I will have a look through my ref material for any pics I can find. The best site you can go to is the site I run, www.aussiemodeller.com - there is a discussion board that is frequented by some very knowledgeable folk that will certainly be able to help you. If you go back through the forum you will even find info on the weapon set up on the Bushrangers as there was a big discussion about them a few months ago.
Edit - on reflection and looking through my refs I don’t think that there would have been any dedicated medivac Huey’s in the Aust contingent. There were only two Australian SQN’s of Huey’s in Vietnam, one RAAF (9SQN) and the RAN flight (navy). At most they would have had ten aircraft each and would have been too busy doing insertion/extraction with some dedicated Bushrangers to give fire support. I ‘think’ that all dedicated aeromedical support for the Australian forces was done by the USA. The medical extraction by the Aust contingent would have been to just put the injured on the cargo floor and get them out that way rather than ‘waste’ an airframe on permanent medical setup with red crosses. But I shall keep looking for any refs I can on it.
Just an observation about the first picture of the Huey Medevac showing it on the left side of the aircraft. The image is reversed, notice the main blades are backwards, and the Rescue Hoist is usually mounted on the right side. This is because the pilot on the right also has controls to run the hoist if necessary. The hoist can be installed in any of 4 different locations on the Huey. It can be installed where the main seat support pole is located middle of the cabin doorway. I crewed a Medevac in the Reserves from 1975 to 1981. We still had UH-1H’s but the “V” model was being introduced about the time I left.
Good eye Mel. I thought that picture was funny with the hoist on the left side. I flew medevac in San Antonio and did Hoist training and was wondering why that image had it on the left.
True Mel and Charlie the hoist is USUALLY mounted on the right, but the fire supression bird I posted has it one the left I assume because the supression system is on the right. Good eyes, by the way, Mel.
I’ve been searching around the net and found this pic of what I think might be an ammunition canister . It was from a prime portal web site that had some very nice walkaround pic’s of an RAAF Bushranger Huey , finished in the 1980’s color scheme of Tan and Green . There were also some great pic’s of the twin machine gun set up . I didn’t see any pic’s of inside the cabin so I’m not sure what type of ammo box would have been used during the vietnam war . The one’s I have to use are the standard box type that usually fits under the cabin seat . I was about to cut open the small cabin side door , when I decided to check the net again to see if I should just cut a slot in the door instead . At the moment I can’t decide which to do [%-)]
That is a definite wierd photo. I do not believe it to be a ammo cannister. It definitely is two ammo cans welded together. Reminds me of possibly a gun can to clear your weapon in. Back in the seventies you saw similar cans around certain building on a military base and you clear your weapon in them. You were suppose to empty your gun first and make sure it was empty by squeezing the trigger with the barrel pointed into the can after it was clear. One dumb 2nd LT I was with going to finance to help pickup the payroll thought he was to fire his gun into the barrel to empty it. I was so embarrased when I saw him empty his 45 into the barrel and boy did it cause a up roar at Finance. Boy did he catch hell when we got back to the company. He never did live that down.
Anyway, I don’t know what that photo is but if it held two rolls of ammo where would the belt feed be at and how would a belt switch from one side to another. Interesting image.
Go here and it will answer most of your questions, including the wierd ammo can. And YES, it is an ammo can! This was written by one of the guys who armed the first Bushrangers so it’s great intel.
I stand corrected, but I wonder how a double wide ammo can pulls ammo from both sides. I would think the ammo is just folded on top of itself in two columns. I wonder how the connection between the two sides is accomplished.
First off , a big thanks to Dave Harvey for posting those links to Aussie modeler , there are some awesome Bushranger Huey pics on those forum pages . Also a big thanks to Ray [rotorwash] the information on that Bushranger Huey site was extremely informative , Thanks guy’s [tup].
I’ve been agonizing over the twin machine gun set these past couple of day’s , trying to scratch build some more accurate looking guns is beyond my skills . Instead I went and looked around a few hobby stores today and picked up an Italeri 1/72 M113 A1 Armoured personal vehicle . The kit has two nice looking M60 guns on the sprue , so I’ve decided to go with these and I’ll buy a few more M113 kits to have enough guns for three Bushranger Huey’s . I also found another UH-1B and UH-1D Huey kits , The recently purchased UH-1D I’ll finish in the 80’s Tan and Green comouflage scheme .
I suppose it’s the expensive way to go about trying to get some nice looking machine guns , but I really want all the Huey’s to look accurate , so at least I can concentrate on the builds now . [|)]
John, Those are much better looking 60’s than the OH-13 kit guns. If you want to try to find the PE guns, they are made by Extratech. Go here for a pic of the fret:
G’Day again John, Have a bit more Bushranger info for you.
The RAAF used 2 different types of minigun ammunition carriage. The earliest type was a large rectangular box like the US C model gunships had. It was mounted just aft of the pilot seats (looking at your photo of your kits in assembly the box on the RH side with your “weapons Cache” in it the lower RH corner the Grey box is what you’ll want) I believe this config was used until midway through 9 SQN In Vietnam until they changed to the pyramid looking Hopper style boxes 2 per aircraft behind the pilots seats again.
The ammo feed I believe for the Vietnam just ran behind the Quarter door and to the gun I’m not 100% but I don’t think it was until after vietnam they had the holes cut in quarter doors for the flexi feed. Same with skinning over the windows on the quarter door that was a reasonably late addition too I think.
For doorguns the M-60’s from the M-113 kit look spot on just might need the folded bipod added if they don’t have it. However in 1/72 that might be getting a little too picky it’s up to the individual! The doorgunners also had a rack mounted to the aft bulkhead on each side holding 5 M18 smoke grenades you might like to include that too?
About the other only major gunship thing I can think of would be the inclusion of the gunsights. The best i could describe them would be they looke like a mustang or similar aircrafts gunsight but inverted and hanging from the top of the windscreen pretty much! Unlike the US aircraft which had a complex looking system with a handle and a series of long arms to control the hydraulics on the guns which the RAAF removed.
I hope that wasn’t too confusing just trying to give you what I have off the top of my head. If there’s anything else I can help with fire away
As has already been said, the 1ATF didn’t have any dedicated medivac helos.
The bushranger gunships didn’t run the feed belts through the door until fairly late in the piece.
The twin M60 door gun arrangements were actually the standard infantry M60 with just the receiver guard removed. Nothing special about them at all, they certainly weren’t the C or D versions.
It can be confusing with so many pics of the American equipment on the net and of course the Aussie stuff wasn’t nearly so well documented.
