Leadfoot,
Check those photos Marko posted of the 57th AHC Nighthawk with the Anti-Strella. I think thats the only one i have seen, but il keep my eye open for others.
Andy
Here are some more unit Nighthawks…
229th AHB
(C/CO 229th Huey Decals Available from From Fireball Modelworks in most scales)
http://webpages.charter.net/osborn82/
UH-1H (67-19525) was a Nighthawk with C/229th from January 1969 until 13 September 1969, when it was apparently shot down during a “Sniffer” mission West of LZ Jamie.
UH-1H (68-16082) The “Judge” was a Nighthawk/Dayhawk with C/229 based at Tay Ninh from September 1969 until June 1972. Not only was this bird used as a Nighthawk, she also adopted the role of a Gunship to help suppress fire for slick units on daytime combat assaults. More info on #082 “Judge” here…
http://www.229thavbn.com/Photos/index.html
Photo of the “Judge” by C/229 Doorgunner “Roy Bridges”…
“Judge” Minigun…
334th AHC
UH-1D (65-09945) 50 Cal armed slick from 334th “Gangbusters” 1967-68
335th AHC
UH-1H “Seasons Greetings” from the 335th “Cowboys” 1970 (note the black minigun mount)
336th AHC
UH-1H “Warrior 21” AKA “Super Slick” 336th AHC “Warriors” 1969-1970.This Nighthawk experimented with a few armament configurations in her day, she had the 50 Cal setup first then the minigun, light and scope and also tried out both the single and twin M60s on the other side. We just need someone to come up with the nose art decals for her (HINT HINT!)
(Ive used some of this birds pics already, so i will post here to keep things in unit order)
The mount for the twin M60s used on this bird are unlike any other twin 60 mounts i have seen! they even have their own spot lights!
The 50 Cal setup…
The minigun, Xenon search light and starlight scope…
It could be my eyes playing tricks, but that looks like some kind of blackout curtain between the pilot and crew section!!
Lastly, “Warrior 21” Preparing for a seal mission …(gota love this Nighthawk)
Stay tuned… More to come.
Andy
Thanks, I’ll be watching this space closely.
Rich
I found something else that has to be moded on the D model. the cabin floor piece sits lower than the door openings for the cargo and cockpit doors. now I need to figure if I should modify the openings or the the floor or if this is even worth the trouble.
leadfooterm535i
I sure would like to see the picture of the “sunken” floor on a D model Huey. I can’t see how that would be possible. Maybe it’s just a picture with some of the floor panels removed for maintenance.
Andy,
Great images and research on the ‘‘Super Slick’’. Your eyes aren’t playing tricks on You-that is a blackout curtain on the Super Slick. In fact all Hueys could be fitted with this curtain UH-1D/H/B/C/M. It was a two piece rig: a short black curtain with zipper at the bottom was attached to the roof between door posts and the backout curtain itself was then ‘‘zipped’’ to it. I guess 336th used this curtain to reduce the negative effect of the searchlight on pilots night vision.
And here are a couple of pics of another UH-1H Nighthawk with Anti-Strela modifications. D troop 17th Cavalry at Danang in late 1972; unfortunately I can only make out part of the serial number-it appears to be 68-1557X or 68-1551X:
Note the unusual minigun ammo box and black AirCav crossed sabres insignia aft of the cabin door:
Nose art on one of D/17 Nighthawks (not the one in the pics above-if You look closely at the first D/17 Nighthawk image You will see that it sported different nose art)
I posted these two images in the unusual vietnam hueys thread, but they certainly belong here; they were taken from 191st AHC 1969/70 yearbook and show a UH-1H Nighthawk in service with the 191st AHC at the time. This was certainly one of the most heavily armed Nighthawks I’ve seen, I just wish I could find some more detailed images of this monster of a Huey. It sported a XM213 .50 cal MG and mk19 mod 0 40mm automatic grenade launcher on the right side and probably minigun (You can clearly see the ammo chute in the picture) and searchlight/starlight scope on the left:
Marko
That’d be 68-15570. She was with D/17 Cav from August 72 through March 73.
Jon,
Thanks for ID on D/17 Nighthawk. Could You possibly check if 57th AHC flew an UH-1H with last three serial number digits ‘‘061’’ (should be in 1972/73 period). Thanks 
Marko
Great stuff Guys!
Andy,
Here’s a couple of pics of the top portion of the blackout curtain you wereasking about. This is an NUH-1B. You can see the top f the curtain through the windshield:
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H ere’s another pic of the overhead panel where you can see the curtain in teh upper part of the photo:
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I know I have a better one in my photo set, but I’ll have to post it later.
Ray
it’s like they messed up doing the measurements for the molds. the Italeri, ESCI, AMT D models in 1/72 are all the same mold. if you put the cabin pieces together and put them in the fuselage. there is a drop in alignment from the door frame to the floor, cabin and cockpit. they probably did know about it, because where the cargo door frames meet the cabin floor, there is like a plate the but on the floor to meet the frame, but it drops down to floor level in the cabin. I removed the 1/4 door and dry fitted the frame, that’s when I noticed the difference.
Maybe you could sand it down slightly, although in this scale its not that obvious unless your looking out for it. Now you’ve noticed it though, it’ll be really prominant to your eyes and stand out a mile, but to everyone else, I doubt they’d pick up on it.
Rich
I’ll see if tonight i can sit down and mark what I’d need to shave off and post it to you guys. Then you can let me know what you think. I was planning on doing one with ALL the doors off like most of the ones I’ve seen. I’ll need to make the armor plates for the pilot seats for starters. Any ideas on what to use and the shape? did they slide forward like the ones on the UH-60? I need more info on what else I put in to detail the cockpit. I know I should put in fire extinguishers, but WHERE? I’ve seen a picture of one attached to the floor to the right of the pilot seat. an extinguisher should be easy to replicate. round stock and shaped aluminum foil. I have many sizes of copper wire than can be used for cables and stuff through out the cockpit.
I like that one in the picture you put up last (richgb) with the cabin walls stripped from sound proffing. that would just take sanding down the walls to get rid of the criss cross patterns and scribing a few lines in. is that bare metal or is it gray as well? and I would get to put on the toilet bowl I made. question is, markings, can I get them?
OOOps. I tried to add some writing in but there was no room left. What I meant to point out was that this ship has all the soundproofing ripped out, even on the ceiling. What was the purpose of this, to save on weight maybe? or had it just fallen out?? It looks like just the bare essentials.
Just going back to the pic of the Cav ship above, were those moustaches standard issue for Cav pilots? Nearly every pic I’ve seen of a Cav pilot he has a tash!!
Rich
another thing I noticed about 1/72 scale stuff. every M-60, either D, G or any, don’t have the bipod legs on the end. the only exception is a kit of figures of USMC I bought last month, but the only one I can tell has them, has them extended out with the guy in the prone. What a spoiler for anyone who hasn’t noticed it.[:(!]
Kris,
You don’t need a bipod on your M60 for the doorgun. Especially if you are using the M60D with the spade grips. If you want an M60A with the standard pistol grips, get the Eduard 1/72 set (don’t have the number handy right now) to get bipods, but you will have to get two since each set only has a single M60. Basically, the bipod was either left on or removed depending on the time the amament guys had with the gun. My father always removed the bipods from his guns, but he said it wasn’t uncommon at all to leave them on the barrels if the guns were needed in a hurry.
Ray
So what you’re saying is, bipods were optional!?! Man, we used to get hounded by our XO because 1 or 2 of our M60Ds had a problem, usually a bent or messed up bipod.
How many weapons come in that Eduard set? is it recent or do I have to hunt it down?
Kris,
i never served in the military, so I’m not the final word on this, but my experience from talking to Vietnam vets and reading about combat missions is that lot’s of things become “optional” in a combat zone. Dad said some barrels came with bipods and others didn’t. To show you what I mean, here’s a pic of dad with his M60:
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Not only does his 60 not have a bipod, he’s holding the crew cheif’s cigarette! I bet your XO would of fragged you for that!
Here’s another M60A on a Sagami mount and you can see that it has a bipod. However, short of the bird going down and the gunner needing to fire on the ground it’s not necessary. Check the Vietnam Huey thread (Page 9) for an in depth discussion of M60’s in Hueys.
As for the Eduard set, it is EXV 72016 (West Block Modern Fire Arms). The set comes with 1 M60A, 2 M-16’s, 2 Uzi’s, 2 German MG-3’s 2 German G-3’s, and 2 FN-FAL’s. I’m not sure who would need this assortment of weapons, but that’s what is there. The kit also includes bipods for the MG-3 and M60. I bought 2 sets because I knew I would need two guns, but i can’t rememeber where I got them or how much they cost. Hopefully that will help, though. By the way, you can get two M60A’s in the 1/72 Italeri OH-13S kit as well as a pair of 30 cal Brownings. There are also two M60D’s in the 1/72 italeri Desert Hawk kit, but they are not entirely accurate since they have moulded forearms and M60D’s lacked forearms.
Ray
Yes, everyone would be pissed. Specially since that was one of the first parts in the crew/ passenger briefs the pilots made us give. Never understood this, No smoking within 50 feet of the aircraft, but the aircraft is administratively Red X’ed if the ash trays were not installed in the pilot doors. Go figure!
I have a bunch of OH-13 kits but the weapons just didn’t look right when I was laying out what I could use. As for the Eduard kit, I’ll see if I can find one and then if anyone wants to share the rest that I don’t need.
You got any ideas as far as my D cabin floor dilema? I guess since all the doors are going to be off it wouldn’t matter if I shave down the openings.
Kris,
The Oh-13 kit I have is Italeri No. 085. It definitely has M60A’s with forearms, but there are also two small mounting pegs on the bottom of the gun that make it look strange. take those two little pegs off and you got yourself a pretty gun doorgun for your Huey, but you’ll have to add the carrying handle that the bungee cord is attached to.
I haven’t built a UH-1D yet, so i’m not qualified to comment on the fit problem with your floor. Shaving down the edges sounds good to me, though.
Ray