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1/35 UH-1C decals?


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I'm sure I know the answer for this already, but are there (or where there ever?) any aftermarket decals for the 1/35 Academy/MRC UH-1C Huey kits?  I picked up both the "gunship" and "hog" MRC boxings of these kits over the weekend at the IPMS Fort Worth show.  I am a big fan of the John Brennan nose art books and it just seems that there are many great subjects out there.  I am friends with the 192nd AHC unit historian and have a copy of his unit's history book that he wrote.  Lots of great photos in there.  I'd sure love to do "The Executioner" that was on the cover of the first Brennan book (which was a 192nd ship) but I suppose I'd have to source decals on my own from a custom decal maker...

 

-Derek

Edited by viking73
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Yeah you already know the answer Derek. I contributed to John's Nose Art series and wholeheartedly agree. There are plenty of great unexplored options. Print Scale released a 1/35 series but its geared towards Dragon's UH-1D if memory serves. Its too bad MRC didn't release their planned Seawolf version. I'm sure their decals would've been great. Outside of that you've got to put the effort in to get the other boxings for options or do it yourself. I guess Slicks are more 'profitable' which leaves some enterprising soul a lot of room for market since no one is occupying it. But then 'Slicks are for Kids'.

 

Interesting history on this mold

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/mrc-ba104-uh-1c-huey-gunship--147832#

 

All the best

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3 hours ago, 11bee said:

Pretty sure Fireball released some decals for Navy ones.   I think he is now out of business (which is too bad cause he had great products) but maybe you can still track down a set?  

 

Fireball is technically not out of business, he has just changed product lines. 1/24-1/25 Auto. 

 

Beside the Navy sheet, he had a Delta sheet that  had lots of generic extras that could be used. 

 

PrintScale made a mixed Huey sheet with B’s as the short body

 

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There was one special boxing of the Academy kit that had a different decal sheet.  It was #12701 and was called "Special Nose Art". The markings can be seen in Brennans nose art books. There were 4 different units provided. Other than that boxing I don't believe anyone did anything other than the Seawolf decals by Fireball.

 

Chris M

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Correct. Joseph is still around he just shifted his focus. He still offers some good 7 shot tubes on Shapeways. Thank you Joseph!

 

Here is the Print Scale 1/35 UH-1B & UH-1D decal sheet. It's not what the OP wants though. Not to knock the early stuff, there's some seriously good artwork there, but I think he's leaning more to what I call the Head Ships. The trippy stuff when the headspace in Vietnam increased, around late 6768 and up. Plus to use these you're going to need to buy the UH-1B back date set from Lone Star Models because the kit is a Charlie model gunship. The back date set was never corrected by Chris at Cobra Company when he sold the molds so you've still got persistent issues with the blade set in chord width. Outside of a that it's a necessity! I have the Lone Star Model version. Details on what gets corrected in the instructions sheet below.

 

UH-1B+Backdate+set+for+MRC+UH-1C.jpg

 

 I own all these so hell let's overview it.

 

With Print Scale you get decal options for the following gunships. I'll skip the Slicks/lift ships simply because, well, they aren't a Night Hawk or Firefly which means they aren't my thing. Besides, let's face it, guns is where it's at!

 

UH-1B 118th Assault Helicopter Company, 1964 Vihn Long 'Thunderbirds', specifically Thunderbird 6 or a generic.

UH-1B 335th Assault Helicopter Company, 1967, Cowboys

UH-1B 117th Aviation Company 1964 Quin Nhon

UH-1B Marine Corps Vietnam 1967 which is INCORRECT as you will need to create a UH-1E roof complete with hoist & cover. The Marines operated a special version of the short body Huey.

 

Print+Scale+1-35th+decals.jpg

 

Print+Scale+instructions.jpg

 

Print+scale+instructions+back.jpg

 

The Special Nose Art edition of the MRC/Academy UH-1C offering offers some goodies including Satisfaction which is far out enough and Brennan covered all of these.

 

UH-1C 66-15179 'Satisfaction' Spiders gunship platoon, 188th Assault Helicopter Company, Tay Ninh 1968

UH-1C 66-59552 'Crystal Ship' 189th Assault Helicopter Company, Pleiku

UH-1M 66-00513 'Maddog 37' 240th Assault Helicopter Company, Bearcat 1970

UH-1M 66-15127 'Taipan' 135th Assault Helicopter Company, Dong Tam 1970-71

 

MRC+special+Nose+Art+Edition.jpg

 

Now let's get the Fireball Modelworks OUT OF PRINT US Army UH-1 Slicks in Vietnam Sheet A and Sheet B which as mentioned above can provide some generics. You could actually pull a Soc Trang Tiger Gunship from 121st Assault Helicopter Company out of this, maybe an early Alley Cat from the 282nd Assault Helicopter Company, or even a Stallion gunship from the 92nd Assault Helicopter Company (they sported the Coors, Budweiser, Schlitz 19 shot pods). 

 

Slicks+instructions+sheet.jpg

US+Army+UH-1+Slicks+In+Vietnam+Sheet+A+a

 

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UH-1B Marine Corps Vietnam 1967 which is INCORRECT as you will need to create a UH-1E roof complete with hoist & cover. The Marines operated a special version of the short body Huey.

 

For this scheme, the only thing wrong is the location listed. Marines had borrowed a handful, 30ish if I recall US Army UH-1Bs. Those where only used for stateside training to replace the UH-1E that where sent to Vietnam to replace losses.

 

Yes, the Marine UH-1E’s had hoists installed on them. However that was only the slick birds. The gun birds had the hoist removed but the cover was still installed. 

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The cheese slid all the way off my cracker as you can see below but if you go this route and get all the MRC/Academy boxings you do get some nice marking options OOB. If you're going all in you'll need the original 1990 Seminar UH-1B releases all the MRC then Academy kits are based off, then the rare Italeri version as well. Oh and the 2018 Revell release after Revell  bought the molds and re-released it. Hats off to you if you take the yellow brick road.

SD531143.JPG

Seminar

57th AHC

114th AHC

Medevac

US Army USAEUR

 

MRC/Academy

'Heavy Hog'

114 AHC, Hog Head II

'Frog'

174th AHC Sharks, Surfer

174th AHC Sharks, Ace of Spades

'Gunship'

176th AHC 'Muskets'

 

Italeri

227th AHC Delta Company, Mekong Raider

 

Revell 2018

174 AHC 66-15045 Easy Rider

187 AHC 66-00670 'The Professional II

187 AHC Heavy Hog 'Silly Sexy Sandi'

 

All the best

 

 

 

 

 

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8 minutes ago, Tank said:

 

 

For this scheme, the only thing wrong is the location listed. Marines had borrowed a handful, 30ish if I recall US Army UH-1Bs. Those where only used for stateside training to replace the UH-1E that where sent to Vietnam to replace losses.

 

Yes, the Marine UH-1E’s had hoists installed on them. However that was only the slick birds. The gun birds had the hoist removed but the cover was still installed. 

 

Not to get into what my Commanding Officer calls a d*k measuring contest but your rounds are not on target . NOT ALL removed the hoist or arm even. This is off the USS Corpus Cristi Bay in Da Nang harbor and it's not a UH-1b its a UH-1E gunbird as you call it with the hoist still there. Here's a color one from MAG-16 when at Phu Bai. You can clearly see the vertical spar for the hoist is still behind the AC seat. Not removed. I have more but I have to cook dinner for my birds.

UH-1053.jpg

 

1967+Vietnam+War+35mm+Slide++1.JPG

 

As you correctly stated the Corps didn't deploy B models to Vietnam and the USMC Order was for a specific version of the shorty body known as the Echo so decals from Print Scale AINT right. Those marking options are also stateside, NOT Vietnam.

 

They are Bell UH-1E @ El Toro circa 1973

 

Bell+UH-1E+BuNo+151886+VMO+UV-1+%2540+El

 

 

 

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The Cobra Company set didn't get the blades corrected because I had a lot of trouble with mold creep and resin droop. Even if I had corrected the chord of the blades the problems remained. And yes, I tried putting brass rods in the molds and poured resin in them. Something of that nature is bound to fail early and the brass rods would show quickly. The set didn't sell well enough to explore more options which certainly would have affected the price.

For myself, I take the blades out the Dragon Huey kit and shorten them and rework the rotor head of the Seminar kit. Takes some inventiveness but it does come out nice.

 

Chris M

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To be fair I never made a declarative statement that all birds had the hoist removed.

 

You have to search here but I sure Ray (mostly likely and might have been removed with pb issue) or myself had found and posted a pic of a Marine B.

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