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My First Chopper! - Hasegawa UH-1H Iroquois 1:72 Never built a chopper before - time to change that! I acquired a second hand Hasegawa UH and noticed this GB, thought it would be perfect place to do some helicopter modelling for the fist time. This is the kit. Contents of the box - some of the parts had been cut off... ... and there was some paint - but I think we can safely assure it's still under the 25% rule Details are looking bit rough-ish. Decals seem past their prime - let's see if we can whiten them up with the help of the sun. Small metal rods were included within the box - I can't find any mention about them in the instructions? Are they perhaps something that the previous owner has added to the box or are they original contents of the box? They kinda look that they could be used for the antennas for the Japanese version. Speaking of versions- the japanese one is looking pretty cool with the interesting camo job. But then again, the US one is looking quite sharp too with the white sides. What do you reckon - which one should I build?

UH-1N Twin Huey (KH80158) 1:48 Kitty Hawk The original UH-1 is probably one of the most well-known shapes when it comes to rotary-winged aircraft, or helicopters as us civilians call them. The Twin Huey was initially developed to meet a requirement expressed by the Canadians, which saw the Bell 205 stretched to accommodate an additional engine and increased load carrying capacity. After the initial purchase by Canada, there was some political wrangling regarding the manufacturing location of the engines, but eventually around 300 airframes were procured and given the US Military designation UH-1N. It saw service in Vietnam, where its one-engine flight capability gave it the advantage over the single-engined Huey, which didn't fare too well without engines in a combat zone. The US Marines added an electronic stability system to a number of their airframes, removing the stability bar from above the main rotor, which is something to look out for if you're planning on building a particular aircraft. From the 1970s onward they have been in continuous service with incremental upgrades, with USMC remanufactured 1Ns being renamed 1Y and given the aggressive name, Venom, but also being referred to in service as Yankees. There are simplified civilian versions of the 1N, which is known as the Bell 212, and quite a long list of military operators both past and present, including the Argentinians during the Falklands War. The Kit This is a revision and reboxing of the UH-1Y Venom we reviewed here in 2015, and the earlier (but later release) single-engined UH-1D here in 2017. While it arguably shares more heritage with the later Venom, the sprue layout is completely different from the Venom, but includes two of the newer sprues from the UH-1D boxing. The rest are new tool, including the clear parts, the Photo-Etch (PE) sheet and the decal sheet, totalling four sprues in a pale grey styrene, one in clear, a PE sheet, a set of three resin figures in a separate vacformed container, and combined instruction and colour painting guide. The clear parts are also safely cocooned in a flat box with a bag protecting the parts from chaffing during transit and storage. Looking over the sprues there is a lot of really nice detail on the parts, with judicious use of slide-moulding to achieve fine detail in areas such as the underside of the fuselage, nose, rotor head and some hollow parts. Construction begins with the rotor head for a change, which includes the stabilising bar and linkage that was sometimes removed from USMC airframes. The two blades have finely rendered stacked plates at their root, and have a slight droop moulded-in, which are composite so shouldn't droop as can be seen from numerous pictures. The best way of correcting this is heating the plastic in hot water and bending them back straight, then quenching them with cold water. Not a major impediment to progress, but a bit of a boo-boo. The tail boom is next with optional PE slime-lights, the two blade tail rotor and the fins on each side, along with a skid and a pair of sensors at the bottom of the main fin. Two PE mesh grilles are included for the fin root, which will need bending to suit the shape of the recess into which they fit. The crew cab floor is next, and is fitted with a full set of controls for the flight crew with cyclic and collective sticks for each pilot, separated by a central console, and two perforated dividers in the nose, which supports the upper section and allows the detailed instrument panel and coaming to be set in position. The pilot seats are made up from a main chassis, with additional cushion fitted to the back, and the framework added to the back and underside. A pair of PE belts are looped over the back of the seats out of the way, then they are glued into their rails on the floor, and a boxed in section and rear bulkhead are added at the rear, ready for the passenger seats that comprise six positions in a line across the cab, and two pairs either side of the aft section. Each seat is sat on a tubular frame, and has a pair of PE lap belts draped over them, and here annealing them in a flame will help make them more malleable to improve the drape. Attention then shifts to the engine compartment, with the aft end of a pair of Pratt & Whitney T400 turboshafts pushed through holes in the front of the engine compartment, adding some of the detail you will find in there (a canvas for the super-detailer), and the flattened exhausts sitting on top. Another bulkhead attaches to the fronts of the engines on a pair of lugs, with the intake phase added to the other side of the first bulkhead. The cockpit and engine assemblies are then married up and sandwiched between the two fuselage halves after adding the winch bay to the inside. My review sample had received a bit of damage to the thin upper door edge on the port side, but it was easy enough to fix with a bit of glue and some patience as you can see below, but check your example just in case. The forward edges of the side doors are bulked out with additional parts, then the passenger cab's roof, which consists of inner and outer skin, is added and finished off with extra detail at the front, plus the beginnings of the rotor "hump" and intakes on the top. At the rear the long faceted exhaust trunks are glued to the rear of the curved section, with a radiator slung underneath. The exhausts are made up from two parts split top and bottom, and with careful fitting, you can minimise the seam, then take a view on whether it needs further work. The engine compartment is then boxed in with the top cowling, side cowling sections, and smaller PE access panels that you can choose to leave open if you're proud of your work on the engine bays. Boxing in of the nose is next, with the solid upper section, clear lower windows, and the underside panel with the mount for the FLIR turret moulded in. Now we get to play with the resin figures, which are really rather nicely moulded. The two pilots are fitted into their seats after painting, one with his hands on the controls, the other operating the overhead controls. There is another figure included depicting the door gunner, but his location isn't shown although it's pretty clear he's intended to be in a door… with a gun. The crew cab doors are made up from inner and outer panels, plus the clear window in the top section. The smaller front side door is also made up and installed at this point, then the main canopy is fitted out with the overhead console that pilot two is fiddling with, along with a fire extinguisher for…. Fires. Once the cab is complete, the skids are made up and installed under the fuselage in their recesses, adding a number of PE parts for detail along the way. With the fuselage on its back, the FLIR turret, antennae and cable-cutter are put in place all along the underside, with more PE parts such as tie-down lugs added along the way. A similar festooning of the top surface is carried out, including sensors, wipers and grab handles etc. Now for the fun part, the weapons installation, although they're only applicable to two of the decal options, which may colour your decision if you like things that go "BANG!" like I do. There are two installations, one on each side, each attached to the fuselage via a curved bracket that is topped with a gun mount for either a .50cal Browning, or the optional multi-barrel Vulcan mini-gun. A grab bar is attached either side of the mounts, and underneath is suspended one of a choice of rocket packs, holding 19 x Hydra 70 rockets in the wider tube, or 6 of the more modern Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) in the narrow tube. Each pod has a two-part body, and two end caps with rocket and exhaust details moulded in. If you're using the weapons, you leave the side doors back at base, but if you're depicting one of the less combative options, you'll need to put two glazing panels into each one, then fit them in place open, closed, or anywhere in between. All that's left to do after that is add the main rotor assembly from the top, and the tail butts up to the rear of the fuselage. Now for some paint. Markings There are six options in the box, only two of which are geared for war. There is a good selection of colourful options and we're not just limited to shades of grey, which is nice. From the box you can build one of the following: US Navy UH-1N #158278 US Navy Rescue UH-1N #158272 USMC UH-1N #158549 USAF UH-1N #96640 USAF UH-1N #96645 USMC UH-1N #160178 A quick Google search showed #158549 to be fitted with the stabilising bar as shown in the instructions, but sadly, #160178 was lost in an accident along with her crew when it collided with another aircraft whilst using Night Vision Goggles (NVG) on exercise in Oman in the early 90s, with no pictures readily available. The decals are printed closely together on a medium sized sheet and appear in good register and well-printed. There are a few typos in the smaller stencil decals that probably won't notice, but the "Danger Jet Intake" decals have a typo that may well gain some attention, as it says "intke". It's an oopsie we could have done without, and there's no easy way to fix it. The letters M and P on the tail of the first Marine airframe look like they've got a print issue as they're two-toned, but that's correct, due to the darker grey on the leading edge of the tail. The carrier film is printed closely to the edge of the printing, but a few have a slight lip on the upper edge that may be peculiar to my sample. Conclusion Another Huey from Kitty Hawk, and as usual with their kits, as long as you pay attention, test fit and adjust where necessary, it should build into a nice replica of this important and well-loved helo. I'm currently torn between the attractive red/white rescue bird and one of the Marine aircraft that are loaded for bear. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of and available soon from major hobby shops

Hi Everyone, I managed to slowly make my way through 3 kits this year, with the same number still sitting on the bench. All Australian Fleet Air Arm in 1/72 scale as part of my long-term RAN FAA build theme. First up was the wonderful little Airfix Tiger Moth from HMAS Albatross in the mid 50's. This was my first biplane and it won't be my last. I really like doing the rigging. Decals are from Southen Sky. Then another Airfix, this time the RAN's fist jet trainer, a T.22 Vampire also stationed at Albatross (NW) tail code, in the mid-late 60's. Mostly out of the box with some Pavla Martin Bakers added and excellent Xtradecal decals. And lastly, my first ever completed group build, a UH-1B Iroquois N9-882 (857) which served with 723 Squadron from 1964 to 1989. This one has fair bit of Eduard etch added and a largely scratch-built cabin. That's all for this year. Hopefully next year will see 4 or more! Andrew

Bell UH-1 Iroquois "Huey" pics by Mike from the Vietnam War remnants museum.

Totally New: Air New Zealand B777-219ER 2013 Trademark scheme 1/144 and 1/200 RNZAF Sunderland MR Mk V 1950s / last scheme in 1/48 RNZAF Venom FB1 in 1/32 Now available in Digital format: Air NZ B737-200 NAS delivery and NAR interim schemes in 1/72, 144 and 200 Air NZ F27-500F NFD and NFE delivery schemes in 1/72 and 1/144 DC3s - Ministry of Transport, James Aviation (now in 2 schemes), and Pionair in 1/48, 72 and 144 Air National Dash8-100 in 1/72 and 144 Air Chathams and Air Freight NZ CV580s in /172 and 144 DC-3 Warbird ZK-DAK in 1/144 (previously only in 48 and 72) RNZAF UH-1D/H Iroquois – all schemes are now available in 1/35, 48, 72 and 144 RNZAF Bell 47-G Sioux – all 12 schemes now available in 1/32, 35, 48 and 72 RNZAF AESL Airtourer T6, CT-4B Airtrainer, CT-4E Airtrainer – all schemes now available in 1/16, 48 and 72 RNZAF 75th Anniversary supplementary decal sets – C130H in 1/48, 72, 144 and 200th and CT-4E in 1/48 and 72 RNZAF TAF P-51D Mustangs in 1/24, 32, 48, 72 and 144. All available through my website www.oldmodelsdecals.com John Oldmodels Decals

What would people recommend as a base kit for the above. I'd be interested in both 1/72 and 1/48 scale. It would be built as an RAN unit. I've googled like crazy but nothing really jumps out. Cheers, Andrew

Oldmodels Decals announces the following re-issues as additions to its DIGITAL decal range: RNZAF UH-1D/H Iroquois 1970s high viz green scheme RNZAF UH-1D/H Iroquois South East Asian scheme RNZAF UH-1D/H Iroquois Euro1 scheme These are available in 1/35, 1/48 and /72. Available now at www.oldmodelsdecals.com or on TradeMe (NZ customers only) (these schemes are also available in 1/24, 1/32 and 1/144 in the existing INKJET range) John Oldmodels Decals

New Decal Range In response to demand OLDMODELS DECALS is proud to announce an expansion of some of its high quality range into a new Digital Print format. Oldmodels Decals current inkjet range are known for their accuracy and attention to detail – this will continue with the new Digital range. What is Digital print? In essence it is a commercially printed decal utilising modern digital printing processes. This is the same process as used by a number of larger decal producers such as DRAW and TWOSIX DECALS. The end product is a continuous sheet decal printed on stock decal sheet which behaves for the modeller the same way as silk screen produced decals. This process differs from silk screen in that whilst it will print white, it cannot print metallic. It is also vastly cheaper than silk screen production as it is without the need for large print runs per subject to cover the expensive silk screen master costs which in turn result in high inventory costs and capital outlay which is simply unaffordable for me. This allows much smaller runs more suited to more esoteric subjects. What is being released in this new format? New Items RNZAF Boeing 727-022C early and late schemes in 1/72, 1/144 and 1/200 Re-release of existing range in new format RNZAF: McDonell Douglas T/A-4K Skyhawk in SEA, Euro1 and last schemes in 1/48 and 1/72 Lockheed P-3K/K-2 Orion current scheme in 1/72, 1/144 Lockheed C-130H(NZ) current scheme in 1/48, 1/72 and 1/144 Boeing 757-2K2 current scheme in 1/144 NHIndustries NH90 current scheme in 1/72 Kaman SH-2G(NZ) current scheme in 1/48 and 1/72 Bell UH-1H Iroquois current grey scheme in 1/35, 1/48 and 1/72 BAC167 Strikemaster early and late schemes in 1/48 and 1/72 Aermacchi MB339CB in 1/48 and 1/72 Beechcraft B200 King Air in 1/72 Civil schemes FlyDC3 Trust’s DC-3 Warbird in 1/48 and 1/72 As always these are available from my website www.oldmodelsdecals.com Many more are under preparation. Oldmodels Decals is happy to receive suggestions in terms of which decals to convert to the new format next. Release Timetable Tranche 2 of Digital decals will be released within the next two weeks and will contain many civil schemes including the new scheme on the Air NZ A320s, the black ATR72, first NAC B737-200 scheme and five 1/144th Viscount schemes (for the new plastic F-RSIN kits) as well as C130 Euro1, P-3B/K, and the Vampire schemes. Will everything be converted to the new format or issued in the new format? No. Very deliberately my range includes many esoteric NZ subjects and schemes within subjects – to give the modeller the widest possible choice. However this often means low, or in some cases, no sales. The costs of producing a sheet of decals of each and every esoteric subject in the Digital format is fixed, up front capital and expensive. On the other hand the inkjet method provides me with the ability to print part sheets to order – meaning I do not have the crippling inventory costs that other methods require. This also applies to esoteric scales within individual subjects. For example, some subjects have kits available in as many as six scales, however experience has shown that 95% of the sales occur in just two or three of those scales. Where this applies the low volume scales will continue to be available in Inkjet format. For these reasons many current schemes and possibly some yet to be released schemes will remain Inkjet unless I receive a commercial sized order for them. Quality In general the digital decals are less sharp than the photo quality inkjet decals but are of a comparable quality to the decal sheets provided in the kits. This generally shows up in the readability of small writing and general “crispness”. A combo photo of a kit decal, my inkjet decal and my digital decal of the RNZAF NH90 is posted on the website on both the digital and inkjet explanation pages. Digital Decal Costs Most of the subjects being converted will be priced the same or marginally above the old price for Inkjet decals. This mainly happens because of the printing method needs much smaller print margins meaning more decals per sheet, and the removal of the backgrounds from light colours means each decal needs slightly less space. In these cases the Inkjet decals will be withdrawn. However if you prefer inkjet they will be available on request at the same price. However for some larger subjects and scales it is less easy to take advantage of the improvements mentioned. This results in large increases in costs. In most cases this is where the decal occupies an entire sheet to itself. When I choose to offer the Digital format for these schemes, I will also offer separately the cheaper Inkjet format. It also means there are a small number of scale/subject combinations that I will not offer in Digital format except as a special order, or unless a retailer funds a production run. These include the 1/48 RNZAF C130 High Viz schemes (delivery and 70s-80s schemes), and the James Aviation and MOT 1/48th DC-3 schemes. All of these are very full double sheet sized schemes. The indicative price for these schemes in Digital format would be NZ$48 plus P&P which I currently consider to be too high to be commercially viable. There may also be a wait time of up to a month to get these printed – unless you are prepared to fund an even higher price for a special run. Even then the turn round from the printer is proving to be around two weeks. The reality is that I have no real leverage with the Printers who see even a “big” order from me as a small filler run to be fitted in around their core business. Why am I not converting everything suitable for conversion in one go? There are several factors at play here. The first is the upfront cost to what is a small business. The income from the first sales will fund the next rounds. The second is that creating the digital master from an inkjet master or two masters (clear/white) is a time consuming and not simple task. This is partially exacerbated by the need to upgrade some of the older masters to the standards of my more recent issues. The third is that the order size I am currently using with the printers is a sweet spot in terms of do-ability on their side whilst being large enough to keep costs down it is not so big that I can’t handle it on my side of the equation. Can I suggest subjects for (re-)release in Digital format? By all means please do. If I get sufficient demand for a subject or scale I will action it. The number needed will vary by subject and scale and will primarily be based on the size of the resultant decal. Remember however the likely costs of larger decals (full sheet or larger). A new decal has only been released only in Digital – can I get a cheaper Inkjet version? In general – yes. Please use the custom query form and I will assess the option for you. What does this move to Digital mean for custom decal requests? The options will be discussed with you at the time. The inkjet format will generally be both cheaper and faster to produce – there is a significant wait factor with getting digital decals printed. Doing the set up work is also keeping me rather busy in the short term. John Oldmodels Decals www.oldmodelsdecals.com

Iroquois-class destroyer. Pictures of HMCS Iroquois (DDG 280)Pics thanks to Panzer Vor

Massive new release of 12 RNZAF UH-1D/H Iroquois schemes. These are: 1960s delivery 1970-78 Green High Viz 1979 Green low Viz 1980-1987 SEA scheme 1987-1999 Euro1 MFO Sinai 3 Sqn 40 Anniversary tail Current low viz UN High Viz UN Low Viz Antarctic UH-1H Interior These are available in 24, 32, 35, 48, 72 and 144th scales The RNZAF B200 King Air scheme has also been updated to reflect the recent fleet changeover. as always these are available through my website www.oldmodelsdecals.com John OMD