I want to build a USMC UH-1N Twin Huey from HMM-261, in Operation Urgent Fury, October 1983. “Simple,” right?
My fellow Army veteran Floyd Werner at Werner’s Wings has an amazingly detailed decal sheet for the UH-1N, which includes 2 Twin Hueys of HMM-261, the Raging Bulls, from Operation Urgent Fury, Oct. 1983.
Here’s the rub- I know that Kitty Hawk Models folded, so there kit of a Twin Huey is now rare as hen’s teeth- just saw one on Evil Bay for over $400!
So I’m hoping to use the Italeri 1/48 AB 212- UH-1N kit to start, but it seems to have armament and additions circa 2005. For an Urgent Fury November (UH-1N), I need low tech, 1983 stuff.
So, 3 questions to start jump out-
I don’t see if the Italeri kit includes the “disco ball” and the round, raised mount for it on top? Anyone know sources for those parts?
It looks like these Urgent Fury Twin Hueys had a colorful chaff dispenser (??) on the starboard boom? Looks like a dang pinball machine, if you’re old enough to know what that is! Anyone know sources for that, or more detailed photos or info to scratch one?
What kind of door mounts would these choppers have in 1983? I see one color photo where it looks like they used M60 machine guns, mounted on old leftover door mounts as used in 'Nam. Anyone know sources for them? Could I kitbash from an older Huey kit?
Many thanks!
Best, Christian
PS I’ve been in touch with the Museum of the USMC, who speculated that these choppers might have used door mounted .50 cals, but there is a color photo online. I zoomed in like crazy and they sure like like the old M60 “PIG…” those of you who have fired one know why we called it that!
Unless they’re M240s? Thoughts? Speculation? Info anyone? Thanks!
You may already have seen this…and I know it’s not exactly an authoritative source…but Wikipedia identifies them as M60Ds, in addition to giving a credit for the photo:
This is a USMC UH-1N in Greneda. It is armed with standard M23 doorgun mounts w/M60Ds on them. The .50 cal on one side and M134 minigun on the other is a later set-up.
Nice project. The photo Greg found on wikipedia has it all - disco light, pinball and pigs
Now if all else fails you can give me some sketches and I’ll draw up the parts you need in 3D and you can have them printed on Shapeways. Once I made an M60 in 1:48 for a guy building a Chinook:
Now that I think about it there’s a Polish two-part write up on the Huey, the Author’s name is Patryk Janda and it’s published by AJ Press. The Part two of it (it’s Volume 109) has a large sheet of scale plans in 1:48 and one of the drawings has a Marine UH-1N with a disco light and a flare/chaff dispenser, so you could take basic dimensions off of that drawing.
And here’s a HH-1N I built from the Italeri kit as a Christmas gift for my little brother:
I’ve never fired an M60, although in Vietnam I saw them fired to deadly effect. But I didn’t know they were called “Pigs”. Perhaps that terminology was used later in the war; I was there for just a few weeks in early 1966. So, why were they called Pigs?
I’m a later (Bosnia) veteran of the U.S. CAV, but I was always told by Vietnam veterans that the M60 was not so affectionately called the “Pig” for 2 reasons: not only because it was heavy and bulky like a pig, but because of its’ greedy, insatiable appetite for ammo- it went through belts and belts at a crazy rate…a grunt might lug those heavy belts for days through the bush, only to see them shot up in seconds at some unseen enemy.
I did train and fire on the M60 in Basic Training in 1999, and liked it…but the second I picked it up I uderstood why it was called the “Pig-” it’s heavy.
Not the the M249 SAW I soemtimes carried in Bosnia was much better!
As AUS Tanker explained they were heavy for a so-called light infantry support machine gun. That is another reason why the majority of machine gunners I met while in the Corps were big guys.
