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1/35 OH-6A Cayuse


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Early in lockdown last year I fancied building a 1/35 OH-6A Cayuse but they were rather thin on the ground . However a fellow BM'er came up trumps and supplied me with an Italeri boxing kit along with a resin XM-27 mini gun, an eduard eched detail set, paint masks and a couple of resin figures for a very reasonable price.

 

I was also lent a very interesting book called Aeroscouts in Vietnam which contains a wealth of information on how the OH-6A was used in Vietnam and also a lot of great pictures which I used to provide inspiration for the build. 

 

The M16 and M60 and, I think the grenade box, which I altered, came with the kit. The wooden ammo box came with the XM-27, the smoke and frag grenades were from Bravo*6 with the decals coming from someone on the internet. The body armour under the rear seat was scratchbuilt.

 

OH-6A_1

 

OH-6A_3

 

OH-6A_2

 

OH-6A_6

 

OH-6A_4

 

OH-6A_5

 

After taking these pictures I had a bit of an accident and knocked the whole thing on the floor smashing it into several pieces! :angry:However I managed to get it back together again, not made any easier by the fact that I mixed up the Olive Drab colour originally.

 

During the build I came across the fellers and decided that they would look great with the OH-6

 

figures

 

It took quite a while to finish these guys as I am no figure painter. However I persisted and here they are:

 

OH-6A_8

 

OH-6A_7

 

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the build although getting the canopy glass to fit was difficult.

The book also includes pictures of other heli's used by the Aeroscouts soooooo I am now the proud owner of Italeri's 1/35 OH-13 :wink:

Thanks for looking

 

Mick

 

 

 

 

 

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The build looks great and I confess that the interior is what caught my eye and made the biggest impression.  Very well done!

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Nice job, and on the figures.  An old boss flew 6s in 'Nam.  He was on patrol when a VC popped out of the grass.  He grabbed his M-16 CAR and fired out through the windscreen.  I believe he got the guy but had to fly back to his base with the pilot's side window shot out.  That would make a cool diorama!

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Thank you. Yes that would look good. The book on the aeroscouts had some great pictures of shot up and crashed OH-6As. It is amazing how much damage that they took when they crashed and still protected the crew.

Mick

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Great, the one thing about the original is how small it is. I remember one arrived at our local airfield in civilian guise but it was a genuine Vietnam veteran. The guys who flew them in combat had balls of steel. 

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A great rendition of a rarely-seen bird. Thanks for sharing with us. 

 

By coincidence, I'm currently reading "Low Level Hell" by Hugh Mills Jnr. He flew Loaches and Cobras in two tours of Vietnam. He was shot down sixteen times during those tours, including four times in one day! As the previous poster stated, the Aeroscout's crews had titanium cojones. They deliberately looked for firefights with both the VC and NVA troops. They had incidents when they took fire from less than 20 feet away. 

 

I am very keen to see what kind of a job ICM do on their brand new 1/32 AH-1G Cobra, due out later this year. It should render the Revell version a museum-piece, with any luck. 

 

Chris.  

Edited by spruecutter96
Correcting a typo.
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Thanks Noel, Chris

 

As you say, those guys that flew them were incredible. The stories in the book I borrowed are incredible. When I give it back I shall be looking to get a copy for myself, which is rare for me as I normally get my reference material from the net rather than buy a book.

 

Mick

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If the book is anything like Chickenhawk, I'll have to get it.

 

Beautiful build and the internal equipment certainly looks reassuring. The figures set the model off very nicely, too.

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

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Thanks guys

I was quite pleased with the figures although I could have done the eyes better - that's one area I find really difficult.

Joachim, I haven't read Chicken hawk but can recommend the Aeroscots book. Trouble is it is hard to get a copy outside of the US and Canada. I think I found a copy in Germany, which could be pricey to import to the UK as we are now out of the EU.

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On 5/7/2021 at 4:43 PM, MickE said:

Thank you. Yes that would look good. The book on the aeroscouts had some great pictures of shot up and crashed OH-6As. It is amazing how much damage that they took when they crashed and still protected the crew.

Mick

It was nicknamed, the "Killer Egg"

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