I finally settled on building a 1/35 UH 60 (Been hmmming and hawing over which one of the academy kits to start off with. Found a UH for a decent price.) I'm opting for a Colombian Army bird. Managed to find a source for the decals. Now I have some questions. Window guns. Is the M-134 an option? I've seen photos of the M-60 being used and a couple poor photos of what maybe mini guns , also the quality of the photo it's hard to say if the aircraft is Army or Air Force. Any clues as to what a "normal" seat lay out for the troop compartment is? Full troop seating? Some photos I've seen show none or maybe just the set along the back wall? And , last... weather radar. The Army received a mix of "A"s and "L"s. Seems some have radar others no. Have the older ships been up graded? I am intending to configure the ship for an anti narco or anti- FARC operation.

To answer some of your questions...

If the aircraft has Ejercito De Colombia on the tailboom, it is a Colombian Army aircraft. It also looks like the Army ones are camo, have M240D MGs as door guns, and may or may not have the weather radar.



If it says Fuerza Aerea Colombiana, then it is an Air Force bird. They appear to be overall dark green and also have the weather radar.


The Colombian Air Force also has the AH-60 Arpia gunship.

Thanks, Gino. I managed to find a pic of an Army H-60 with the mini guns. I'll post it in a day or two. Looks like they mostly use M-60s. (Colombian Army list both 60s and 240 in inventory.) Something I thought would be easy on this project was paint. The Italeri 1/48 kit lists FS35237 Dark Ghost Grey/ FS34088 OD/ FS34092 Medium Green. Not buying it. Aztec's decal sheet lists FS34090 Dark Green/ FS 36118 Gunship Grey/ FS3410? Gunship Green (?) Photos show grey/green/brown. (Couple do look like OD instead of green. Lighting?) I'm thinking FS36231 Dark Gull Grey, FS34102 Medium green. Brown has me stumped. Field drab doesn't look right. So much for my "easy" idea. Anybody have any thoughts on the colors>

Hmm, I don't see brown at all in the camo. I see Black. It looks like black, dark green, and medium gray to me.



More hmm, these ones do look like they have brown and not black. Sort of a chocolate brown. Maybe it is the lighting or exposure though. These both look to be overexposed with very bright greens as well.

Second photo, EJC 2151 almost looks 4 tone. Cargo door and engine cover look a different green than the nose/tail.

Here is a Haylcon Negro in the shop. Definitely brown for the camo. Looks like the door has been touched up.

Here's another photo in the shop showing brown camo.

Oops! First pic did not take ..... Here's another shot, in service , and the camo does look black. Possible they use both colors interchangeably? NOTE: M-60 door gun.

Here are some pics of the M-134 and M-60.

Very interesting. I am leaning to them using the black and brown. Maybe it depends on time-frame with brown being older and the black being newer.

Maybe the unit? I'll have to see if I can make out the unit emblem on th engine cover and see if there's any correlation. Any clue what shade of brown would work? NATO brown and FS30140 look too red to me.

It looks like a dark chocolate brown to me, not really a standard military camo color.

Slowly but surely the Halcon Negro continues. Got the decals ... messed up on the tail boom ones and have to have redone, but ... Think I figured out the grey and greens. FS36231 Dk Gull Grey (MM) and FS34127 green. Looks close to me. Opinions? As for the brown, I'm leaning towards Vallejo's 149 Chocolate brown or 150 Black Brown. Anybody used either? How do they stack up to the photos of the real helos? Not sure how the "chips" for the paint on my screen relate to the real stuff.