1/48 Italeri UH-1H Huey

Gallery Article by Ramon R. Lomeli on Aug 27 2015

 

      

Hello! This is the Italeri 1/48 scale UH-1H Huey that I built last year for a friend and fellow veteran, who asked that I build for his brother, who is also a veteran and also a fellow former crew chief. This is meant to represent his bird while he was stationed in Vietnam back in 1969 while assigned to A Company, 25th Aviation Battalion. I used Italeri’s 1/48 scale UH-1D kit as a start. Out of the box, you get parts for a UH-1D as well as a UH-1H, so check your references despite what the instructions say.

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A Co. had some special missions, so I had to scratch-build some special mission equipment. On the right side is a Cobra Company resin M-60D machine gun with a bit of sprue to represent the C-rat can that the crew chiefs fixed to the weapon to help the ammo belt feed better. Ahead of that is a scratch-built 55 gallon drum, cut in half and loaded with illumination flares made out of aluminum tubing. On the left side is a scratch-built spotlight with a scratch-built starlight scope. Ahead of that is Cobra Company’s M-134 minigun and ammo can (originally destined for a MH-53 project I have in my stash) with a custom gun mount since the typical gun mount was not the one they used. I made it out of scrap photo etch and wine bottle foil. Underneath, I drilled out the cargo hook area and made a better mount for the hook itself. The cockpit and cabin are mostly CMK’s resin detail sets, except that I had to scratch build a center cabin section with soundproofing removed, since they used to remove the soundproofing back in real life. Outside, there is a resin CMK engine set. Also, I made custom decals for the 25th Infantry Division emblem on the nose, and A Co. Little Bears emblem on the tail cone.

The model is complete, but the story is still not finished… Next step is for my buddy and I to figure out how we are going to deliver the model to his brother, who happens to live on the opposite side of the country from us. Looks like a plane ride and a hand carry might be the best way…

Some unit history (and some of my reference) can be viewed here:

Ramon R. Lomeli

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Photos and text © by Ramon R. Lomeli