BUILDING A HUEY GUNSHIP

Having flown the Huey as a civilian I had a goal to build a Vietnam era Gunship. I chose the 1/5th scale Bell 204 being produced by HELI-FACTORY in Germany as a starting point for this build. I did a lot of research on the Hueys being flown in Vietnam and came across the "Razorbacks", a helicopter unit flying fully armed Hueys prior to the introduction of the Cobra. Their helicopters were armed with twin 60 caliber machine guns and rocket launchers, gunners with 60 caliber weapons on each side and a nose mounted M40 granade launcher. They used different combinations of this armament, I added them all, lol. This was the version of a gunship that fit my goal.


                      BUILDING THE HUEY
     The Huey arrived "in the white" but with a tremendous amount of detailing molded into the fuselage during manufacturing. After painting I added a tremendous amount weathering to represent the "battle worn" gunship being flown by the Razorbacks. The graphics were supplied by Callie Graphics and all the Military nomenclature stencils came from HELI-FACTORY. The armament is a 3D printed product produced by SCALE-PRINT in Germany. The very authentic pilots and gunners came from TailoredPilots in the UK. The M40 nose mounted granade launcher was 3D printed by Russell Rohan and George Baker. Russell also printed a dummy Lycoming T53 that would cover the electric motor and add detail behind the screened turbine access doors. The main rotor assembly is an exact scale replica of the Huey rotor head and also produced by Heli-Factory. A lot of extra detail added to the cabin area with ammo crates, boxes, and of course the Air Cav "Stetsons".

FLYING THE GUNSHIP
      Equipped with a Kontronik Pyro 1000 which is controlled by a Kontronik Cool Kosmik 200 ESC set at 860 main rotor RPM. Four 5000mah 6S, two in parallel and then in series to produce 10000mah on 12S for a comfortable seven minute flight with a safe reserve. BeierElectronics sound system with authentic Lycoming T53 sound which produce a VERY realistic model.