600 Size OH-58A Kiowa (Funkey Conversion)

A few years ago, I picked up a blade 550X at a swap meet, and have been trying to figure out my next project. After some consideration, I bought a Funkey 600 size Jetranger fuselage for it, and stretched the 550 to a 600. However, I didn’t want to build your run of the mill Jetranger. Instead, I will be converting it to a Vietnam War OH-58A.

I knew I wanted to replicate one that carried the mini gun, so that severely reduced my options. I did however find some great photos of one machine, OH-58A 68-16936 of the 3/17th Air Cav, A Troop, “Silver Spurs”. It appears to have an ammo box mounted to the side of the copilots armored seat to hold extra smoke grenades. There was just one problem.. I couldn’t make out the text on the upper cowling..

Like any good scale modeler, I started a deep dive for reference photos. All searches turned up empty. I contacted Veterans who were in the unit, and no one remembered the name. I even contacted the Army Aviation Museum, who redirected me to Army Records at Redstone. Many emails were exchanged over several months, and I had to file a Freedom of Information Act request to get them to look for records of that airframe. And they told me that the records were missing for that airframe..

In the process of this search, I learned a great about the history of the real 936. It survived the Vietnam War and served in the New Mexico National Guard until the mid 90s. The airframe is currently listed for auction. The cutout for the mini gun mount is still visible in the rear door. I became set on modeling this airframe, but I still needed to figure out that marking, or at least make up something..

Finally, I had a breakthrough. My brother, a software engineer, has able to apply filters to un-distort the text visible in the photo. With some photoshop and squinting, we were able to discern that it reads “Chef’s Special”. With the markings solved, I finally moved back to actual work on the airframe.