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One of Three Completed by the Duke


Mark Deliduka

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This is the ancient Hasegawa kit that I built as a kid so this is a bit of a Nostalgia build for me. I didn't try to correct anything, but I did use this to practice my basics and painting skillsets while enjoying the trip down Memory Lane. It isn't meant to be an award winning model; or even one I take to contests. I couldn't even get the one sliding door to work on the one side that I had one. Still, this was a fun and diverting little model to work on; after all I only paid five bucks at a local swap meet!

Here she is all completed as much as I possible. A couple pieces went missing, namely one sliding door and one of the twin 'machine guns' that are supposed to mount on the ends of the weapons pylons:

US_Army_UH_1D_Huey_Gunship_I.jpg

US_Army_UH_1D_Huey_Gunship_II.jpg

Maybe if I can find four M-60-type machine guns to add to a pylon mount, I can complete this model. Until then, I'm calling this one done.

Thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.

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Duke - Very nice Huey! You could remove both doors for a more accurate "Vietnam" look, most units removed these doors very quickly. This looks like a 1st Cav troop carrying combo Gunship [ one of the few units in Vietnam to mount Rocket Pods on a "slick"]. With weight and density altitude such a big issue they could only carry 5 or 6 American troops on these. I would be very curious to know if they ever fired the rockets/guns while the grunts were aboard? That would be one wild ride for the GIB's! Photo by Dan King of 240th "Greyhound" Slick getting ready for a very large operation that included inserting Arty along with ground troops [ this would be kind of unusual operation for us], photo taken around June of 1969 somewhere near the Plain of Reeds and Parrots Beak . Oops - Sh"thook is actually slinging a "Water Buffalo" trailer - still part of same operation. I need to look at my own photo's more carefully!

post-136-0-47347000-1451410601_thumb.jpg

Edited by Greyhound
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Than ks Dannie! Yeah, I'm thinking that other door is coming off. I have heard from friends who served in the 'Nam that they occasionally did fire the rockets while the troops were on board. This mostly happened when follow-on choppers needed to suppress a 'hot' landing zone that wasn't expected to be 'hot'; especially when they had no escorting gunships. Yes, it did freak out the troops but with the back of the launchers behind the edge of the doors, there was little reason to believe the exhaust would enter the cabin. They also mounted twin M-60's on the ends that were also used for enemy suppression too.

 

Thanks for that great pic! I love seeing things like this.

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