the cuts? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
HUEYHOG Posted April 5, 2017 Share Posted April 5, 2017 Looks pretty good but the hard part is still to come with the seat frame, springs and seat belts that connect to cabin floor. If you're going to put pilots in the seats I'd definitely recommend putting a pilot in the seat before gluing on the armored plates. Other things I've also found making a custum seat it can conflict with the pilot's door/window and B post. Tim Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JesusNut Posted April 5, 2017 Author Share Posted April 5, 2017 25 minutes ago, HUEYHOG said: Looks pretty good but the hard part is still to come with the seat frame, springs and seat belts that connect to cabin floor. If you're going to put pilots in the seats I'd definitely recommend putting a pilot in the seat before gluing on the armored plates. Other things I've also found making a custum seat it can conflict with the pilot's door/window and B post. Tim Thanks Tim! No pilots for this bird this time. I was going to do one seat with the armor forward and the other with it back. It may or may not be exactly to scale, but I used the kit seats as a basis for the measurements so they "should" fit in the same space. Of course, that is before I add the sliding armor plate too, so we'll have to see what happens. Definitely something to think about as I progress. Thanks for heads up on that. Not sure what I'm going to do about belts yet. I have seen several people said they use tape and paint it, so I may try that first and see what happens. There is minimal PE available for this kit, so I want to scratch build as much as I need to. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JesusNut Posted April 5, 2017 Author Share Posted April 5, 2017 Continuation of the armored seat. This will be the left seat and I mounted the sliding armor plate in the rear position. The right seat will be in the closed position. I think the mounting plates for the sliding armor are out of scale, especially in thickness, but I only had one size of styrene on hand and was biting the bullet to get something done. I may rebuild it all if it proves to be too much for me. Please tell me if you see something that just has to be fixed. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
crushkill Posted April 6, 2017 Share Posted April 6, 2017 Looking great so far! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
11bee Posted April 6, 2017 Share Posted April 6, 2017 Wow... great looking seat. If you plan on doing a lot of scratchbuilding, I'd highly recommend getting a pack of sheet styrene (ideally one with sheets of different thickness) and a few packs of plastic rod (again of varying thickeness). They will last you a lifetime. I rebuilt the troop seats on my Huey build using plastic rod, it was a good amount of work but I was really happy with way it turned out. Regards, John Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JesusNut Posted April 6, 2017 Author Share Posted April 6, 2017 2 hours ago, crushkill said: Looking great so far! Thanks man! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JesusNut Posted April 6, 2017 Author Share Posted April 6, 2017 41 minutes ago, 11bee said: Wow... great looking seat. If you plan on doing a lot of scratchbuilding, I'd highly recommend getting a pack of sheet styrene (ideally one with sheets of different thickness) and a few packs of plastic rod (again of varying thickeness). They will last you a lifetime. I rebuilt the troop seats on my Huey build using plastic rod, it was a good amount of work but I was really happy with way it turned out. Regards, John Thanks John. I had actually ordered a pack of sheet styrene from amazon, but it hasn't even shipped yet and I got impatient. I bought some .030 from a LHS, but it's just one thickness. I will find another source and take your advice on that! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rotorwash Posted April 6, 2017 Share Posted April 6, 2017 Looking good. For PE you may consider using some of the 1/35 Huey PE sets. There's not that much difference between 1/35 and 1/32. Ray Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JesusNut Posted April 6, 2017 Author Share Posted April 6, 2017 5 hours ago, rotorwash said: Looking good. For PE you may consider using some of the 1/35 Huey PE sets. There's not that much difference between 1/35 and 1/32. Ray That may be my only option. I will have to look to see whats out there, I missed out on the Cobra Company. I was waiting on picking up the M23 system from them and now am not gonna be able to get it from them. Hopefully someone on ebay will put one up soon. Ray, or anyone, do you know if the Bravo6 kit will work on the Revell? It may not be totally to scale, but I do not think I have the skills to scratch-build an M60. I might be able to do a passable version of the mount, box and pintle, but the weapon would be too much, I think. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
HeavyArty Posted April 6, 2017 Share Posted April 6, 2017 (edited) 1 hour ago, JesusNut said: I missed out on the Cobra Company. I was waiting on picking up the M23 system from them and now am not gonna be able to get it from them. Lone Star Models bought all the Cobra Company stocks and masters. They still have the M23 system available. http://www.lonestarmodels.com/Cobra-Company.html 1 hour ago, JesusNut said: ...do you know if the Bravo6 kit will work on the Revell? It may not be totally to scale... Just as Ray says with the PE, yes, they are pretty close. Just about any of the existing 1/35 sets are close enough to fit the 1/32 Revell Huey. I made a few conversions over the years using 1/35 parts on it; along with 1/35 weapons, gear, figures, etc... Edited April 6, 2017 by HeavyArty Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rotorwash Posted April 6, 2017 Share Posted April 6, 2017 3 minutes ago, HeavyArty said: Lone Star Models bought all the Cobra Company stocks and masters. They still have the M23 system available. http://www.lonestarmodels.com/Cobra-Company.html Yes, pretty much any of the existing 1/35 sets are close enough to fit the 1/32 Revell Huey. I made a few conversions over the years using 1/35 parts on it; along with 1/35 weapons, gear, figures, etc... Gino, It seems there are no clickable links in the Lone Star page you linked to. How does one go about actually buying one of these sets. Ray Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JesusNut Posted April 6, 2017 Author Share Posted April 6, 2017 18 minutes ago, HeavyArty said: Lone Star Models bought all the Cobra Company stocks and masters. They still have the M23 system available. http://www.lonestarmodels.com/Cobra-Company.html Just as Ray says with the PE, yes, they are pretty close. Just about any of the existing 1/35 sets are close enough to fit the 1/32 Revell Huey. I made a few conversions over the years using 1/35 parts on it; along with 1/35 weapons, gear, figures, etc... 13 minutes ago, rotorwash said: Gino, It seems there are no clickable links in the Lone Star page you linked to. How does one go about actually buying one of these sets. Ray Thanks guys for the info. I also could not find clickable links, so I sent an email to the address in the upper left corner so we will see what he says. They also have the armored seats, but I might be happy enough with what I've done and save the money. I still need so many paints and other items that this hobby is starting to get expensive! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
HeavyArty Posted April 6, 2017 Share Posted April 6, 2017 (edited) 3 hours ago, rotorwash said: Gino, It seems there are no clickable links in the Lone Star page you linked to. How does one go about actually buying one of these sets. Ray I haven't ordered from them yet, but he does have an ordering instructions page. http://www.lonestarmodels.com/orderform.html It says to email him your order or mail back an order form. Also has payment instructions. Edited April 6, 2017 by HeavyArty Quote Link to post Share on other sites
salvador001 Posted April 6, 2017 Share Posted April 6, 2017 Those seats are amazing. Rod. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JesusNut Posted April 6, 2017 Author Share Posted April 6, 2017 32 minutes ago, HeavyArty said: I haven't ordered from them yet, but he does have an ordering instructions page. http://www.lonestarmodels.com/orderform.html It says to email him your order or mail back an order form. Also has payment instructions. Thanks for the info and link. I am checking with him to make sure he has it, then will order as soon as I can confirm. This will make it a whole lot easier. 19 minutes ago, salvador001 said: Those seats are amazing. Rod. Thanks Rod! It took me a couple tries, but I thought they came out pretty decent. I still have to finish the other one, then fill and paint them. I also have to build the supports, belts and seat "cushions" to go inside them. It's gonna be a long process, but I'll get there eventually. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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