Hi Guys,

Has anyone built one of these? Is the kit any good? Thanks Guys.

Hi J,

I have built the donor kit, Panda UH-1H and Panda UH-1N. You can read about my build in the Guardian Angel campaign. Gino has done one there too, so he'll be able to give you a better run down and he has built the kit you speak of.

I have bought the Dragon HEER UH-1D but I have not built it yet.

The Dragon moulds started life as the Panda kit. It appears to be fairly accurate but the detail is quite thick and clumsy, particularly the rivets and panel lines. Fit is generally good.

Comparing the Panda and Dragon UH-1D/H kits, the differences appear to be:
Dragon has included a bunch of very nice PE including pre-painted instrument panels, harnesses, rescue hoist etc. There is quite a bit of it.
Dragon have included a set of modern German infantry figures in the HEER version. I believe the other release has the Dragon US chopper crew with one pintle M60.
The Dragon HEER version has a rescue hoist included.
Dragon have updated the main rotors to the correct chord. The Panda version had UH-1N 24" chord blades.
Proper decals!
Apart from these, it appears to be just the Panda mouldings. There have been no improvements to the detail or fit.
Don't be seduced into thinking this is a Dragon-quality kit!

Quite an acceptable model can be made from it, especially now with the PE. I didn't hesitate buying a second one, and I may even get a third.

As I keep saying though, it is the only game in town!

I hope this helps.

Graeme.

Graeme is right on. The kits are pretty good, but need quite a bit of work to get them to come out looking great. The details are soft and sparse in the interior. The other issue is that there are parts for many different versions of Hueys in the box and the instructions don't show which to use for which version. You have to know what you are building and which parts to use.

The blade is not fixed in the Vietnam UH-1D/H version. The issue is the spine running the full length of the blade. It is actually a 212 (UH-1N) blade. The D/H blade doesn't have this feature. It is easy to fix though, as below:

The top one has been corrected. The middle is how it comes in the kit. The bottom one has the area to be removed in red.

I also recommend the Cobra Company interior and drive train upgrade sets for it. They will really spice it up and make it look great. I used the interior set on both of mine below.

Here are a couple helpful threads too: UH-1 D and H model differences. Dragon UH-1D in-box Review.

The other "issue" with the Vietnam UH-1D/H kit is that it only comes with one M23 doorgun mount. All D/H models in Vietnam after '65 had the doorgun setup, but had one on each side, for a total of 2 mounts. You will either need to get a second DML Vietnam Helo Crew set for the second M23 mount, or Cobra Company has an M23 set as well.

Lastly, the decals aren't totally accurate in the kit. If you are looking for an accurately marked helo, check out the Vietnam Huey decal sets from Fireball Modelworks.

Here are mine:

UH-1H Vietnam DustOff




More here.

And a UH-1H SAR helo from White Sands Missile Range in a Hi-Vis/Arctic scheme.





More here.

I am liking them more and more. The new Dragon boxing helps take care of some of the interior details that were lacking in the Panda boxings. They still need a bit of work to make them look good though. I have a few more in the stash too and am looking forward to building them.

Good luck.

Thanks Guys,

I am going to buy one here ASAP which looks like the only way to get it will be after a basketball game on Wednesday if possible otherwise it could be along time. Ohh what I love about Boarding School ... It could be worse I guess.

Well i went and picked it up so I am starting construction soon. Thanks guys for the info

Good luck on it. Show us some pics once you get going on it too.

I was just figuring what parts have been suggested but I can't get them here for a while. So I am pretty bummed out. well I have to wait a while to get the parts. Isn't that modeling.