Impressive selection of choppers!
I’ve just sliced my finger cutting off the doors on a Hobby Boss UH-1. It’s getting kit-bashed with bits of the truly execrable Revell/Monogram UH-1 not quite a B, not quite a cC model. The end result will hopefully be a passable UH-1E gunship, I already have a UH-1E slick, slightly converted, Hobby Boss kit complete.
The Revell kit has appalling fit, tons of flash (the moulds are forty odd years old) and some very iffy accuracy. That said it’s an excellent source of spares and bits. I intend to get another HB Huey and by cutting off the tail, bolting on the Revell one and making a few cosmetic changes, build an RAAF UH-1B. Fortunately I knew about all the issues with the Revell kit before purchasing it as a spares donor.
The Marines used CH-34s as the basic transport chopper and a handful of CH-37s for heavy lift early on. From around 1966 they started to supplement these with UH-1E Hueys for recce, liasion and as gunships. Actually there use as gunships came to interfere with their primary, intended, use as recce and light utility, sparking complaints from the brass.
CH-46s replaced the UH-34s as lift ships and were supplemented by CH-53s as heavy lift (replacing the CH-37). From 1969 on the Marines also employed some ex-Army AH-1G gunships before getting their own dedicated twin engine AH-1J right at the tail end of the war.
The Marines didn’t use model D or H Hueys, only the E model, which is essentially an aluminium version of the short bodied C model (Bell 205). After the war they did get the twin engined N model but they didn’t see service in the war proper. They might have been there for Frequent Wind the evacuation of Saigon in 1975.
WIP Gunship and Hobby Boss slick with hoist.
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April 23, 2024, 11:22:08 AM
