MH-53 pave low special schemes

[TOPGUN88]

i have an italeri MH-53 pave low and wondered if there were any special/anniversary schemes that these helos wore. also anyone know of any decals available for a british based helo in 1/72. internet results are very little.  

Edited May 20, 2020 by TOPGUN88

[CT7567]

The only "special" scheme I'm aware of Pave Lows ever wearing was the temporary desert scheme they adopted during Desert Shield/Desert Storm. Two color brown and sand, with a small set of "invasion stripe" white bands around the tail boom. These are truly historic aircraft as they acted as pathfinders for the Apache attack group that fired the first shots of the war, taking out key radar & C3I sites.

 

Pave Low markings have always been minimalist. The only aftermarket I'm aware of have been various sheets from Wolfpak decals, most if not all of those being in the late-service overall FS36118 gray scheme.

[Blimpyboy]

Okay, so, they're not Air Force; heck, they're not even Pave Lows, but they are in some interesting colours...

 

 

 

 

Further to CT7567's post, there are some possibly inspirational pictures here:

https://www.dstorm.eu/pages/en/usa/mh-53j.html,

https://pavelow.us/usaf-mh-53-history/ and

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pavelow/ (desert scheme aircraft on pages 6 and 8).

Edited May 20, 2020 by Blimpyboy

[RobL]

Check out Printscale's Sikorsky S-65 Sea Stallion Part 1 and Part 2 decal sets.  There's two on there that are British, one that was based at Woodbridge and one from Finningley, obviously not a Pave Low though, just a HH-53.  I have a set for an Airfix H-53 that I'll eventually get around to doing as Knife 21...

 

Links to decals, you can also get them at Hannants I believe -

 

http://www.printscale.org/product_401.html

http://www.printscale.org/product_423.html

Edited May 20, 2020 by RobL

[e8n2]

1 hour ago, RobL said:

Check out Printscale's Sikorsky S-65 Sea Stallion Part 1 and Part 2 decal sets.  There's two on there that are British, one that was based at Woodbridge and one from Finningley, obviously not a Pave Low though, just a HH-53.  I have a set for an Airfix H-53 that I'll eventually get around to doing as Knife 21...

 

Links to decals, you can also get them at Hannants I believe -

 

http://www.printscale.org/product_401.html

http://www.printscale.org/product_423.html

I was stationed at RAF Woodbridge from March of 75 to March of 77.  ALL of our 67 ARRS HH-53s were in the South East Asia (Vietnam) camo scheme.  As far as Print Scale decals go, stay away if you can, or be prepared to have to get some more aftermarket decals to correct their mistakes.  On the AF H-53s, they claim the 67th's HH-53s were painted in FS 36473.  Horse Hockey!  It would have been 16473 for a gloss finish, not the flat finish 36473.  Sometime after Desert Shield/Storm, the 67th redid their camo in the European 1 scheme using 36118, 34092, and 34102.  For the other decal sheet covering USN and foreign H-53s, ALL of the letters and numbers for the Navy birds are in 45° letters and numbers and NOT the Navy 60° letters and numbers.  They have done that on most of their decal sheets.  I have the sheet for the Navy H-53s and will have to replace the serial numbers with homemade decals where possible.  They have apparently figured this out as their latest USN sheets have the correct font.

Later,

Dave

 

Here is a shot of a PAVE Low MH-53 in European 1 camo:

 

Edited May 20, 2020 by e8n2
Added photo link

[andyf117]

Pave Lows only ever wore three schemes: 'European 1', the brown desert scheme referred to above, and overall grey FS36118. To do a UK-based 67th ARRS/21st SOS aircraft, you just need to pick a suitable serial number (the Revell release included markings for a Woodbridge/Mildenhall aircraft)...

....as e8n2 says, forget the PrintScale S-65 sheets - they contain poorly-executed rip-offs of subjects originally produced by Microscale/Superscale and RepliModel, and don't feature any Pave Lows anyway...

...unless you do an early HH-53H as pictured above, you'll need to modify the main rotor blade roots and tips - and don't forget to reverse the tail rotor blades, which as supplied rotate the wrong way around...

....this is my MH-53J - Airfix kit with nose equipment and fuel tanks from an Italeri kit:

Edited May 20, 2020 by andyf117

[Richard E]

One of the Wolfpak sheets which @CT7567 mentioned is their "Running the Gauntlet" sheet which includes markings for 20th SOS aircraft marked for the type's last mission in Iraq which might be tenuously described as a special scheme.

 

 

[Blimpyboy]

9 hours ago, andyf117 said:

this is my MH-53J - Airfix kit with nose equipment and fuel tanks from an Italeri kit

Nice model!

There's something about the Euro 1 camouflage that adds a certain level of 'mean' to an aircraft's look.

[e8n2]

One thing about the Airfix HH-53 is all of the rivets over the entire fuselage.  Guess what?  Airfix got it right!  I have a picture of my much younger self from my days at Woodbridge standing next to one of the 67ths birds and the rivets are easily visible even from about 10 feet away from the aircraft.  The Italeri kit, which in general is very nice, has a real smooth surface which is nothing like the real thing.  For an accurate MH-53 PAVE Low aircraft it would be best to do as Andyf117 did.  Fortunately I still have an Airfix CH-53 kit in the stash.  If Airfix wants to do more releases of older kits, the CH/HH-53 would definitely be one to bring back.

Later,

Dave

[andyf117]

2 hours ago, e8n2 said:

One thing about the Airfix HH-53 is all of the rivets over the entire fuselage.  Guess what?  Airfix got it right!  I have a picture of my much younger self from my days at Woodbridge standing next to one of the 67ths birds and the rivets are easily visible even from about 10 feet away from the aircraft.  The Italeri kit, which in general is very nice, has a real smooth surface which is nothing like the real thing.  For an accurate MH-53 PAVE Low aircraft it would be best to do as Andyf117 did.  Fortunately I still have an Airfix CH-53 kit in the stash.  If Airfix wants to do more releases of older kits, the CH/HH-53 would definitely be one to bring back.

Later,

Dave

Exactly why I used the Airfix kit - and the same reason why I prefer Revell's Sea King to Airfix's 'new' one. Airfix's CH/HH-53 is generally accepted as being the best of the type. I have a number of them in order to complete a range of -53s, including an overall grey ARRS one - possibly the 67th's 8284...

9 hours ago, Blimpyboy said:

Nice model!

There's something about the Euro 1 camouflage that adds a certain level of 'mean' to an aircraft's look.

Thanks - it did, even on the preceding HH-53C:

Edited May 21, 2020 by andyf117

[f111guru]

On 5/19/2020 at 6:55 PM, TOPGUN88 said:

i have an italeri MH-53 pave low and wondered if there were any special/anniversary schemes that these helos wore. also anyone know of any decals available for a british based helo in 1/72. internet results are very little.  

Not sure of any special or anniversary schemes. Euro1, overall gunship gray and the desert scheme come to mind. Here are a few:

Same HH-53 but not sun bleached

And finally the last overall. I do have some detail shots.

Hope this helps.

 

All The Best

Ron VanDerwarker

[e8n2]

20 hours ago, andyf117 said:

Exactly why I used the Airfix kit - and the same reason why I prefer Revell's Sea King to Airfix's 'new' one. Airfix's CH/HH-53 is generally accepted as being the best of the type. I have a number of them in order to complete a range of -53s, including an overall grey ARRS one - possibly the 67th's 8284...

The kit decals for the Airfix HH-53 include one of the aircraft used by the 67th at Woodbridge that had been used previously in Vietnam on the Son Tay prison raid.  For those not up on what some people might call "Ancient" history, the Son Tay raid was an attempt to rescue US POWs from the Son Tay prison in North Vietnam.  IIRC they made it to the prison OK, but it was empty.  The POWs had been moved out sometime earlier, but the North Vietnamese never knew about the planned raid so it was just a matter of bad timing.

Later,

Dave 

[andyf117]

Given that the Italeri base plastic is the same, an easy way to increase the range of colour schemes and markings would be to leave off the Pave Low parts and build the kit as an HH-53C - dispense with the refuelling probe too, and it can be made as a USMC CH-53D (as pictured earlier)...

....discard the external fuel tanks and mounts as well, and then the CH-53A and CH-53G enter the picture - I can supply the Airfix decals for either of their USMC or German options if you'd like thm, TG88...

Edited May 22, 2020 by andyf117

[Julien]

On 21/05/2020 at 06:45, e8n2 said:

One thing about the Airfix HH-53 is all of the rivets over the entire fuselage.  Guess what?  Airfix got it right!  I have a picture of my much younger self from my days at Woodbridge standing next to one of the 67ths birds and the rivets are easily visible even from about 10 feet away from the aircraft.  The Italeri kit, which in general is very nice, has a real smooth surface which is nothing like the real thing.  For an accurate MH-53 PAVE Low aircraft it would be best to do as Andyf117 did.  Fortunately I still have an Airfix CH-53 kit in the stash.  If Airfix wants to do more releases of older kits, the CH/HH-53 would definitely be one to bring back.

Later,

Dave

Any chance of the picture Dave? I volunteer at the Bentwarters Cold War Museum and we are always after pictures from ex Servicemen who served at the twin bases.

 

Thx

 

Julien

[Blimpyboy]

At a pinch, could you make it an RH-53?

 

Iran (Imperial and Islamic Republic) https://xairforces.net/wallpaperx1.asp?id=50&wallid=115  and  http://www.myaviation.ir/details.aspx?id=2847

 

 

The US

 

 

Conversely, for a different CH-53, there's Austria...

https://www.eurotrainhobby.com/eth-arsenal-sikorsky-s-65-oe-of-the-aust/p9635c363

 

 

 

Edited May 22, 2020 by Blimpyboy

[andyf117]

8 hours ago, Blimpyboy said:

At a pinch, could you make it an RH-53?

The same Microscale/Superscale (72-444) sheet that contains markings for a sister aircraft to the pictured 631 of HM-16 also features a rare example of a USAF helo with nose art - CH-53C 68-10928 'Head Hunter' of the 601st TASS, which was based at Sembach AB, Germany, and frequently appeared at a number of airshows in the UK and across Europe during the early 1980s:

68-10928 flew as 'Knife 22' in the 1975 SS Mayaguez rescue attempt, and force-landed in Thailand as a result of battle damage: 

Recovered, repaired, and assigned to the 601st TCW the following year, 10928 served in Germany throughout the 1980s, until finally converted to a MH-53J - after being retired in 2007, the aircraft went on display at the Hurlburt Field air park:

 

[TOPGUN88]

On 5/22/2020 at 10:11 AM, andyf117 said:

Given that the Italeri base plastic is the same, an easy way to increase the range of colour schemes and markings would be to leave off the Pave Low parts and build the kit as an HH-53C - dispense with the refuelling probe too, and it can be made as a USMC CH-53D (as pictured earlier)...

....discard the external fuel tanks and mounts as well, and then the CH-53A and CH-53G enter the picture - I can supply the Airfix decals for either of their USMC or German options if you'd like thm, TG88...

Thanks to all that have replied. Andy thanks for the offer. I already have the airfix CH-53G. I would like to have made the air fix one with dayglo patches like the revell one released in 1993. I have bought a Wolfpak sheet that has the numbers on it that I can turn around and use for the pave low that I had seen at leuchars air show around 2005 from mildenhall.  

[andyf117]

69-5784? Formerly a HH-53C with the 67th ARRS at Woodbridge, pictured here at Mildenhall 40 years ago:

And, incidentally, also the subject of my model pictured earlier, as it appeared at Alconbury in 1982 (the Pave Low is former CH-53C 70-1629, Alconbury 1993)...

Edited May 24, 2020 by andyf117