Revell Huey UH-1C 1/48 Scale

After watching some episodes of house of cards where the main character gives up on video games to build a civil war battle diorama, I decided I too needed less screen time and would start working on a Vietnam era Huey Hog (UH-1C) model kit stashed in the garage.  A simple level 2 kit to get back in the game...

Instead of jumping right in like I would have as a kid I took advantage of modern technologies not previously available in the early 90's.   Searching for some tips and tricks led to some great resources.

First stop was MikeyKB's blog on intscalemodeller.com.   Although mentioned in the few first paragraphs of the instructions after reading Mikey's steps I too washed the part trees in warm water with a dash of dish soap.

I decided to do the first coat in a metallic paint instead of a typical primer so that any scratches or misses later would take on a more realistic look.  The instructions call for silver paint on many parts but a search for Huey Aluminum came back positive on Wikipedia for the Marine Corps version dubbed UH-1E. I airbrushed Testors aluminum for most fuselageand interior parts

For the interior detailing I decided to reference some photos posted by Rotorwash over at finescale.com of a Huey UH-1B on display at Ft. Rucker.

The ammo box under the passenger seats were a straightforward masking job.  I used Model  Master medium green as the shade is a bit darker than the olive drab hull.