1/35 Panda UH-1N Gunship

by Daniel

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This is the Panda Models UH-1N kit which is an upsized Italeri kit, some people said. I wanted to build an armed Marines Huey like the ones which do convoy escort duty in Iraq for 1st MEF. I am not very skilled in scratch building but I tried to add a FLIR, Chaff/Flare dispensers, the ‘disco light’ and those nice ‘green boxes’ atop of the cabin. Don’t be upset if it looks not very good; I am always learning and trying to do my best.  

The kit decals can't be used for a modern Huey, so I decided to scan them and change their colour in Adobe Photoshop. Then I printed the new decals myself. I also added Squadron Insignias of the HMLA-367; surely I know, the insignias don't match with the 'modified' kit decals, but it looks great in my opinion.

On my pictures you can see also a display base which I was able to build in one nice afternoon. I just used some plaster and ‘Island Grass’ which I bought in a do-it-yourself shop.

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For the display base, I took some ideas from Gerd Kuijpers’ article in the Tool’n’Tips section of ARC. I took a wooden board and put on the plaster to form some rugged desert/mountain terrain. In the last layer of plaster I added some little stones to simulate mountainous terrain; then I glued on some of the ‘Island Grass’. After the plaster had dried, I painted the whole thing with bright yellow paint (perhaps it’s just a little too bright, isn’t it?).

The soldiers who just got out of their Huey are some Tamiya Modern US Soldiers; for me they are some Recon Marines who are going to secure a terrorists hiding place. I attached some clear sheet plates to the Soldiers feet; I didn’t want to glue them to the display base.

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I attached some photos of our youngest cat and my 1/35 Humvee, LAV-25 and M1A2 to the end of my article. The cat likes very much to occupy the additional seat which I put in my room for me! Cats are very good in demonstrating what real full time holiday is.....

Out of Switzerland ,

Daniel

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Photos and text © by Daniel