UH-1D Slick (VUSBX03)

UH-1D Slick (VUSBX03) includes one UH-1D Slick with two door gunners, one plastic flight stand, one plastic rotor sprue, four rare earth magnets & one helicopter decal sheet. The most widely used military helicopter, the Bell UH-1 series Iroquois, better known as the "Huey", began arriving in Vietnam in 1963. Before the end of the conflict, more than 5,000 of these versatile aircraft were introduced into Southeast Asia. "Hueys" were used for MedEvac, command and control, and air assault; to transport personnel and materiel; and as gunships.  UH-1D, were nicknamed ‘Slicks’ because they didn’t have all of the encumbrances of the gunships. While the UH-1D was rated for two crew and twelve passengers, in Vietnam the crew was increased to include a crew chief and a door gunner. Check out the UH-1D Slick in the online store here...

Tour Of Duty The Vietnam War defined a generation, whether it was through service in Vietnam or opposition to the war. The war in Vietnam remains one the bloodiest wars since the Second World War. Learn more about Tour Of Duty here...

The number of passengers was further decreased by the thinner air of the ‘hot and high’ conditions of the Vietnamese highlands, with even six passengers proving a heavy load in the worst conditions. Despite all the difficulties, the chopper pilots prided themselves in getting their passengers in, even under fire, and evacuating any wounded. It was dangerous work and many helicopters came home riddled with bullet holes and with wounded pilots and crew. Below: The UH-1D decal sheet.

UH-1D Huey transport helicopters were nicknamed ‘Slicks’ because they didn’t have all of the encumbrances of the gunships. Chopper pilots prided themselves in getting their passengers in, even under fire, and evacuating any wounded. It was dangerous work and many helicopters came home riddled with bullet holes.

The UH-1D in Flames Of War Vietnam

Armour     Team Mobility Front Side Top Notes Weapon Range ROF Anti-tank Firepower   UH-1D Slick Slick - - - Carries three Passengers. Two Door MG 16"/40cm 3 2 6 Side mounted.

UH-1D Specifications Crew: 4 + 8 passengers Weight: 2.4 tonnes Length: Fuselage 12.0m (39’ 7”); Overall 17.4m (57’ 1”) Width: 2.6m (8’ 7”) Height: 4.4m (13’ 7”) Rotor: 13.4m (44’) Engine: Lycoming T53 (1100 shp) Speed: 209 km/h (112 knots, 130 mph) Rate of Climb: 8.1ms-1 (1600 ft/min) Range: 420 km (260 miles) Designed by Evan Allen Crew designed by Anton Ducrot Rotors and Flying Stand designed by Casey Davies Painted by Jeremy Painter

The UH-1D Slick Approaches The LZ

Contents of the UH-1D Slick Box Set

Contact the customer service team at [email protected] if you have any issues with any of the components.

Description of Components

a. 1x Engine piece. b. 2x Door sprues. c. 1x Door gunner sprue. d. 1x Tailplane sprue. e. 1x Landing skid.

f. 1x Tail rotor mount. g. 4x Rare earth magnets. h. 1x Resin lower fuselage section. i. 1x Resin upper fuselage section. j. 1x Resin tail section.

Plastic Rotor Sprue a. 1x Plastic rotor sprue.	Plastic Flight Stand a. 1x Plastic flight stand.	Helicopter Decal Sheet a. 1x Helicopter decal sheet.

Assembling The Flight Stand

Step 1. Cut the parts of the flight stand off the plastic sprue and clean them up. The best way to cut the parts off the sprue is with a sharp hobby knife or a pair of hobby cutters.

Step 2. Attach to stalk to the flight stand base. Tip: When assembling the flight stand it is best to use hobby glue especially formulated for plastics. However, Super Glue can be used if you don't have access to specific plastic hobby glue.	Step 3. Add the magnet cap to the top of the stalk. Casey has done another excellent job working with Evan to create an excellent system of attaching the flight stand to the bottom of the helicopter. Note: The cap fits snugly to the top of the stalk, so only use a very small amount of glue to hold the magnet cap in place.	Step 4. The cap has a recess designed for the supplied magnets. The cap is designed especially to work in conjunction with the recess on the bottom of the helicopters and the magnets to create a solid connection between the stand and helicopter. Note: The cap also a two tabs to match the two slots on the bottom of the helicopters.

How The Flight Stand, Magnets, and Helicopter Work Together
Step 1. The bottom of the UH-1D has a recess for a magnet and slots to match with the tabs on the cap.	Step 2. A magnet is the glued in the recess. Make sure the polarities match.	Step 3. Mated perfectly; the flight stand, helicopter and magnets create a solid, stable connection.

An Alternate Way Of Using The Flight Stand If you are not a fan of using rare earth magnets, here is a simple but effective way of using the plastic flight stand without them.

Step 1. Construct the flight stand as shown above but don't attach the magnet cap.	Step 2. Next, drill a hole in the top of the flight stand stem; a 2mm drill is the ideal size for our purpose. The hole only needs to be 3-4mm deep and keeping it as straight as possible would also be beneficial.		Below: The hole drilled into the top of the stem of the flight stand.

Below: The plug piece will be used upside to attach the Huey to the flight stand.	Step 3. Glue the up turned plug piece into the magnet reccess of the Huey.	Below: The stem of the flight stand can now attach to the up turned plug piece via the hole that was drilled into it and provide us with a way of attaching the Huey to the flight stand without using any rare earth magnets.

Assembling The Rotors

Step 1. Begin by cutting the parts off the plastic sprue. Tip: The best way to cut the parts off the sprue is with a sharp hobby knife, some of the parts a quite delicate so using a pair of hobby cutter could damage these parts.

Step 2. Once all the required parts are off the sprue, carefully cut off any excess sprue with your hobby knife.

Tip: Before starting to assemble the rotors, attach the rotor mast to block of wood, an empty paint pot etc. This will give you something to hang onto while completing the assemble process.	Step 3. Next are the main rotor blades. There is an upper and lower rotor blade. The upper rotor blade can be is seen in the lower portion of the photo.	Below: The rotors need to be correctly orientated as shown in the example below.

Step 4. Since Casey did such an outstanding job with the design of the rotors, the parts fit together extremely well so you will only need a very small amount of hobby glue to fix the rotors into place.		Step 5. Once the lower rotor is in place, you can how attach the upper rotor; ensuring that you have the rotors correctly orientated.

Step 6. Finally, attach the rotor stabilising bar.	Below: With the rotor stabilising bar in place, the main rotor is fully-assembled.

The New UH-1D Slick Fuselage

Evan has created a new two-piece fuselage for the UH-1D Slick that includes much more interior detail.
Below: The lower fuselage section.		Below: The upper fuselage section.

Assembling The UH-1D Slick

Step 1. Begin by joining the upper and lower sections of the fuselage.		Step 2. Next, join the fuselage and tail sections.

Below: The joined fuselage and tail sections.	Step 2. Next, attach the landing skid to the underneath of the body section.

Below: The landing skid in place.	Step 3. Next, attach the engine piece to the top of the body section.

Step 4. For the main rotor, attach a rare earth magnet into the recess in the engine piece.		Step 5. The rare earth magnet in the recess is then paired up with its mate attached to the main rotor itself.

Below: The rare earth magnets make it much simpler to attachment the main rotors and allows for easy removal when in comes to transporting the miniature.	Step 6. Time to attach the tailplanes to the tail section. Below: Both of the tailplanes attached to the tail section.

Step 7. Next, attach to tail rotor mount to the tail section.		Below: The tail rotor mount attached to the tail section.	Step 8. Attached the tail rotor to the tail rotor mount.

Step 9. Next, attach the doors the side of the fuselage. The doors are option and the UH-1D Slick can be modelled with or without the doors.

Step 10. Finally, attach the doors gunners to the seat inside of the UH-1D Slick.

Below: With the door gunners in place, the UH-1D Slick is ready to hit the painting table.

Free World Helicopter Painting Guide