I PROUDLY PRESENT U THE ENTRY FOR DEATH FROM ABOVE CAMPAIGN
A UH-1C HUEY GUNSHIP (VIETNAM ERA) CALLED "SNOWBALL"

So here is the story behind the pictures.
As you may (or not) have seen in previous postings i was building the Academy UH-1C Huey Frog for the Death From Above Campaign. Last weeks here in Greece the weather has been real bad with snow and dark skies which i thought it would be the best to model..(i just thought of it)
So having finished the superdetailed interior of the Huey, seats, panels, naked poster ..everything previous Saturday morning i decide to paintit. The pre shading procedure had lasted 1 week dried very nice and everything predicted one more bug success!!!! So the guy wakes up in 7 in the morning and at 10.30 the main body is finished painted. Left aside on the bench and open my clues my other stuff to finish up external details, some more improvements on the engine area and stuff like that. Without me knowing a very friendly couple comes along in house to see us and have fun with the snow and have a coffee,
The lady of the couple to make me a nice surprise, opens the door of my modelling nest and produces a 3 second nightmare for me . She throws a huge (man really huge ) snowball to me about the size of a man's head (with brain in it). As i turn on my chair the xacto and pliers fall from my hands, and i see the white nightmare coming. I try to get the ball with my head, but it was a long well measured shot. It comes over my head and lands...........where else. Right in the middle of the bench falling half onthe Huey , and the rest on the open glue bottles, thinners, tools, small parts, doors of the huey, decals, and...all this...... You imagine what happened,Snow melting everywhereon the bench water going everywhere, glue spilled all over , small parts dissappeared in a minute , and the nervous breakdown came and go a million times. Just 2 months of work...so ...?? The lady seeing my reaction of getting frost understands the amount of mistake and freezees also...I couldnt call her names , or even beat her to death (i am generous with this spicies!!!) I tell her gently to go out and leave me get over the heart attack, and she gives the final hit. Come on leave it as it is and come to play snowballs out . You ll fix it later....Spilled glue all over ..fix it later...fresh painted Huey ..fix it later....broken heart..fix it later...Death From Above Campaign...quit quit quit ...eject...eject...eject.....

I gently took her out to get coffe with my wife , who hopefully understood the size of the damage and didnt try to tell me " ohh come on you ll make another one!!!" as usually they say ..

So the last two eeks have been a huge try to get the patient recovered.Getting the glues off, Repainting, scratching lost parts, try to make up the damage and all this. Hopefully in this effort i had the support of Brother Engin aka "Graywolf" who is also a doctor (not a Huey doctor as myself !!) and gave all ethical support i meeded.
So thats the story of a unique Huey called "Snowball".
I leave it under your eyes, and if sometime sky gets a lil blue i ll have even better pictures. More stuff in the gallery as always Guys .

Thanks for your time , i hopei entertained u !!!!!









**** Just for the story i have added details in the interrior (some wiring, improvements on the seats, and the floor, and a lot of work on the engine area, even in the side that is covered bu the door!!, and also reworked the doors that were just a sheet of plastic and made them 3d.
It was a nice experience even though the nightmare, i decided to make a series of 1/35 helos. Next come the Mil Mi 24 - Hind and a Blackhawk, i ll also plan to do a Apache and a Cobra. More stories to come

Costas

Major Goose!!

Wow, man I can feel your heartache! I really felt a lump when I was reading your post. It must be so hard for 'outsiders' to undertand how a little moddle of plastic can be so precious , and I have to commend you on the way you handled the situation, I am afraid that I would have been less kind about it, especially since you worked your butt of super detailing it. Great job on the comeback brother and keep up the great work.

Thanks a lot Anders , supporting comments from guys like u always cheer me up. In the coming period i ll start my 120 mm Verlinden figure and i ll get more help from you !!

adelfe moy,
I really felt happy as I see your Huey finished and photographed IN SAFE. As I know all the modelling steps of this bird, I know the stress you had after the lady's snowball terrorist attack and you really worked as a surgeon to save the Huey. Congrats bro for the good work and more congrats for not causing unrepairable damage to the snowball lady. :-)
The cockpit and compartment details looking good.In the close up photo;there is some silvering on decals but I know all decals of this kit was a real pain for you. I dont know how , but I see you solved the UNITED STATES ARMY stencilling in some way. .I like the paintwork, dry transfers and weathering of exterior. You really saved this model and it will look great in a Nam diorama after the DFA campaign.
You need a door lock and electrical fence before you start building your Hind. :-)
best regards

Dear Engin thanks for your kind words.
The weathering is heavy enough on the Huey as many pictures i saw showed these birdies warned very much. And also Greek Armies's Hueys delivered after Vietnam are in no better condition !!!! patches of metallic sheet to cover bullet holes , all metal parts bended , paint chipped and faded or even absent and all these. so the stenciled hand writting eas a lil on purpose "hand looking" after many crews and base stuff made repairs on the Hueys as the sources say. So the Vietnam dio will be in a base , repairing and srvicing and some refueling track with people around in piece mostly will be the draft. This will be build later on ..

Well after all that trouble i dont know how it did, but it came out GREAT! congrats, i guess that birds really seen its combat cheers good job, i especially like the slogan, BOMB HANOI NOW

Allthough you had a lot of trouble with this one, it sure looks great! - I once had a similar experience... I had a opened a window to get som fresh air, and someone thought it would be fun to trow a snowball through the open window! - When I entered the room again, I found several of my models completely destroyed... That really made me mad!!!

Bjoern

Snow madness stories!!!! anyway .despite tha bad luck this birdie is a flying one !!!

I'm surprised you didn't name the it "Snowball" or if you did, I don't see it on the chopper.

WAITING TO GET SOME REALLY NICE HANDWRITTEN LIKE DRY TRANSFERS TO DO THIS sHERMIESrULE.

Did you mention the scale?

Its the ACADEMY kit in 1/35 (thats the onle scale i work the last 10 years) Huey UH-1C Frog