1/35 UH-60A Grenada (OP Urgent Fury) Build

[HeavyArty]

I have started on another project I have wanted to do for a while. I am building an early UH-60A Black Hawk from Operation Urgent Fury, the US invasion of Grenada in Oct 1983. This was the first combat action the Black Hawk helicopter had seen, its baptism by fire. These early UH-60As had no wire strike kits, open exhaust, no ESSS wing attachments, no chaff buckets, M60D doorguns, etc.

Here is one in Grenada.

So far, I have started a test to see if the open exhausts from one of Kitty Hawk’s Naval H-60s would fit onto an Academy fuselage. I want to use the Academy fuselage since it is a cleaner one and earlier than the Kitty Hawk H-60 fuselage. Kitty Hawk’s has a later transmission access panel on the starboard side and reinforcing strips on the tailboom and other areas. Academy’s fuselage is pretty clean with no extra (later) features.

I have the Kitty Hawk Naval HH-60H kit, which has the open exhausts as extra parts since it uses HIRSS exhausts like an Army H-60. I also had bought an extra KH MH-60L C sprue which contains all the other parts for the engine cowlings.

Here it is so far to show that the KH open exhausts and engine cowlings fit on the Academy fuselage. I did have to do some cutting and remove most of the Academy engine cowl parts. It will require a bit of filling and sanding to blend it all together, but a good start.

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[Pawel]

Hello Gino!

Of course I’ll be watching this. I believe I read somewhere that at this early stage the Blackhawk was having a lot of problems and the soldiers called it “*hawk” and wished they had the Huey back - is that correct?

Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

[HeavyArty]

Thanks Pawel. Like all new pieces of equipment, it had some issues and Soldiers don’t like change. It proved itself in Grenada though and Soldiers came to love it.

[stikpusher]

I rememeber the early ones having some sort of problems with the tail controls when first introduced into service in West Germany during the early to mid 80’s, and them getting the nickname “crash hawks” at that time. A fix was eventually figured out.

[LonCray]

The ironic thing is, the US military (Navy specifically) STILL has some Hueys in inventory so they aren’t completely gone yet.

[HeavyArty]

The USMC (technically part of the Navy) still uses brand new UH-1Ys and AH-1Zs. So yes, the Huey lives on in US military service.

The US Army retired its last Huey in Dec of 2016, after 42 years of service. It was transferred to the Lousianna State Police where it will continue to serve.

“The last UH-1 Huey, tail number 74-22478, made its final flight as a U. S. Army operated aircraft Dec. 15, 2016.”

I built one of its sister ships, tail # 74-22367, a few years ago (damn its been 17 years!! - I still have it on the shelf too).

https://archive.aeroscale.net/features/1881/

[HeavyArty]

Work continues on the early UH-60A. I am using the Kitty Hawk MH-60L interior on it. A nice thing about the Kitty Hawk H-60 kits, like many other manufacturers, they add new sprues into the box of previous versions to get newer version. Often, this leaves you with extra, unused parts. The KH MH-60S is a navalized version of the Army UH-60. KH gives you all the MH-60L parts and then a few more sprues for the MH-60S-specific parts. You end up with a big box and lots of parts left over. The extra parts include most of the UH-60 interior, including the floor plate, ceiling, and seats. This fixes the weakest part of the Academy kit, the poorly detailed interior parts.

Here it is so far. I made the yaw pedals from left over PE as I couldn’t find all the Academy ones. I also used the Academy collectives and cyclic sticks. I added some button and knob details to the collectives.

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I also used the instrument panel and center console from the Werner’s Wings UH-60A/L backdate set. The crew chief’s consoles/stowage bins on the back of the pilots’ seats from an old Cobra Company UH-60 Update set.

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Close up of the excellent Werner’s Wings analog UH-60A/L instrument panel. It looks really great.

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I am using a pair of gunner’s side panels/A and B pillar interior parts left over from a Warner’s Wings UH-60 MedEvac conversion. I added some left over PE side panel details and vent boxes onto them. I also closed in the KH ceiling with thin styrene to represent the the cloth coverings on the ceiling and rear panel.

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The KH interior also fits into the Academy fuselage almost perfectly. It actually fits better than into the KH fuselage, which is very tight and almost impossible to close up without gaps. You have to sand down the sides of the floor and ceiling to get them to fit cleanly into the KH fuselage.

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Work continues. Painting and detailing the interior items is next.

[HeavyArty]

Over the weekend I was able to get the interior painted.

I added drain lines to the transmission drip pan on the ceiling. I also detailed the fabric panels with fasteners and added the H-bar and center bar for the crew chief and troop seats.

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On the floor I added the anti-slip strips in black and first aid kits to the backs of the pilots’ seats. I also added individual instrument decals from a 1/32 jet IP decal sheet to dress up the IP.

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I also fixed the yaw pedals. I realized they were backwards and corrected them by flipping them around so that the center bar is in front of the PE backplate.

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I also added the Academy door interior decals to KH doors.

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Here are the gunners side panels / A & B pillar interiors. I added fire extinguishers to them. I also added fabric panels to the rear side walls using sheet styrene.

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!

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!

Next up I will assemble the crew chief and troop seats and add them to the interior, along with the pilots, crew chiefs, and a few troopers in the back.

[Pawel]

Hello Gino!

Very nice detail on the interior!

How about those fire extinguishers - they used to be red, now I see they are yellow, how come?

Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

[HeavyArty]

Hi Pawel. Thanks for the compliments. The yellow-colored fire extinguishers are Class D for combustible metal fires. Some aircraft use them and others use red ones, which are for normal/general fires.

Class D extinguishers: https://fireextinguisherdepot.com/class-d-fire-extinguishers/

Red ABC extinguishers: https://fireextinguisherdepot.com/abc-fire-extinguishers/

[HeavyArty]

It appears both UH-60As w/seats and w/out seats were seen in Grenada. I have seen pics of both ways, like below.

The question is how to do the troops in the back. I am leaning toward no seats and guys hanging out the doors. Opinions??

As posted above w/seats.

And w/out seats.

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[stikpusher]

It’s always fun to ride with your rump on the floorboard and legs hanging out, so my vote is for that method. Usually there is a safety strap on each door opening when that method is used.

[HeavyArty]

Yes, I agree and am going that way. Tracking on the safety straps as well.

[HeavyArty]

Over the last few days, I have made quite a bit of progress. It’s almost ready for paint.

First, I got it all closed up. It wasn’t too hard closing it up. A little bit of trimming on the cockpit floor sides and in the gunners’ windows and it closed up just fine.

Here it is overall. I also used a few spare pieces of PE here and there to add details.

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On the inside, I added the gunners’ seats and the squad leader seat between them. I had forgotten how much of a PITA the legs are on those seats. After wrestling with them for a while, I finally got them all in place.

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I also changed up the cockpit a little bit. I swapped out the collective handles and cyclic grips from a Live Resin set. The cyclic grips are in the pilots’ hands from the same Live Resin UH-60 pilots’ set. They look much better than what I had.

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Here is the crew. I started with the Bravo 6 Vietnam Huey pilots and door gunners. I swapped the arms of the pilots for ones from the above-mentioned Live Resin UH-60 pilots set. They have their sleeves down and have the cyclic grips in their hands. They also have the chicken plate armor that was still being worn and molded on seat belts. I added the round seat belt release from the Kitty Hawk PE sheet.

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The gunners are also the Bravo 6 Vietnam Huey ones. The seated one is straight from the set. All I changed on him was shortening his legs a bit to get his butt to sit on the gunner’s seat. The other one I took and added the legs from the standing gunner in the Dragon Vietnam Helo Crew set. I widened his legs, so he straddles the gunner seat on his side. He will be hanging out the gunner’s window and looking back, holding both grips on the M60D MG.

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Next up is painting the crew and installing 3 of them. The standing gunner has to be added after since he will be hanging out the window. Then close up the glass and paint.

I will add the troopers hanging out the side doors and all their gear in the back after paint as well.

[HeavyArty]

I completed the crew. I forgot to take pics before installing them in the helo. Here they are in place. One nice feature of the Bravo 6 crew is they come with PE boom mics. They look pretty good to me.

Pilots

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Port side gunner.

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The starboard side gunner. He will be added after painting since he will be hanging out the gunner’s window.

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Next up I need to install the canopy glass and tape it all off to prep for painting.

[HeavyArty]

Over the last few days, I was able to get some paint on it. I painted it with Testors Model Master Helo Drab (FS34087) enamel. I bought a few bottles when I heard they were being cancelled. Luckily, I still have a few left.

Here it is overall.

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I taped off and painted the black non-slip areas on the roof and the exhausts. I also shot the intakes and the side antennas with black.

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I got it up on its wheels too. For the wheels, I used a resin set by Werner’s Wings. They look great and have sidewall details and the proper groves around them.

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I will be marking it as a bird from B Co, 82d Combat Aviation Bn, 82d ABN Div.

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I will use most of the common decals on the Academy sheet for stencils and such. I made up and printed out my own decals for the ones that are specific to this helo.

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Lastly, I received one last bit I have been waiting for. I got the Res-Kit M60D doorgun set from Ukraine. They look great and have PE rear grips, PE vented bipods and sights, and all the needed accessories. They should look really nice on it.

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Next up is decals.

[HeavyArty]

After posting above, I realized I was using the wrong 82d patch. I went online and found the right one and printed up a decal for it.

Correct one on the right.

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Actual nose art.

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[keavdog]

Crew looks great! I love ResKit stuff - great details.

[HeavyArty]

Thanks John. Res-Kit does make great products.

[HeavyArty]

Got some more work done on the UH-60A. Playoff hockey is slowing me down. Go Bolts!!

Anyway, I assembled the rotorhead and blades. I was able to mainly use the Kitty Hawk parts as the naval versions have a totally new/different rotor head and blades. I also had some rotor parts on the extra C sprue I bought. I added the wiring that goes from the center out to each blade too.

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I also got all the decals on it and flattened them out with a coat of dullcoat. Here are the 82d-specific ones I made.

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Some more overall.

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Port side.

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Starboard side.

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I installed the starboard gunner and the Res-Kit M60D doorguns. They came out really nice.

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And the port side gunner.

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I also started on the GIBs (Guys In Back). They are mostly made up of Dragon ODS-era parts. The torsos w/PASGT armor, heads, and helmets are all from Dragon. The lower halves are mostly from the old Tamiya Armored Troops set since they are seated. I also used one guy from the Dragon USMC Tank Killers set: the seated Dragon gunner (he will be seated against the back wall), and one set of legs in resin from somewhere. The arms are from various kits to make them fit as I want.

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Their weapons will be a mix of Dragon (M203 and M60A) and 3D printed M16A1s with 30rd magazines.

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Here is their stack of gear that will go down the center of the helo. It has six rucksacks, water jugs, MREs, ammo cans, etc.

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I’m currently working on all the figures’ camo and finishing up their gear. I need to add some weathering to the helo as well