lmagna

I didn't know that the concept was used outside of Vietnam. Shows what a fossil I am.

WOW, I had no idea that this was not the same model I built back in 19?? You are right, it would be a shame to put iron crosses on it. In fact I made a mistake, send it back! Really, it is in the right place!

Yeah that's about right. Those are N models and I suspect some of it is for Hollywood like the lights and stuff. I am not certain as I have never even seen a N model outside of pictures. If you tried hanging a radio for music in a Huey it had better have good speakers! There was a reason for those headsets and mics! But believe it or not we could and sometimes did listen Armed Forces Radio. They played pretty good music most of the time. But only crew with headsets could hear.

It seems like the ace of spades was much more common than I realized. I have seen it a number of times in my browsing sessions as well. I don't know if it is the same chopper or not but it always seems to be a gunship. You do know what the Ace Of Spades meant back then don't you?

Thanks for the pictures OC. I agree, they are great pictures. I have not been that close to a Huey in 50 years, I'm jealous. It looks like some students are getting the grand tour, even getting to go on board leaving their packs on the ground. If the day was not too hot we could lift 13 combat troops plus crew. Didn't carry that many very often and never unless necessary.

My mistake. My memory said JACK my fingers apparently said KING! I have looked for some time off and on and have not seen the Blackjack nose art anywhere on line yet. i have seen a few Ace of spades noses but not the combo.

Sorry I didn't see your post Denis. This whole thing switched pages on me and I lost track of what was going on! Thank you for your offer to work this out for me but I am still hesitant to get you involved and possibly wasting your time on what by your explanation seems to be an iffy method. I was wondering if decoupage or Mod Podge could be another method of producing the nose art? Has anyone tried this method in plastic modeling? Just throwing stuff out there for now.

I think I would tend toward the white Craig. Painting a white background would present just as many problems as trimming the decal as close to the edge as possible.

Thanks Alan I didn't think of trying my local hobby shop. They seldom have much more than basic supplies these days, (Unless you are into RC cars) that I seldom check in anymore.

Thanks Jack I know that Denis has the stuff and has done decals before but he is so buried in builds himself that I would hate to bother him. As for doing it myself, not only would there be a learning curve but I have neither a scanner or a color inkjet printer, (Or any color printer for that matter) so in addition to learning there would be a need to buy the software and equipment as well. Still could happen though if I can't come up with an alternative. After all it is only money, right?

I have considered doing that Alan but here again is something that I have never done before either! This build seems to be full of stuff like that already! To be honest, other than some hand lettering and a small amount of artwork there is not much needed to be "Good enough" I was thinking that the nose artwork could be done with a camera. All it consists of is a Ace Of Spades over The Jack Of Diamonds. Take a picture of a real pair of cards and print them out at the right size and apply them on the nose. There are only a couple of other things that would make it "My chopper". I will know better when I see how all of the other skills work out. (Never airbrushed ANYTHING, never used PE, have not built a military or aircraft anything in probably over 40 years, have only used Acrylics a couple of times and that was with either rattle cans or brush) The list is even more extensive but you should get the idea. I would like to hope but I suspect this build will not hold a candle to the plastic builds of several members of this forum, possibly all of them.

Boy! Those railings add a lot of pazzaz to the looks in short order, I want some 1:1 versions for the front porch of my house!

I have a while before I even attempt to do anything with decals. Who knows, the decal fairy my come up with something by then.

Sorry Ken Didn't mean to cause any stress. That is the only picture I have of any kind of action at all. My job was not to take pictures for Stars and Stripes and I very seldom even had a camera with me except on milk run days where there should have been nothing to do. All of the other pictures I can show are just landscape kinds of things, more like drone pictures people would take today only in much poorer condition. I have always wondered what it was like to see the Akron or Macon or even the Los Angeles in person. Must have been quite the experience.

This is one build you cannot hijack Ken. I have tried to make it clear that this is not just a build log but a personal and hopefully communal journey into the past, and that any and all comments and stories are not only allowed by me but encouraged! If people get upset at having to weed through the stories to get to the build part then let them move on. If there is some kind of rule against running a build this way then let the powers that be either take it down or move it to where it is supposed to be. I was hoping to attract others who are not vets to tell their stories as well. What were all of the other people doing when we were away? What was a major influence in their lives when they didn't have the sudden shock of having to mold themselves into something totally alien from what they had been for the prior 18 or more years and having to do it almost overnight in some cases? But so far it has only been a few of us bringing the past forward. Besides, how can you hijack a build that has not really gotten off the ground yet?

I do have proof of that in one of my surviving photos Mark. Even though it was not the result of the pilot playing tricks on us I do have a picture of how important it was to wear your gunners harness! I was taking an early morning picture of the rice paddies below as the morning light on that day made them look more like they were snow covered than water filled when all of the sudden my looking down was really looking from the bottom side of the chopper! I swiveled forward with my camera still up to my face and took this picture. What you are looking at is the head of the command pilot, the right windshield and door window. It is noticeable that the ground is pretty much parallel to the right side of the chopper........... My position in an open door! Unlike in Mark's situation this was not the result of a playful pilot but the sudden appearance of tracers coming from out of nowhere on the ground. We were not even near the LZ we were heading for! One of the AC-1 Cobras that was also flying with us did not take as drastic a turn and instead opened up on the source. But for those who think a clunky old Uh-1 can't maneuver when it needs to here is the proof. To be truthful though, this was not done often buy Hueys. Watching Cobras and Loaches turn and spin was another matter all together! Sorry for the quality of the picture but I never was much good with a camera and my remaining pictures have seen better days.

Thanks for the link Ken I think that the return to the US for many of us was the final insult Ken and one that most of us will probably never completely get over. We are stronger people and did a better job than the stories told in the papers and movies. I won't get into it again from my view as I want my look back of 50 years to be as good a look as possible and not just the dark side. But again I think it is part of us all and will always be part of the whole and it is good that it is out here early and open for everyone reading this. Yes 1001 is the company in question Mark. It appears that Denis also had poor service from them. Like you say, it must be the long lunches, short work weeks and large glasses of wine. It's funny that your buddy from Nam made you his first stop on his way home. My best buddy did the same to me! I was living in central California not all that far from the Oakland release center and he lived in LA. He stayed a week and we really lit up the town! One of the best times of my life. Yes, my college years under the GI Bill were another experience. It was hard to sit back and listen to some of the garbage from the instructors having seen some of the world for ourselves and having learned to think for ourselves. In some classes it didn't matter all that much but my Poly Sci instructor and I went head to head more than once. I think she suspected where I had come from or where I had been. My Political Geography instructor was just the opposite. He enjoyed debate and discussion so I suppose it worked out most of the time. By that time I had grown my hair and learned how to avoid the military stuff so that was never much of an issue for me. My problems came later in my last couple of years after I had entered law enforcement. I was still going to college and because of my other schedule it became known what I did for a living, so in some ways I became odd man out yet again.

Thanks OC I have already looked at that set of decals and there would be little of use in them for me. Most of them are "B" models and one is USMC. Most of the usable decals in that set that are u\sable to me are already in the set that came with my model. The Werner's Wings set matches no Huey I have ever seen. Besides they are in 1/48th, my build will be in 1/35th. I have already come to the conclusion that at least some of my build will have to be generic rather than unique to a particular aircraft. Thanks for trying.

I hope you are able to make that color work Denis. It looks quite good, at least on my computer. I think I bought it years ago, (Many years ago) to paint the model I made of an M-113 and if I remember correctly it looked just as flat then as it does now even though I brush painted it back then. i .

Some were and some weren't. I think my personal experience was somewhat mixed. Once my hair grew out and I learned to keep my mouth shut about where I had been for the last couple of years the strange looks and people moving to the other side of the room pretty much stopped. It was that way for the next 20 or more years. I was a little more lucky in that I chose a profession where being a combat vet was not all that different from what we were doing every day anyway, and at least half of my workmates were vets as well. It was only in certain circles of society where being a combat vet was akin to having a social disease. Stay out of those circles, or don't let them know and it was OK. Kind of like a "Don't talk don't tell" policy. I suppose that for me, it was more like we were never allowed to feel proud of the job we did. It was not a war where the lifestyle of anyone here in the US was threatened, or for that matter anyone anywhere. If I had to choose today between Vietnam and North Korea to live I would pick Vietnam in a heartbeat! Who were we saving and from what? Almost to the man, we were there because that was where our Government said we had to be. Others may feel differently but that was my take on it. AH..... Too much gloom and doom. I hope to start painting in the next day or two. It will be my first attempt at painting a model like this with an airbrush. All I have is a cheap probably Chinese make do airbrush, but then my skills are also probably the same, so hopefully it will be a good match. I hope to do a nice job but you guys set a pretty high standard for someone who has not built a model like this in probably over 40 years.

I could only wish that the order I'm waiting for included decals Denis. That is the main area where I have hit a complete dead end. I will be stuck with the kit decals or whatever I can hand paint! I have not been able to find anything that relates to the 4th Inf Division! I guess we were not all that famous. I was for a very short time TDY with the 2nd Inf Division and I have found a peal and stick decal that would work for nose art for that division but I would prefer my main combat unit if possible.

I thought that almost all of the VN era fixed wing pilots had their pick of jobs flying commercial aircraft back in the world? I almost did the same thing believe it or not. The culture shock between one life and the other when I got out was a little less than 24 hours. One morning I was arming choppers and everything was green, brown, red, OD, and half the time smelled like mildew and feces, and the next morning I was feeling like a bug under a microscope walking down crowded streets with cement buildings and sidewalks where there were people of two sexes, all wearing all of these colors! VERY much of an emotional shock. Even after I got off of the bus and went home, the first few weeks were extremely odd. I contemplated going down to my local recruiting office more than once in the first month and reenlisting. There can be parts of being in the military that can be very comfortable and secure emotionally.

Great build! wouldn't it have been stronger if you had used the center tube/spine as a mounting for the anchor/electrical feed using a Y or T mounting?

NEVER trust an F-4 pilot! We once had a pilot buzz us with full afterburner at what appeared to be about five feet clearance! We were out on a sunny afternoon just whop whopping along minding our own business at a couple of thousand feet. We were on one of those long going somewhere flights for some reason almost like enjoying a day off, when this Phantom shot by from behind at supersonic speed. The rear of a Huey is mostly a blind area as the pilots have no rear view mirror and unless the gunners lean out and look back is not observable. All I saw before being hit with the shock wave was two cones of flame departing rapidly into the distance! That guy was gone almost before he was there! While I am almost certain he was further away than he seemed, (Almost) it was either the shock wave or the shock of our pilot that made our chopper go all over the sky for a few seconds, I don't know which, the pilot blamed the shock wave. WE were NOT happy campers and for some time not all that friendly toward Double Ugly pilots either. After a few retelling and even more alcohol at each telling we eventually got over it and pretty much saw it for what it was meant to be. We even did similar things a couple of times, (At MUCH lower speeds) but that is a story for another night with a few more drinks.

Thar is a lot of gold on that there island!.................. IMPRESSIVE!