Gino P. Quintiliani (HeavyArty) sends us news of an exciting release from Dragon.
An upgrade to Panda's 1/35 UH-1N.

Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Cool another rebox heli kit, it’s not bad though. At least Dragon added in some new parts, PE and decals. Still has that baggage compartment on the right side that needs to be filled in. It’s a great kit, I’ve built 3 so far and have plans on two more, and now that these are out I may have to pick up one or two just for the newer PE.

For those interested in getting one there is a boat load of photo references out…

Airliners

Prime Portal

ARC...UH-1N

ARC...UH-1N

You can also get aftermarket resin and decals. Cobra Company has an up-grade set which includes a correct nose, and a weapons set.

Cobra Company

Fireball Modelworks has a great set of decals for the brightly-painted search-and-rescue UH-1N’s used by the Navy and Marines

Fireball Modelworks

And Eduards has a set of masks for the 1-N

Eduard masks

I myself is looking forward to cracking a box open and defiantly using the Fireball high-viz decals over the summer.

Thanks to Gino for a great in box review and pics.

Joe

WHATTA!!! Oh broody Kell!!! I gotta have one. Yerned for the Panda one for years and couldn't get it, this time I have to. By the way I am trying to do a 1/72 of the old 3 colour camoflaged Marine ones. The problem is, I couldn't find the camo scheme, nor the colors. Can somebody help me? Please?

Glad you guys like it. Upon further review, it isn't very accurate as a USMC UH-1N. The weapons are not USMC versions, but closer to the M93 system used by the USAF's 20th SOS in Vietnam. The USMC uses 7-shot rocket pods and externally mounted weapons, 1 each of an M134 minigun and GAU-2 .50 cal. Also, the nicely printed instrument panel is a single engined UH-1D/H version. The N has more gauges and dials for the second engine. As Joe pointed out above, the great Cobra Company UH-1N upgrade and weapons sets are still needed to bring it up to par. It is still a good starting place though.

I can feel a waterbomber coming on! This 212 has been whumping around here all summer. I'll try scratching up a belly tank for it and working up some decals.

I have a full walkaround here if anyone is interested.

Good news - this is definently an interesting kit and the 1/35 scale opens up for a lot of conversion/diorama possibilities with AFVs etc. It is a little difficult to see if there are one or two miniguns? One each side or only one on the left side?

Thanks for the update

It has 2 minis. Both sides have the mini guns, which is incorrect for a USMC N gunship. There should be one M134 and one .50 cal., both on external mounts, and only with 7-shot rocket pods.

Thanks for the quick answer, Gino.

Should be easy to correct with the Cobra Company conversion.

Gino has pretty much covered all of my gripes with this kit that I posted over at ARC in his additional comments on this news item.

Although I welcome the re-release of the UH-1N, I really think Dragon could have put more effort into the additional parts and research. All of the glaring inaccuracies and oversized rivets that existed in the Panda boxing are still there, yet the MSRP price will no doubt go up because Dragon has added inaccurate details.
It is laughable that they can include this kit in their "Modern AFV Series." Where are the contermeasures, ALQ, and radar/plume detecting antennas that have existed on this airframe for almost two decades???
I find it absolutely stunning that at a time when kit manufacturers are making leaps and bounds in the technology of molding jet and armor kits, the quality of the lowly helicopter genre actually seems to be REGRESSING with releases like this one.

Additionally, the UH-1N also mounts M240G machine guns, so that is another loadout option which Dragon did not include.

Andy

Has anyone seen that Dragon is also releasing kit 3541, described as AB-212 ASW? Not a picture or description to be had. Anyone have anything on it?

Yup, its been listed for a while now, but nothing on it yet. Sounds interesting. We shall see.