I am thinking about starting the Academy 1/35 UH-1Y soon. It looks to be an excellent kit. It comes with two options for door guns; GAU-17A 7.62mm miniguns, or GAU-16 .50 cals. Both look good and are very detailed.
My question: Which is more common or more appropriate? I have seen a few different setups: both sides GAU-17As, both sides GAU-16s, and a mix of one on each side. Any ideas? I know it is mostly mission dependent, just inquiring if one is more common.
GAU-17A
GAU-16
I have also seen GAU-21 (M240D) 7.62mm LMGs fitted.
EDIT: Ran across these interesting setups too. Snipers in the doors.
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It is a nice kit but beware of one thing - the decals are iffy at best. I admit it is a tricky thing to get low contrast markings right with all the variables of decal ink and different model manufacturers’ paint shades. But the darndest thing happened with my kit decals. Some were okay, and though very low contrast were not great but acceptable; see the port side tail boom here. Again, very possible my paint grays were a bit off. BUT, on the very same kit, on the very same paint, with the very same decals…they virtually disappeared on the starboard side! How weird is that? I have read similar comments about the kit decals being an off-shade of gray, but this was particularly vexing with two different results from the same sheet. And as far as I know, no decal manufacturer makes alternative 1/35 Yankee decals (Dave Roof does make 'em for the Zulu). Just a heads up, good luck with the kit.
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That is weird. Thanks for the warning.
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@KevinCarroll - what colour and brand did you use for the tail boom? It might just be the image, but it looks darker than the light ghost grey FS 36375 I was expecting?
AK Real Colors for both - ‘Medium Blue Gray’ FS35237 (top) and ‘Light Ghost Gray’ FS36375 (bottom). I agree, the Light Ghost Gray out of the bottle (or that stoopit plastic squeeze thing now) is a bit dark in scale and the gloss coat I used over it further darkened it.
I recently built the 1/48 Kittyhawk UH-1Y and used the same paints but lightened both with white. Although the Light Ghost Gray looks better, I shoulda left the upper gray alone! Live and learn. Decals by Flying Leathernecks.
HeavyArty, there are two schemes on the 1/35 Academy kit decal sheet that use predominantly black lettering and I bet you’ll be fine with them. From a performance standpoint, the kit decals worked great. And yeah…I think I put the tailplanes on upside down. 
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