This post was first posted at Armorama Dioramas forum, but I repost it here because Heavyarty invited me to do it...

So it goes ...

Hello everybody. I´m an spanish vietnam war modeller, and these are some pictures of the cockpit of my OH-6a (dragon 1/35) for a vietnam diorama named "Low level hell".









The minigun is scracht over part of the piece of Dragon, and still to do the support frame betwen the weapon and the ammo case.







The original kit had to be rebuilt because doesn´t look good for a Loach in Vietnam. All the details I put in the kit came from real pictures of Vietnam loaches. Still to do more details in the chopper main body ... As you can see, the loach was a very small chopper, and the gunner was more out that inside ¡¡¡¡





The Loach will be finished as "Darkhorse 19", a OH-6a of scout platoon "Outcast", C troop, 16th cavalry regiment in Vietnam 1972.



The loach in the diorama will be shooting a group of running NVA regulars, with a DSHK NVA AA machine gun ready to fire out of the sky the chopper ...


After thinking about it , I cut out the old 1/32 Revell instrumeny panel, and uodate the original one from Dragon 1/35.

That´s how it looks:



Once painted with a lot of care, looks like this:



I painted too the panels for interfonos, radios, etc… between the seats (the piece is a scracht one with all the details, because the original one is really no so god)



Now I´m making the details for observer interfono in the back seat, and other details of the comuications system.

You can check Google Books, seach for "Organizational maintenance manual: electronics equipment configuration Army" and "Operators manual: helicopter, observation OH-6A"), and you will see the technical manuals for OH-6ª with all the details you need for making an accurate loach (EVERYTHING¡¡¡¡). After select the PDF option, you can download the manual tl your PC.

About the minigun, check Google books seach “Direct and general support maintenance manual: armament subsystem"; you will found there all the details of the XM-27e1 minigun system, to the last piece you can imagine ….

No excuses of information lacking for making a Loach ¡¡¡¡¡
More news soon…

Comments are welcome, because this is my first scale helicopter (I use to do only dioramas with figures and armour 1/35).

Thanks in advance ¡¡¡

Best regards.


Santiago

Looks great Santiago. Keep us posted on the progress.

Hi Santiago,

Great build and great photos. I am watching your WIP with interest.

I have the Dragon MD500 Isreali Defender and AH-6J Littlebird in my stash. These kits have some of the same sprues but unfortunately don't come with figures.

I am on the lookout for the OH-6A but they tend to be a little scarce these days. I am sure Dragon will re-release it. I think Italeri have released it in the past using the Dragon tool.

All three kits don't have much interior detail so I am collecting parts, spares, figures etc for detailing them.

Regards
Len

Hello, and thank you for your comments.

About detailing of the OH-6a, I recomend you the CMK interior kit for the OH-6a and checking in GOOGLE BOOKS the "OH-6A operator´s manual", and the manual for the XM-27E1 in Google Books too (check my first post for details).

For interior detailed pictures of OH-6a check this web

http://www.primeportal.net/hangar/don_busack/oh-6/index.php?Page=1

And for pictures of israel MD500 defender check this one.

http://www.primeportal.net/hangar/isaac_gershman/md-500/

Best regards.

Hey Santiago, some great detailing there, very impressive. Keep the posts coming.

Cheers, Damian

Now, after some time stopped, I,m working hard on the OH-6A...the diorama "Low Level Hell" is almost finished, so it´s time to end the chopper...some pictures of the finished cabin, with 2 halves glued for working the outside...

Painted with Vallejo acrilics and wheathering with AK-INTERACTIVE products...

Thanks in advance...

It is coming along great. The interior and figure look really good. The only issue I see is the M18 Smoke Grenades hanging off the ammo can in the back. They should not be red. M18 Smoke Grenades are OD green with a white stripe around them and lettering for the name and color. The top of the canister is also painted the color of the smoke.



Bravo 6 has a set of Grenades and Claymores in resin that include M18s and have decals for them.

Arms Corps Models also does just the decals for them.

Sorry, but I have some pictures in Vietnam with red grenades painted in all red color ...

Probably for a faster identification, because the red ones were for marking targets for the Cobras ...

An example



Anyway, thank you Gino for your comment ¡¡¡¡

Those are strange. I have never seen ones like that before. Thanks for the pic.

Excellent work. I have this kit in the stash (to go with a couple of Huey's and a Chinook). If mine turns out half as good as this, I'll be a very happy chap. Looking forward to seeing it finished. It will be the icing on the cake for your brilliant dio!

Thank you for your comments...about the kit you'll need a lot of work to make it looks good (Cmk makes some kits)...I was brave enought to make my self the minigun box and other pieces.