While watching “We Were Soldiers”, I got inspired to build a Vietnam era Huey. With all the kits out there, one would think that I could choose one and build at will. I have found that theory to be very untrue. If I wanted to build a gunship I would have no problems, but I want to build a simple Huey with door gunners. After purchasing Hasegawa’s 1/72 UH-1H Iroquois, I was on the hunt for some 1/72 M-60 machine guns. I was able to find Italeri’s 1/72 Special Forces figures on Amazon.com. I figured I could cut the guns away from their owners and do a little scratch building. I wasn’t absolutely enthused about scratch building, but it looked like that was my option. Luckily, my father was looking through his stacks upon stacks of old Squadron catalogs and found an Aeroplast kit with door gunners. I quickly went to Squadron.com to find out that they were out of stock. My search went to Google with no luck, then eBay with the same result. Finally, about two weeks later, one came up on eBay. I was determined to get this kit, and did.
Throughout this adventure, I built Heller’s 1/72 P-38 Lightning. I have usually had an easy time with Heller kits and this one would fall in that category. I had a few minor issues with warping and some gap issues, but what kit doesn’t need a little filling? I added a set of Kits World decals of Robin Olds’ Scat II along with a 1/72 Hasegawa Willys Jeep and a few 1/72 Airfix figures. I always have to be building something and this build was a quick and enjoyable way to pass my time while searching for the next build.
amateur airplanes 