Well i have been hitting up the internet auction site and the first of my purchases have arrived and now I’m waiting on the ABS glue as well.
So far the Huey UH-1D/H has arrived and it looks sweet, so here are some pictures of the instructions, decals (there are many options) and the box.
now as far i know only the UH-C was a gunship variant and i am at work so i can’t check my reference material but the gunship option looks sweet, even if it’s not historically accurate.
UH-1C, E and M could be gunships, I don’t think the D/H was but could be wrong on that.
The decal sheet is probably used on the B/C and this kit. As the Marines didn’t have D/Hs only a few B/C til there was enough Es. The Navy few the B/Cs. Not sure about the other nations on the sheet.
Some RAAF Huey “Bushranger” gunships in Vietnam
I served in 1 Cav and 25 ID in 1970, never saw a UH-1 D or H rigged as a gunship, (AH-1’s were the “guns”). Underline the “never saw” in my statement, not the same as “never happened”.
I’ve been mulling those kits for awhile now but haven’t pulled the trigger. How are the figures?
The US Army did not normally use long-bodied UH-1D/H models as gunships. Most UH-1D/H models were troop-carrying “slicks” and armed w/M23 doorguns (M60Ds on a flex mount on each side).
There were a few home-grown exceptions. The most notable being “lightships” which mounted searchlights and either M134 miniguns or M2 .50 cals.
Short-body UH-1B/C/M (M - Navalized version) models were first used as gunships.
UH-1B
UH-1C
And later AH-1G Cobras.
As shown above, the Aussies did use UH-1D/H model Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) “Bushranger” gunships.
Interestng box art with sliding cabin doors removed.
the figures are good but the detail is a little soft, certainly not bravo-6 standard and there are some reviews on youtube, flory models has a good one so to does black rifle model worxs.
they even have the Playboy bunnies logo from Apocalypse Now, the only thing missing on the decsl sheet is the “Death From Above” for the cossed sabres nose art decal.
personally I’m surprised that the “C” model gunships had the doors still attached, especially when you realise how over weight and underpowered they were, the removal of two doors of 100kg would surely had some small benefit.
so sayth this armchair commando lol.
Thanks. If you get a chance, do you mind posting a closeup of the figures?
I don’t expect Bravo 6 detail for injection molded figures at this scale, but I’ve been considering these as a replacement for my 1:72 kits. The old Esci Vietnam figures were never particularly good and it’d be nice to have something else that is compact but offers more detail.
Hey, Travis.
I have all of the Rubicon Vietnam kits that have been released. They are pretty decent for their scale. The figures are pretty decent and can be modified into several poses. I bought several M113s and will buy the M48A3 when it gets to the US for a diorama of 2d BN 47th IN (Mech) 9th ID being the first tracked vehicles entering Cambodia during the incursion.
I can send you photos tomorrow.
Thanks!
i thought saw they were doing an M48, do you know the release date?
I am thinking that the M48A3 and the Australian Infantry kits have been released but they are in the process of getting them shipped to the US and UK.
is the M48 a regular tank or is it the flamethrower version, i can’t find any info about on the Rubicon UK site.
The regular version. However there may be a sprue for the flamethrower version in the kit. It was quite a while ago that I saw the test sprues and I just don’t remember.
@ReconTL6 where do you get the flight stand for the Huey, as far as i can se you don’t get all of it to model the kit in flying mode, is it listed on their site and i just missed it?
According to one account I read it still got pretty cold inside even though helos don’t fly nearly as high as fixed wings. So much so that the crew in the back wore field jackets. I used to jump from Hueys - never flew in them for any length of time, but I can tell you the hell hole in the Blackhawk gets pretty farkin’ cold in January with open doors.
I’m not able to determine if it was just the 116th AHC, or all units, but around 1968 a directive was issued that all doors (this was D models) be removed. The retaining pin on a door failed . The door came loose, hit the main rotor, and caused the bird to crash. A similar incident occurred in 2015 - the pilot heard a loud noise, but did not notice any change in the flight characteristics. Still, he prudently landed, only to discover his door was missng. D model again. I don’t know if the smaller doors on the C models ever caused similar issues.
thanks for the clarification, i often wondered why some hueys had doors and others didn’t. As for the hell hole, if i had been alive at the time of the vietnam war, the door gunner position was the job i always wanted to do.
i still have on my bucket list: ride in a huey with my legs dangling out the door like you see in so many pictures and films. alas I’m in my 50’s and all the hueys have been retired so it’s just going to have to stay as pipe dream…i can’t complain to much i have done a lot on my list so far and who knows maybe one day, you just never know.
We rode with our legs out on the jumps. Four jumpers per side. Jumpers alternate left and right when jumping, and we had so much weight in our rucks the the Huey tilted from side to side. The first time I ever jumped one I thought I was going to fall off.
