I am new to helicopters and have dug out an old 1/35 Huey to have a change from armour and soldiers. My main question is: was the Huey manufactured from aluminium? If so would the aluminium show through the surface paint i.e distressing and weathering. If not what would have been the colour of the undercoat between the ally and the surface paint.
I hope this all makes sense.
Thanks in anticipation
Tony

Huey's were indeed made from aluminum. I've ridden in more than a few when I was a young Army officer. Paint would wear and chip frequently, especially around the doors and door sills, really anywhere a soldier would enter or maintain them, including maintenance hatches, latches and fasteners. However, US Army standard was to retouch chipped paint during required maintenance periods, so they were fairly well maintained-- the most wear I ever saw on one was at the main cargo and crew doors where the paint would chip/wear off right down to bare metaL due o the large volume of foot traffic. Interiors were painted dark aircraft gray on ours, exteriors were OD. I'd say moderate wear is OK for US Army Huey's, heavy wear would look a little out of place. There also wasnt much oil staining or exhaust visible, they were kept pretty clean in use.
VR, Russ

Russ, thank you very much for your prompt response. I knew they were well maintained. I just needed confirmation of the wear and tear on the chopper.
Thanks once again, that is very helpful,
Tony cheers

Tony,
Just another comment on this topic. I have some personal insight into this, as I had command of an airfield in Korea, and the aviation maintenance section was in my unit. We kept spray cans of touch up-paint on stockpile at the airfield, along with pints and quarts of brush-on aviation paint. This was intended for use by the three helo's we had on station, and any transitory aircraft that might use the station, as needed. Re-paints and large area repairs were done at the Aviation Brigade or depot level, depending on aircraft. Of course, by the time I was in command of this airfield, it was 2000-2002, and we had Blackhawks, C-12s, and the occasional Apache (later we had a company of MH47s from the 160th SOAR too) rather than UH1s. different aircraft from a different era, but I don't think a lot had changed between Hueys and Blackhawks.

Funny thing was, when I retired from the Army after 30 years, I wanted to pursue my hobby of model building, which led to a part time job at the LHS. We were a Testor's distributor. Among the items we carried were Testor's black, grey and OD green felt tip paint pens. We were approached by the local Army Aviation Logistics support unit about supplying them with these paint pens for "touch up" work, and for several years we had a direct contract with them to supply "touch up pens" since these pens were matched to National Stock Number paint codes. That way a pen could be kept right in the crew-chief's pocket for touch up work when needed!
VR, Russ

Russ,

Excellent information as usual!

Tony, this may be mixing apples and oranges and yet I may have some useful info for your next build; concerning USN carrier planes of the 1980s and yet presumably appropriate for any warplanes of the era.

I recently read a book on the A-6 Intruder and the author detailed the dulling of USN aircraft camouflage with the Tactical Paint Scheme (TPS), codified in the document Mil-STD-2161(AS), and how it led to the mangy appearance of aircraft so loved by modelers. The aircraft were worked hard on carrier cruises and were frequently touched up to prevent corrosion from the sea environment. They were described as 'blotchy greys and light blues' as the maintainers used whatever paint they could find. Eventually the paints were improved and the 'leper' look was minimized.

I suspect that the greater the operating tempo of a unit was and the environment operated in, plus the quality of the paint of the time, accounts for some ratty looking military machines.

Russ' explanation about touching up puts things into perspective.

Frederick and Russ, I must apologise for the lateness of my response. Thank you both for the interesting and informative information. It all helps to understand the subject and receiving it from the horse's mouth, so to speak, adds more credence to the information.
Thank you both once again.
Tony

For an interesting variation, you can also show where the outer paint has worn down to the primer coat (which is usually a yellow-green colour). You can show layers of wear: through the finish colour, through the primer to the bare metal.