Hiller OH-23G Raven - a little great helicopter - LF Models 1/72

[Dennis_C]

Hi Everyone,

 

Here is another recently completed helicopter from my collection. This is a Hiller OH-23G from the kit produced by LF Models. I got it done last year and thought it's a nice opportunity to post it now alongside my recently completed Sycamore. I called the thread 'a little great helicopter' because obviously it's a very small bird. However over 2000 exemplars were manufactured during more than 15 years and it served in 20+ air forces and with even larger number of civilian operators. Still the helicopter is much less known than similar Bell H-13 or Sud-Est Alouette. Despite leaving quite a noticeable footprint in aviation history it was not available in plastic in 1/72 before. I think there was a Special Hobby mixed media kit maybe 25 years back and that is it. 

 

 

The prototype I've chosen is from Vietnam War era of the Raven usage (Raven was it's name adopted in US military service). Vietnam was a swan song of this type in US military as it has been actively replaced by the next generation of light helicopters such as Hughes OH-6. Raven first came to the scene during Korean War where it played an important role as a medevac and observation chopper. I was able to find a photo of the prototype offered in one of the LF Model boxes:  

 

 

Here it belongs to 10th Cavalry Regiment of the US Army. The photo has been useful to confirm markings and details of the configuration of the prototype and make necessary adjustments to LF guidance. And also kept me restraint in weathering the model as a tribute to these two chaps thoroughly washing the chopper!

 

 

Some notes on the construction. LF Models kit is definitely not for beginners. The parts do not really fit. Even despite the fact the helicopter is super small - dryfitting, trimming, adding plastic stripes, dryfitting again, using filler after you glue parts together and again and again - that is the process. Engine only marginally gets between the struts. In fact engine is not too bad. Problem is in the engine mounting structs as they are overly thick. I should have replaced them with brass rods - that would be to scale and would permit to easily insert engine into its place. Canopy is split into two parts that fit each other finely but the assembled bubble has been fitting fuselage very poorly.

 

 

 Some improvements that I did for the kit:

- added seatbelts from the spares (nothing is in the kit but without seat belts the cabin would look super-bare);

- added antennae on the supports on the tail boom (these were installed to all military Ravens at least at Vietnam War time - unfortunately LF totally ignored this part);

- added aerial must at the tail boom end;

- created a landing lamp on the nose by just masking it from outside and painting silver inside; 

- also some parts had to be scratchbuilt per instruction - such as undercarriage mounting struts on the fuselage bottom, tail skid, pedals in the cabin. 

 

The above photo of this machine confirmed it should not have US insignia (unlike what instruction says). I get at some point Army deleted national insignia from all the choppers and replaced white and orange lettering with black in an attempt to reduce visibility.

 

According to the picture I installed wheels on the skids and added the above mentioned antennae. What I really did not do - rotor head details - all those fragile struts added between engine, gear box and airscrew.

 

 

 

One note on LF decals - they are horribly bad. They are inkjet printed and somehow not within register. White colour shows up on the red 'danger' arrow on tail boom and on '276' number. 'UNITED STATES ARMY' is printed okay. US insignia were total disaster not in register with visible inkjet dots and strange hue of blue. Decals are on constant film, quite thin, tend to wrap up and quite fragile. They attach to plastic really poorly but aggressively react to decal setter. So I was not really able to fully defeat silvering at places especially on corrugated tail boom surface and I immediately covered them with decent layer of Future to make sure they do not unstick. Cabin is neutral grey, seats are darker shade of grey as well as the engine, and exterior is olive drab. All Hobby Color acrylic paints. 

 

 Some zoomed-in photoes:

 

 

And lastly I did some family shots of my small helicopter collection. Three olive drab Vietnam choppers and one bright yellow Sycamore:

 

 

Thanks all for watching! Cheers

 

Dennis

Edited September 16, 2024 by Dennis_C

[fox1_BE]

Great job on a not-so-easy kit! Love the work you did on the various antennae👍

Patrick

[billn53]

Very cool, and nicely done!

[kapam]

A model like this suggests the skill of a watchmaker, or something close to it!

That is a little gem!  Superbly done!  👏👏👏

[Dennis_C]

Thank you, folks, for the comments and likes!

10 hours ago, kapam said:

A model like this suggests the skill of a watchmaker, or something close to it!

Watchmaker title goes to those who would create a detailed rotor head. I probably only can pretent to be a cuckoo clock maker

[Toryu]

A very delicate little gem! Is this the heli they used for James Bond 'Thunderball' (not Little Nelly, but the one to search for the sunken Vulcan?)

[Dennis_C]

11 minutes ago, Toryu said:

Is this the heli they used for James Bond 'Thunderball' (not Little Nelly, but the one to search for the sunken Vulcan?)

This was used in "From Russia with Love". A yellow one Hiller. Not sure about "Thunderball". 

[kelly9mm]

Cute

[AlxBNE]

Lovely rendition of a lesser known but very important piece of helicopter history.

[Dennis_C]

57 minutes ago, Toryu said:

A very delicate little gem! Is this the heli they used for James Bond 'Thunderball' (not Little Nelly, but the one to search for the sunken Vulcan?)

I scanned through the web and looks like Bell 47 Ranger featured in Thunderball. Enlarged two seat rows Hiller UH-12 featured in Goldfinger. 

[woody37]

Wow, that's tiny, superb build. I built a Sycamore several years ago and that was small, so appreciate the fine details you've achieved with this.

[russ c]

Really nice build and great little collection there

[MACALAIN]

Well done, and nice collection.

 

Alain