UH-1B Huey 1/72 Hobby Boss, with a little help

[hsr]

This is my Hobby Boss UH-1B Huey "Gunship". The Hobby Boss kit is an easy pleasant build that only took 10 days, start to finish. But it had a little help. In addition to the basic kit I used:

• A Bilek color interior. I had never heard of Bilek before and I don't know if they have a relationship to Eduard, but it looked just like and Eduard set.
• Eduard Mask
• Print Scale decals. I have used Print Scale decals in the past and been happy with them, but this set and the last one I used were problematic to the point of almost being unusable and I will probably stay clear of them in the future. They are very thin, which is good, but they have no body and stick instantly. This means that once you put them down you have no opportunity to adjust them. If you try they either tear apart of roll up into a ball. This is especially true on the lettering part with clear background, and I had to get the "United States Army" decals from another set because of this. Plus as an added bonus they were badly misregistered. see the tail serial number which should be all black.
• Mini World ammo belts. The kit gives you several options for armament and I used the M134 minigun. I couldn't see not having some ammo
• Italeri main rotor and mast. The Hobby Boss main rotor was just a little too simplified for my tastes. As it tuns out they are both 4 scale feet too short.

So on to the pictures:

 

Next up is the AZ Models' Douglas X-3 Stiletto. See 

Enjoy.

[jean]

Hi hsr,

 

it would appear everything decided to give you a hard time! It does happen more frequently than one would wish...

I love the Huey, but the HobbyBoss offering does not much for me, despite your rather excellent treatment of the kit!!! I find HB kits mixing extremely fine and detailed sections of a kit, with coarse and unappealing parts. This is the feeling I have looking at the Huey. I would go straight to Italeri or Fujimi, when it comes to helicopters!

I have never used Print Scales decals, so cannot comment... yet!

A whle back, I bought some decals for my Esci UH-1D, and they appear to be the same ones you used (Ref 72-019)!!!

Am I lucky?

Anyway, I am planning to use them around June-July if I stick to my crawling schedule. I do hope you had a dud one!!!! Am I nice?

Will let you know how it goes!!!

 

Keep having fun!

JR

[hsr]

9 minutes ago, jean said:

I would go straight to Italeri or Fujimi, when it comes to helicopters!

Hi Jean,

 

Most of my helicopters are Italeri, but in general I don't like Italeri kits, so when I saw that there was a Hobby Boss alternative, I went for it. Hobby Boss tends to simplify things, and in this case the rotor was just too simple, but I still like them. I have the Fujimi AH-1J and I liked it, but they don't make a "B" and they seem to be unable to print white decals, white, rather then a cream color. 72-019 is the sheet I used. Like I said I have been happy with Print Scale decals in the past. Maybe it is just their newer printings that have a problem.

 

Good luck with it

 

Thanks

 

[F-32]

[RidgeRunner]

Very nice, hsr. I love the older Short Hueys, especially the M model.

 

Martin

[Mig88]

Very nicely done!

 

Miguel

[deltas]

I will use this thread to ask I have PrintScale 72-019 decals, is the photo for a 28630 machine? I only found these pictures...

I couldn't even find serial number 28630 here: http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/usafserials.html

[hsr]

3 hours ago, deltas said:

I will use this thread to ask

I often wonder where they decal companies find their prototypes when no amount of searching will find a picture of them.

 

You really should create your own thread under Military Aircraft Modelling Discussion by Era -> Aircraft Cold War sub forum since few people will scroll down to the bottom of this thread and that is the right place to ask such a question. 

[deltas]

ok thank you for the inspiration with a nice model and I apologize.

[corsaircorp]

Well done Sir !!

She look like a fine Huey to me !!

Sincerely.

CC