UH-1 Medivac Vietnam help needed

[john53]

I've seen some nice chopper models here. It has gotten me

interested in building one in my preferred scale 1/72. I haven't

been near a Huey model since the early 70's when I did a Revell

Vietnam era gunship. I am now more interested in a Medivac

chopper from Vietnam. Is the ROG 1/72 a good choice to start

with? I think I read it's the old Hasegawa kit with some revisions.

The last helicopter I built was a 1/72 Italeri UH-60A in Desert Storm

markings, a very well detailed kit for 1/72. Would Revell's interior

with the stacked litters be correct for that era. Thanks for any help.---John

[Hajo L.]

The interior of the RoG Huey is nice, but the rest of the model is not worth the buy...

 

I'd start with the Italeri Huey, which still has some flaws, but is definetely not as bad as the Revell-kit.

 

Just check here:

HAJO

 

 

[john53]

Thanks----will do---John

[rotorwash]

Just a note on 1/72 D/H Hueys.  The Itleri and ESCI kits are the same plastic as is the Hasegawa and ROG kits.   The Italeri is a repop of teh ESCI kit and the ROG is a repop of the Hasegawa kit. The biggest issue with the Italeri/ESCI kit is the cabin door windows which are noticeably different sizes when they should be the same.  Also, while the engine is nice in the Italeri/ESCI kit, it makes the engine cowling too wide in my opinion and the screens on the engine cowlings appear to small.  Honestly, the interiors aren't  dramatically different between the two, but teh Italeri/ESCI kit has a ceiling included and the Has/ROG kit does not.  Another issue with the HAS/ROG kit is the main rotor and stab bar are molded as a single piece when the stab bar should be set above the rotorhead.  I woudl suggest looking for a cheap ESCI boxing and a cheap Has boxing on Ebay and combining the two using the cabin doors from the HAS kit on the ESCI or the roof and main rotor from the  ESCI kit on the Has kit.  personally, I think the Has kit has better more accurate lines.  Just me 2 cents.

     Ray

Edited December 31, 2017 by rotorwash

[Hajo L.]

...and you could still throw in some pieces of the Italeri "B" or "C" Huey to improve the kit-bash! ;)

 

 

HAJO

[john53]

Thanks, what interior? Is the ROG-Hasegawa interior with the 6 stacked litters

correct for that time frame? I am still looking for good interior pics from the

Vietnam era showing the wounded and how they were carried.---John

[rotorwash]

2 hours ago, john53 said:

Thanks, what interior? Is the ROG-Hasegawa interior with the 6 stacked litters

correct for that time frame? I am still looking for good interior pics from the

Vietnam era showing the wounded and how they were carried.---John

John,

 Hajo is correct that bits from an Italeri B, C or F model kit would also improve the interior, especially the seats.  

  AS for a Vietnam medevac, well you have lots of options.  Honestly I think most of the time the litters were just laid on the floor or the bench seat.  There was no room with the 6 stacked litters for the crew so I have never seen that setup in Vietnam.  That being said, I never say never.  Also, while most medevacs were unarmed,  many Cav units armed theres such as the one you can see here form the US Army Aviation Museum.  This photo also shows the bare floor where the litter was laid in flight.:

 

 

These pics of an El Salvadoran medevac from Rod show the standard three litter stacked setup that was also used in Vietnam.  Do not use these photos as refs for anything but the litters!

 

 

I have lots of pics, but between ARC limiting the upload size to a minuscule photo and Photobucket crapping out, I haven't had time to upload them again.  This should help get you started though.

   Ray

[john53]

Thanks! I saw someone's Dustoff model and it had what shows in your last pic, 2 seats

behind the pilot-co pilot and 3 litter hangers lengthwise across the width of the cabin.

This will definitely get me started, thanks again. Like both kits but that glaring window

problem on the Italeri kit bothers me, the rotor head may not be as noticeable to the

"unknowing" of Huey things!---John

[rotorwash]

11 minutes ago, john53 said:

Thanks! I saw someone's Dustoff model and it had what shows in your last pic, 2 seats

behind the pilot-co pilot and 3 litter hangers lengthwise across the width of the cabin.

This will definitely get me started, thanks again. Like both kits but that glaring window

problem on the Italeri kit bothers me, the rotor head may not be as noticeable to the

"unknowing" of Huey things!---John

Well you can get the Italeri kit for about $14 and the old Has kit for about $10 on E-bay so for less than $25 you can have them both.

   Ray

[ChesshireCat]

Can't say much for down south, but a Dust off in I-Corp was pretty much a strait slick without the door gunner. Usually had the bench seat removed. I went back to the rear six times in them, and never saw a stretcher or bench seat. If they were headed deep into harm's way they usually had a gunship to take care of the pot shots as they landed and left.

gary

[rotorwash]

7 hours ago, ChesshireCat said:

Can't say much for down south, but a Dust off in I-Corp was pretty much a strait slick without the door gunner. Usually had the bench seat removed. I went back to the rear six times in them, and never saw a stretcher or bench seat. If they were headed deep into harm's way they usually had a gunship to take care of the pot shots as they landed and left.

gary

 

You are so right, Gary.  THanks for your service, sir.  Heck virtually any Huey was used to evacuate wounded when needed, even gunships.  There were certainly plenty of medevacs that used stretchers as well.  The armed ones were all Cav from what I have seen and heard.  It seems the medevacs with red crosses were not respected as noncombatant aircraft and the VC found the big red crosses to be fine targets.  Who knew!  In an effort to further distinguish the medevac birds, some general got the bright idea to paint them all white in 72.  That really didn't work out very well!

    Ray

[11bee]

Noticed that El Salvadorean helo had the mounting plate for the tail boom ALQ-144.   Nice pics. 

[ChesshireCat]

14 hours ago, rotorwash said:

 

You are so right, Gary.  THanks for your service, sir.  Heck virtually any Huey was used to evacuate wounded when needed, even gunships.  There were certainly plenty of medevacs that used stretchers as well.  The armed ones were all Cav from what I have seen and heard.  It seems the medevacs with red crosses were not respected as noncombatant aircraft and the VC found the big red crosses to be fine targets.  Who knew!  In an effort to further distinguish the medevac birds, some general got the bright idea to paint them all white in 72.  That really didn't work out very well!

    Ray

Worst time for a dust off was during twilight. You could see just enough to get a good shot while the light played tricks on your eyes. That's also when they shot at you. Some NVA commanders gave orders not to shoot at anything with a Red Cross painted on it, and others didn't. Local VC and Main Force VC would shoot at anything. The trick was to wait till it was dark, and use three of those little bitty strobes. Of course you can't do that with a sucking chest wound or a severed artery. We often set up two and even three sets of strobes, but one would have a red lens flashlight in the center. Yet if the ship had red cross painted all over it and a door gunner who was point outward you could expect bad results everytime.

Stretchers would have been nice, but you got maybe 15 seconds to get him aboard. Just took too long to load one.  Another issue is that a third of the time the closest slick would pick you up if you got tagged pretty good (20 to 30 minutes from Chu Lai or DaNang). He was already there, and could get you help twenty minutes faster.  You could plan on getting shot at in a slick, and I'm here to testify to that!

gary 

[rotorwash]

Gary,

  While you may not have seen stretchers in the field during your tour, they were used extensively in Vietnam.  Here are a few examples from the Army Aviation Museum digital archives.

      Ray

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a couple more that may have been loaded on arrival at the medical facility:

 

 

 

[ChesshireCat]

third one from the bottom makes me want to cry! 

glt

[rotorwash]

5 hours ago, ChesshireCat said:

third one from the bottom makes me want to cry! 

glt

Sorry if I upset you, Gary.  I was hoping that was wounded, but it looks like a kia I'm afraid.  If nothing else, perhaps it puts the true sacrifice of you guys who served into perspective.

   Ray

[ChesshireCat]

18 hours ago, rotorwash said:

Sorry if I upset you, Gary.  I was hoping that was wounded, but it looks like a kia I'm afraid.  If nothing else, perhaps it puts the true sacrifice of you guys who served into perspective.

   Ray

Looking at the pic, All I need to know is the kid's hit real bad. Probably a double sucking chest wound. Pretty much terminal, unless there's a doctor onboard. About 500 seconds left from impact. What tells you how bad it is, is one of the pilots is helping to get him loaded. If he was KIA, then the good Lord eased his pain. Notice the care his buddies show in the way they handle him. Proud of them! 

 

In that time frame we all thought we were tough. Bullets bounced off us like Superman. Then we wake up to the real world.  

 

Three more weeks till TET. and I'm taking it easy

gary