1/35 UH-1H Huey By lmagna

[lmagna]

Thanks Denis I owe you one. I don't really have the equipment to do it on my own at this point, and would either have to buy it or as I was thinking, I would take the artwork to a printing place and get it done. 

[Canute]

Lou, ya think? I think aviators get short shrift at times. But, I'm biased that way too.

[lmagna]

The story of Freeman is even more amazing when you hear it Ken.

He served in the Navy in WWII and after the war he returned home and finished high school and then enlisted in the Army and was a 1st Sergeant in Korea at the battle of Pork Chop Hill where he was one of 14 survivors out of 257 combatants. He was awarded a battlefield commission and as a 2nd Lieutenant led his troops back into the battle.

 

In 1955 the height requirements were changed allowing him to enroll in flight school. He first flew fixed wing and later switched to rotary wing 

 

By the time We entered into the Vietnam war he was on the verge of retiring but instead went to Vietnam where he became involved in the battle of La Drang. After the battle he was promoted to Major and in 1966 sent back to the US. He retired in 1966.

 

He then went to work flying helicopters for the Department Of Interior dealing with forest fires and other duties. He did this for the next 20 years, retiring in 1991 with 22000 flight hours, 17000 of then in helicopters.

 

He at last was awarded the Medal Of Honor in 2002 fore his actions at La Drang in 1965 and died in 2008. 

[Old Collingwood]

Found these on the net  lou  -

 

OC.

[lmagna]

WOW OC, you found more in 24 hours than I was able to find in a month! The bottom picture looks like a restored Huey at some movie set in southern California. Did the original site where you found the picture have any further information?

[Old Collingwood]

9 minutes ago, lmagna said:

WOW Chris you found more in 24 hours than I was able to find in a month! The bottom picture looks like a restored Huey at some movie set in southern California. Did the original site where you found the picture have any further information?

I just put  Blackjacks UH1  in a google search  then clicked to view any pictures  and saw these two - there were others.

 

OC.

[mtaylor]

On 1/16/2020 at 6:56 PM, CDW said:

Back then? It still does, right? It's the death card. Your time is up.

 

The Viet Cong were very superstitious and the Ace of Spades was the ultimate evil/death symbol to them.   For several years, the big playing card company here in the States (I forget the name.... sigh) would send cartons of playing card decks with only Aces of Spades.   The grunts would place an Ace of Spades card on each dead VC.  It apparently really shook them up.

[GrandpaPhil]

My respect to Captain Freeman.

[Jack12477]

Since you all are reminiscing about Nam and Medal of Honor recipients, can anyone name the man who was the 1st to receive the Medal of Honor in Vietnam ?  Hint: He was born in the town in which I now live, and I have personally met him on at least 3 occasions. 

 

I was an Army Draftee, 1965-1967, after Boot Camp in NJ, by some stroke of good fortune I was assigned to an Army Ordnance Research and Development Arsenal in northern NJ.  It was basically an 8 to 5 job in uniform doing R&D on various weapons systems, except we were tasked with doing Notification of Next of Kin for the 5 counties in northern NJ. All Officers, Warrants and Enlisted with rank of E-5 and above were assigned to the duty roster and as an E-5  I pulled my share of Notifications. We also provided Pall Bearers  and Honor Guard for all Army funerals in the 5 counties. 

[lmagna]

The man's name was Roger Donlon. While I had to look up his name, I do remember seeing in the paper that a Green Beret had won the Medal Of Honor, the first since Korea.

 

On the other hand I can think of very few duties I would like to spend my time in the service at less than notifying families of their lost loved one! I can think of few things that would make me more depressed. I was shocked at my own reaction when about fifteen years ago I was able to visit the Vietnam wall in Washington DC. I was only able to look up a few names of people I knew and had to leave. I was depressed for days and it brought many feelings to the surface that I had thought long gone, all sad or bad. It even renewed my EXTREME distaste for Jane Fonda and Canada dodgers, something my wife has never really understood.

 

[Jack12477]

Yep, you got it right Lou!  If you read his citation, it is a miracle he lived to actually receive the Medal.  He retired as a Colonel. The Medal is impressive to see first hand.

 

Yea, the notification was not "fun", had some scary ones also.  Not all were KIA or MIA notifications, a few were auto accidents state-side. 

[Canute]

Usually the unit CO and a chaplain went out from active duty bases.  Even in my Guard unit, if a guy lived close, we did it. Very tough duty.

[Jack12477]

For us, the person doing the notification had to be of equal or higher rank to the deceased member. But the Survivors Assistance Officer who helped with burial arrangements, benefits, etc was either a Warrant or Commissioned Officer. 

[John Allen]

Lou,

 

Well the old man finally quit making excuses and got off his buns! Thru our many conversations I thought this was a figment of your Imagna nation. Looking forward to your build I'm sure it will also have a cathartic psyche cleansing of bad memories. As you know I have been under a ton of rocks lately, apologize for not taking a seat from the start. Well lets get to it. Thank you for your service it was a bad time.

Your partner in crime.

[lmagna]

Glad you were able to get a few minutes to climb up for air John. Hope things are at least maintaining, or better yet getting a little better.

 

Years ago I discovered that I was able to remember the mostly good times, odd times, crazy times, and just plain unexplainable times of my service years better than dwelling on the bad memory parts. I enjoyed what I was doing for the most part, I had a number of people whom I respected and liked and will always have a link with even though the military is not a place where life long relationships are formed. Bonds yes, relationships not so much. The closest person I knew overseas lived almost a thousand miles away from where I lived in the world. Almost all of the others were even further, not once did I meet someone from my home town  or even county. Activated Reserve units may have been different I don't know. We did not loose all that many people in my unit and not all of those were people I personally hung out with and knew well so I was spared most of that emotional turmoil.

 

Yes there were and I suppose are some bad memories as well, but I have never felt I was John Rambo walking around like a ticking time bomb. I may be strange, or unique to me, I don't know, but I have always tried to think of my experience in it's completeness and that I was OK with living with both the good and the bad and was not damaged goods like everyone else was saying just because I had spent a relatively short time in a rough place. There may be a few scars here and there and I would be the last to say that I was the same person when I came back that I was when I left, but I still say that is not necessarily a bad thing. My ex-wife may have a different opinion, my marriage did not survive all that many years after my return.

 

Sorry this is a bit of a hodge podge of words, but to be honest it is hard to explain to others. I suppose everyone has their own road to the present and we are all a little different inside.

[Canute]

Lou, my brother, I agree with you. The good (relative) stuff is easy to remember; the bad we buried, deep. Hence, we don't like to dredge it up. You're right about long term relations from a 1 year tour, not many remain. However, being a career officer, I did forge some long lasting relationships. Have a buddy from Germany (73-76) living across town right now.

 

We who went were altered by the experiences for good or bad. I feel we mostly grew up. My gripe was, after being sent off to save the world from whatever, nobody ever said thanks for stressing us out in doing the work. Ever since LBJ and his successors.

[Old Collingwood]

5 hours ago, lmagna said:

Glad you were able to get a few minutes to climb up for air John. Hope things are at least maintaining, or better yet getting a little better.

 

Years ago I discovered that I was able to remember the mostly good times, odd times, crazy times, and just plain unexplainable times of my service years better than dwelling on the bad memory parts. I enjoyed what I was doing for the most part, I had a number of people whom I respected and liked and will always have a link with even though the military is not a place where life long relationships are formed. Bonds yes, relationships not so much. The closest person I knew overseas lived almost a thousand miles away from where I lived in the world. Almost all of the others were even further, not once did I meet someone from my home town  or even county. Activated Reserve units may have been different I don't know. We did not loose all that many people in my unit and not all of those were people I personally hung out with and knew well so I was spared most of that emotional turmoil.

 

Yes there were and I suppose are some bad memories as well, but I have never felt I was John Rambo walking around like a ticking time bomb. I may be strange, or unique to me, I don't know, but I have always tried to think of my experience in it's completeness and that I was OK with living with both the good and the bad and was not damaged goods like everyone else was saying just because I had spent a relatively short time in a rough place. There may be a few scars here and there and I would be the last to say that I was the same person when I came back that I was when I left, but I still say that is not necessarily a bad thing. My ex-wife may have a different opinion, my marriage did not survive all that many years after my return.

 

Sorry this is a bit of a hodge podge of words, but to be honest it is hard to explain to others. I suppose everyone has their own road to the present and we are all a little different inside.

I understand Lou  gong from many convo's I used to have with my farther about his service life   - one thing I remember him telling me - he and a canadian guy  who was stationed together  was walking along a country road going into town to the bars, when a US truck went past and stopped  my dad and the canadian guy  (who was apparently  6ft5)  jumped in the back with about 10  american GI's  before long a fight broke out  the canadian guy jumped out the back  and my dad was left to fend for himself - cut along story  and all that  he acounted for himself  and ended up earning thier respect  and went drinking with them.

When he got back to the field the next day  and saw the canadian guy  my dad knocked him to the ground.

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

5 minutes ago, Canute said:

Lou, my brother, I agree with you. The good (relative) stuff is easy to remember; the bad we buried, deep. Hence, we don't like to dredge it up. You're right about long term relations from a 1 year tour, not many remain. However, being a career officer, I did forge some long lasting relationships. Have a buddy from Germany (73-76) living across town right now.

 

We who went were altered by the experiences for good or bad. I feel we mostly grew up. My gripe was, after being sent off to save the world from whatever, nobody ever said thanks for stressing us out in doing the work. Ever since LBJ and his successors.

Well   I Thank You ken, Lou, Mark  and every  other brave person who gave thier best.💜

 

OC.

[lmagna]

2 hours ago, Canute said:

My gripe was, after being sent off to save the world from whatever, nobody ever said thanks for stressing us out in doing the work. Ever since LBJ and his successors.

I suppose that is my most open wound as well Ken even though I don't think I even desired thanks so much as to not be branded as a war monger or baby killer, or broken person just because I went where my Government sent me and tried to do a credible job. I think much of the time I just wanted to come back home in as few pieces as possible. Preferably one! I don't think of myself as overly patriotic, or brave or anything else. I just tried to do what was expected and was too stupid to say no.

 

I wish one of by buddies from fifty years ago lived across town right now. I can't help but think we could sit across from one another over a drink and not say a word and understand everything. No explanations are needed for a shared life. (Or at least for a short period of shared life). In fact we would probably spend more time catching up than reminiscing.

[mtaylor]

Lou, Ken,

I feel the same way about things.  I'm hoping the ugly stays buried.  I was told early on before I went in... "you don't have friends in the military, you have acquaintances".    The last time I saw anyone I knew was my armorer buddy in 'Nam who stopped by on his way home.  Didn't see him or hear from him again.  Life got in the way.   The other thing I found true..." You can never go home again.  It's not the same like it's never was there.".    Somethings changes.   Mostly good if you let it be. 

 

Exactly, Lou.  We're none of those "labels" some tried to brand us with.  The closest I've come to having a "Nam" buddy is my shrink of all people.  He served in "Nam" and we can be talking and suddenly is that like reading minds.

[lmagna]

How come everyone else is able to say it better than I can. Explaining it to others always seems to be just a jumble of words to me and never seems to convey what it is like inside.

 

I finally received the last of my aftermarket parts from 1001 in France after about six or somethings weeks   I got the chance to look them over and to be honest I am wondering if may have wasted my money. What I bought was the CMK Master Kits resin main cargo compartment and cockpit areas. In both cases there are two concerns First and foremost is a question of if the aftermarket is really an improvement over the stuff supplied in the kit.  The Dragon kit even though it is a rebox of an older kit by another manufacturer is still a good and relatively detailed and as far as I can remember, accurate model, and does not really need much if any aftermarket to build a nice accurate model, at least when it comes to the plastic parts of the model. The CMK resin stuff is very well cast but like almost all resin castings has a lot of flash that needs to either be cut off with a saw or cleaned up. One delicate part in the cargo set was broken and actually missing the broken part so I will have to find a replacement for that part at the very least. But then I may just scratch build those parts as I am not completely happy with the kit parts or the aftermarket parts. 

 

Some of the same things hold for the cabin floor and roof there are obvious preferences between the kit and aftermarket roof, floor, and engine bulkhead. I have contemplated a mix match between kit and resin but there are some differences in size and I am not certain it can be done. I will know more when I get all of the flash removed from the resin parts. 

 

The pilot seats are pretty nice but even with my failing memory I do not remember ever seeing the armor part of the seat that looks like these do. The CMK armor of the seat itself is much more sculpted than I remember. What my memory shows my mind is a slab sided flat backed welded bunch of metal that was fully functional and not graceful at all. The kit supplies this type of seat. 

 

The kit dash is as far as I can see at this point, hands down the jewel if the model and will be hard to match under any conditions let alone excel. The CMK version just gives you two dash choices. A paper printed dash and a film dash. If I was doing a night time with lights build then the film version would be great as it would allow back lit gauges. Again there could be a possibility of mix and match that  I will look into later.

 

So all and all that is where the hole thing stands at this point. I have virtually everything I need to start building so hopefully things will become more interesting soon with pictures and stuff. 

[Canute]

Lou, I think we read your log loud and clear. Some of us just proof read and edit stuff better than others.

 

I have a Ranger buddy of our vintage and his writing sometimes comes out scrambled. So what, I get the gist of what he's saying. I also know high priced engineers with the same issues. They're better when we talk face to face.

 

Don't know what to say about the after market resin. Some of our guys tout Scalemates. This is their page for 1/35 UH-1: https://www.scalemates.com/search.php?fkSECTION[]=All&q=UH-1&fkSCALE[]="1:35" 

 

They do show a Viet Nam era door gunner for it, Lou.

[lmagna]

Thanks Ken

I know that people like you Jack, Mark and possibly others understand my ramblings as like I said somewhere we could probably sit across from one another and have complete understanding without saying a word. It is the people who were doing something else fifty years ago who I think don't really understand my ramblings. Or possibly it is just me who doesn't understand.

 

Thanks for the link there is stuff there that can still be of use in my build. I think I am about done stocking up on aftermarket and it is time to weed through the mess and pick the best of what I have. I do like the Kitty Hawk Huey in 1/35th that they are supposed to be coming out with. The artwork looks like it will be a great model. But hopefully I will be able to do this one properly and not mess it up so bad that I need to buy a do over model.

 

I do have some pretty cool aftermarket crewmen. They have FANTASTIC detail and pretty good poses. The pilots are perfect and works of art in their own right. One of the gunners looks just like me and will go in the right door!  Well I kind of looked like that 50 years ago when I was too young to vote and before I became old and broken! I suppose we all looked kind of the same when you come to think of it but I did have my helmet painted and I think I will be able to duplicate that even in this small scale, At least I will try. It wasn't all that complicated of a design. The crewmen is the part I am looking forward to the most in this build. The Huey is just a machine, a tool if you will. The people bring it to life.

Edited January 20, 2020 by lmagna

[mtaylor]

14 hours ago, lmagna said:

I finally received the last of my aftermarket parts from 1001 in France after about six or somethings weeks   I got the chance to look them over and to be honest I am wondering if may have wasted my money. What I bought was the CMK Master Kits resin main cargo compartment and cockpit areas. In both cases there are two concerns First and foremost is a question of if the aftermarket is really an improvement over the stuff supplied in the kit.  The Dragon kit even though it is a rebox of an older kit by another manufacturer is still a good and relatively detailed and as far as I can remember, accurate model, and does not really need much if any aftermarket to build a nice accurate model, at least when it comes to the plastic parts of the model. The CMK resin stuff is very well cast but like almost all resin castings has a lot of flash that needs to either be cut off with a saw or cleaned up. One delicate part in the cargo set was broken and actually missing the broken part so I will have to find a replacement for that part at the very least. But then I may just scratch build those parts as I am not completely happy with the kit parts or the aftermarket parts. 

 

Some of the same things hold for the cabin floor and roof there are obvious preferences between the kit and aftermarket roof, floor, and engine bulkhead. I have contemplated a mix match between kit and resin but there are some differences in size and I am not certain it can be done. I will know more when I get all of the flash removed from the resin parts. 

 

The pilot seats are pretty nice but even with my failing memory I do not remember ever seeing the armor part of the seat that looks like these do. The CMK armor of the seat itself is much more sculpted than I remember. What my memory shows my mind is a slab sided flat backed welded bunch of metal that was fully functional and not graceful at all. The kit supplies this type of seat. 

 

The kit dash is as far as I can see at this point, hands down the jewel if the model and will be hard to match under any conditions let alone excel. The CMK version just gives you two dash choices. A paper printed dash and a film dash. If I was doing a night time with lights build then the film version would be great as it would allow back lit gauges. Again there could be a possibility of mix and match that  I will look into later.

 

So all and all that is where the hole thing stands at this point. I have virtually everything I need to start building so hopefully things will become more interesting soon with pictures and stuff. 

 

That was my problem with the aftermarket stuff  for the CH-53.  Most of it didn't seem to "add" anything.  And pictures showed it looked worse than the kit bits.   I'm still waiting on the machineguns from them.... <sigh>

[Old Collingwood]

4 hours ago, lmagna said:

Thanks Ken

I know that people like you Jack, Mark and possibly others understand my ramblings as like I said somewhere we could probably sit across from one another and have complete understanding without saying a word. It is the people who were doing something else fifty years ago who I think don't really understand my ramblings. Or possibly it is just me who doesn't understand.

 

Thanks for the link there is stuff there that can still be of use in my build. I think I am about done stocking up on aftermarket and it is time to weed through the mess and pick the best of what I have. I do like the Kitty Hawk Huey in 1/35th that they are supposed to be coming out with. The artwork looks like it will be a great model. But hopefully I will be able to do this one properly and not mess it up so bad that I need to buy a do over model.

 

I do have some pretty cool aftermarket crewmen. They have FANTASTIC detail and pretty good poses. The pilots are perfect and works of art in their own right. One of the gunners looks just like me and will go in the right door!  Well I kind of looked like that 50 years ago when I was too young to vote and before I became old and broken! I suppose we all looked kind of the same when you come to think of it but I did have my helmet painted and I think I will be able to duplicate that even in this small scale, At least I will try. It wasn't all that complicated of a design. The crewmen is the part I am looking forward to the most in this build. The Huey is just a machine, a tool if you will. The people bring it to life.

I was lucky to have my farther who used to tell me the stories of his experiences  from UK bases  to  working in Oz   dismantling  aircraft ready to be freighted back over to the UK  - I miss our chats as they were a real eye opener into how life was  for him.

 

OC.

[lmagna]

Well it looks like at last like first blood has been drawn. I took all of the GMK pieces that will comprise the cockpit interior if I use those parts and cleaned the considerable amount of flash and casting excess from the edges and filed them down.

 

After they were cleaned up they looked considerably better than they had right out of the box. I took all of the parts provided with the kit and did pretty much the same thing even though this only took a few minutes. I then compared the two sets to try and determine what I would be used in building the model.

To be honest there are aspects of each set that I have issues with. First I will show you the parts and then try to explain the + and – of each and what I feel could be wrong.

 

The cabin floor on the CMK has panel lines and tie downs that look right to me, but somehow I cannot get it out of my mind that it should have a textured surface like the kit floor.  The panels on the kit floor do not look right at all. The CMK cockpit is divided into two floors, one for the pilot section and another for the rear cargo section. The kit floor is one piece. The kit floor has tracks for the side doors and the CMK version does not.

 

The center console between the kit and the CMK version is a no contest event. The kit console looks like total junk and fiction!

In the case of the engine bulkhead and covers it is again a no contest in favor of the CMK set. The padding on the CMK rendition looks like padding! If the diamonds were smaller on the kit bulkheads it would look like diamond plating and should be on the floor! The detail on the CMK version while not necessarily absolutely correct is much better than the kit supplied plain padded bulkhead. I do not know if there are additional parts in the kit that are meant to be attached to the kit bulkhead, but something should be done to it if it was used.

 

The overhead is another clear CMK preference. Again the padding actually looks like padding and there are actual details incorporated, that again while not necessarily exactly accurate, are appealing. Again, the overhead panel is a VAST improvement over the kit panel. Both panels have interpreted the million reset buttons as grooved lines but hopefully I can work on that when I build it. Strangely The CMK panel includes one of the hand aimed spot lights but not the other on the other side of the panel. I thought that kind of odd.

So that was as far as I took it today. At first I thought that there was very little improvement over the kit parts to warrant the cost of the CMK parts but I think I have changed my mind. Assuming the CMK parts are a good fit into the body shell, there is no possibility that I would consider the kit parts as better. If the for some reason there is an extremely poor fit I will still be taking what I can from the CMK parts and installing them.

 

I still have a lot of PE additions that will also be added to the interior so if all goes right it should be a very interesting focal point of the model, as it should be. It is kind of strange as my memories of Hueys are primarily from looking out from the inside. Other people are probably more familiar with the view of looking in from the outside, or just seeing the outside.   

[Old Collingwood]

Lou  double - treble check the fit of parts compared to the kit parts  for the inner sections  as a lot of upgrades  can be slightly over scale making  closing up the hull  difficult at best and impossible at worst, just saves a lot of heart ache latter.

 

OC.

[lmagna]

Thanks OC, will do.

[mtaylor]

Boy.. that's a surprise Lou.   If you can mix and match and the fit is right.... that's good.  I didn't realize the Huey's had padding on the floor.  The -34's and 53's didn't  have it but had the sound absorbing padding on the overhead and sides.  Not surprisingly, on the -53's it was removed in 'Nam.  

[lmagna]

No padding anywhere but the engine bulkhead and overhead. The floor as I remember it had a kind of no skid coating. Almost all of the models show diamond plate but I just can't remember seeing it used. (I am beginning to worry about my memory and wonder if I should have done this build 25 years ago instead of now.) We never took off the sound padding but if it got really hot and we needed the extra lift ability we would take the side doors off and leave them at the base.