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Author Topic: The Limited Selection of Airmobile for 28mm  (Read 1906 times)

Offline Bravo Six

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The Limited Selection of Airmobile for 28mm
« on: December 15, 2019, 06:26:27 PM »
I've been into 28mm Vietnam as long as I can remember, and one thing that bugged me was the limited selection of choppers in this scale. Italeri makes a great UH-1D kit, but model kits are fiddly and with added weight from pilot and gunner figures added, I've had a few involuntary tabletop crashes resulting in plastic kit damage.  :?  Force of Valor did a great diecast UH-1D but the run was soooo limited you had to be fast on the uptake. Now that these are OOP, they go for almost $200+ on eBay these days. Too rich for my blood.

Maybe we need a resin or 3D printed option? *ahem* Rich H? ;)


Offline Digits

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Re: The Limited Selection of Airmobile for 28mm
« Reply #1 on: December 15, 2019, 06:37:01 PM »
There are some for sale already...can’t remember the name, but Huey and loach, in differing scales.   You will always have the issue of snappable  blades, but putting a clear / removable Perspex disc on them would alleviate that.

Offline Digits

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Offline Bravo Six

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Re: The Limited Selection of Airmobile for 28mm
« Reply #3 on: December 15, 2019, 06:51:19 PM »
Quote
You will always have the issue of snappable  blades, but putting a clear / removable Perspex disc on them would alleviate that.

True. Discs look good on 15mm or smaller. Not ever seen them on larger choppers before.


Offline traveller

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Re: The Limited Selection of Airmobile for 28mm
« Reply #5 on: December 15, 2019, 07:46:36 PM »

Online carlos marighela

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Re: The Limited Selection of Airmobile for 28mm
« Reply #6 on: December 15, 2019, 08:16:08 PM »
The FoV Hueys would appear to be back on production. I saw them not long ago in a local diecast shop. They were selling for about $100 AUD.
Em dezembro de '81
Botou os ingleses na roda
3 a 0 no Liverpool
Ficou marcado na história
E no Rio não tem outro igual
Só o Flamengo é campeão mundial
E agora seu povo
Pede o mundo de novo

Offline FinnN

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Offline Bravo Six

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Re: The Limited Selection of Airmobile for 28mm
« Reply #8 on: December 15, 2019, 10:33:13 PM »
Quote
We had some discussion on this earlier this year:

I see you also came to the same conclusion about model kit flimsiness as I did, traveller.  ;)

Quote
The FoV Hueys would appear to be back on production

Are they? The Force of Valor site says otherwise. Udisco from Montreal is a Canadian distributor of FOV diecasts and even THEY don't have it listed. :(


Online carlos marighela

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Re: The Limited Selection of Airmobile for 28mm
« Reply #9 on: December 16, 2019, 12:24:09 AM »
They had two or three there last time I looked (couple of months ago now) but still showing up as in stock.

http://www.modelmania.com.au/bell-uh-1d-huey-u.s.army.html

Offline traveller

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Re: The Limited Selection of Airmobile for 28mm
« Reply #10 on: December 16, 2019, 08:19:06 AM »
I see you also came to the same conclusion about model kit flimsiness as I did, traveller.  ;)

Are they? The Force of Valor site says otherwise. Udisco from Montreal is a Canadian distributor of FOV diecasts and even THEY don't have it listed. :(

I am hunting for a Corgi Huey :) but the Loach works well in plastic(small as it is)

Offline Bravo Six

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Re: The Limited Selection of Airmobile for 28mm
« Reply #11 on: December 16, 2019, 08:05:04 PM »
Thanks Carlos. I did manage to find one in Australia for a semi decent price and the conversion to Canadian was almost at par.

Is the Corgi one, a UH-1B gunship? I dont ever remember them doing a slick. Also, is FOV the maker of the Loach you speak of, traveller?

Offline traveller

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Re: The Limited Selection of Airmobile for 28mm
« Reply #12 on: December 16, 2019, 09:26:02 PM »
Thanks Carlos. I did manage to find one in Australia for a semi decent price and the conversion to Canadian was almost at par.

Is the Corgi one, a UH-1B gunship? I dont ever remember them doing a slick. Also, is FOV the maker of the Loach you speak of, traveller?

I think it is a UH-1C gunship. The Loach I use is a (maybe not 100% accurate)Plastic Academy kit with a minigun from Spectre:

« Last Edit: December 17, 2019, 06:49:25 AM by traveller »

Online carlos marighela

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Re: The Limited Selection of Airmobile for 28mm
« Reply #13 on: December 17, 2019, 12:09:05 AM »
If you search the interwebbies, there's an interesting, albeit completely over the top, monomaniacal, uber-detailing article by some chap on converting the Academy Hughes 500 to an OH-6. For wargamers the two most obvious changes (and probably the only fixes worth considering) are modifying the tail boom to the correct configuration and reducing the number of blades from five to four. A bit of work involved in both and yes there are some other minor details to fix but doable and the kits are super cheap. You can pick them up here for around $15 AUD. It's on my to-do list as I have a couple of these.

Your 'out of the box' alternative is to look for the ancient 1/48 Tamiya OH-6. Rare as hen's teeth, such that I've never seen one so I doubt you'll get one cheap.

Offline ErikB

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Re: The Limited Selection of Airmobile for 28mm
« Reply #14 on: December 17, 2019, 02:56:19 AM »
Just use a 1/48 model.  You'll have fun building it, too.