Well… my first chopper build since high School ??.. my son recently discovered Apocolypse Now… and wanted me to build him a chopper … So… I’ve mashed up a few choppers from the Ride of the Valkyries scene. and this is what I got…
I used Esci’s UH-1H 1/48 scale chopper… scratch built some pa speakers… a reel to reel tape teck complete with CCR on the tape… ( for real )… scracth built surfboards… home made decals… hand painted nose art… and… I forget…
here we go…
my beginning WIP pics were lacking… so… this is what I got.
I used a 1/48 scale mechanic, and searched the web for pics of Col Kilgore’s surf board… printed them off, and matched to pics of the boards and surfers from the movie… I adjusted the pics by stretching them to fit the movie pics…
Col Kilgore’s board is all decal… with paint touching up the edges…
the Air Cav decals, also pics from the web… manipulated to fit…
now. 1/48 scale… Reel to Reel tape deck… with CCR on it…
I used the gunbay trays from a 1/32 Wildcat, shaved lever from a cockpit… some PE fiddely bits… cut some clear card for the reels… each reel has 4 pieces… 2 outer parts, 2 inner or the hubs…
I found an old tape of the movie sound track… Born on the 4th of July… listened till Born on the Bayou was playing… spliced out that section… and added it to the reels…
It looks pretty good. Great movie. Nice job on the speakers and reel-to-reel set.
There are a couple issues though. The biggest is the gun/rocket set up. The US didn’t use H models as gunships. All D/H models were “slicks”, troop carriers with doorgunners in the rear side wells. Gunships were the short-bodied B and C models. Also, the antennas just behind the pilots’ doors shouldn’t be there. Those are later (1980s) features. The line down the center of the windshild should be green too. There is a center pillar there.
The surf boards look great. A good job overall. A few tweaks and it will be great.
That is pretty slick looking. Getting the correct music for the tape player really shows your dedication. One question: How is the audio from that cobbled together sound system? I expect that because of the size, you really don’t get the bass notes too well.
ok, She’s done… Boards mounted… windshield pillar painted… doors on… main rotor on… I decided to leave the anntenaes behind the pilot’s doors as cleaning up the mounting points would not be fun…
Nice job! Interesting scratch built details and techniques. Thanks for posting! I hated the movie when it came out until years later read an artical about “going to extemes” was his way of showing the insanity of war.
