1/100 Bell 205 Air America (S&P, PacificWind's Recolors)

**PacificWind** · #1 04-01-2019, 02:28 PM

Here's my newest recolor.
Yesterday I had watched "Air America"(Mel Gibson, Robert Downey Jr.) and it inspired me to do a Bell 205 in that quite unusual "blue & metal". So today I reworked one of Bruno's 1/300 Hueys and turned it into an Air America Bell 205. My example is actually based on the real aircraft, XW-PFG.
Also, I resized this helicopter to 1/100.

I'll build this model first and then release here on Papermodelers.

**Rata** · #2 04-01-2019, 03:45 PM

Nice recolour Kacper. It will be good to have a Huey that's not olive drab! Looking forward to this one.

**Don Boose** · #3 04-01-2019, 04:08 PM

Good model, Kacper, and it jogs my memory a bit.

It was an Air America Huey that in 1967 lifted me out of An Truang in Vinh Binh Province, where the Vietnamese Battalion I was attached to as senior advisor was supporting Revolutionary Development cadres as part of the CORDS (Civil Operations and Revolutionary [later changed to "Rural'] Development Support) program.

In my memory, the helo was silver all over, but the photographic evidence shows that it was in the colors of your model.

Unfortunately, I didn't make note of the tail number and, unaccountably, did not list it in the tally of my in-country flights from 5 September 1966 ["5 Sep 66 707 coast-Saigon .20"] until 16 August 1967, when I made flight as a passenger in a Caribou from Tra-Vinh (TV the regimental headquarters), to Saigon ["16 Aug 67 TV - Saigon CV-2 .45"].

That Caribou flight may have been my flight out of country, in which case, I failed to register the AA flight, or, more likely, I had at least one other flight back out to An Truang and then return to TV for the flight to Saigon for out-processing.

I also failed to record the flight out of Tan Son Nhut Air Base back to the states.

No explanation for these lapses, and I sure can't remember, but below is the evidence in camera: two images I shot with my little half-frame Pentax and one taken by my Assistant Advisor, Sergeant First Class Rod Baker, who then handed me the camera through the open door of the chopper (I am the guy in the cloth cowboy hat).

It was a local flight with a couple of stops on the way to pick up or drop off passengers, including a young woman photographer with three cameras slung around her neck, who took photos all the way to Tra Vinh. I always believed she was French, although I never spoke to her.

Anyway, the colors look pretty much like your model, Kacper.

Don

**Vinalssergio155** · #4 04-01-2019, 06:37 PM

Interesting Kacper project. We will be watching.

**wireandpaper** · #5 04-01-2019, 09:37 PM

Now you may have a dog fight with the An-2!

**Pablito** · #6 04-02-2019, 07:41 AM

Woooo super model Kacper ,good job

**PacificWind** · #7 04-02-2019, 03:12 PM

Thanks for sharing your memories and pictures Don.

Here's some "work-in-progress". This Bell 205 is way more difficult than I expected! Obviously the biggest problem is to get the right shapes of the fuselage.
Also I've stuffed this thing with cardboard and toilet paper to add some weight in the front.

I'll continue tomorrow. Today I don't have more time to struggle with that tail...

**Don Boose** · #8 04-02-2019, 03:38 PM

It looks like you got the shape right, Kacper!

Don

**Wyvern** · #9 04-02-2019, 07:16 PM

Love that movie; I’ll be buying a copy.

Don- always a treat to get a glimpse into your storied career.

Wyvern

**scissorsandplanes** · #10 04-03-2019, 04:56 AM

I agree with all of the above.
I tried beefing up this model to 1/100 scale myself some time ago and it did not turn out as realistic as yours. I thought it was due to the approximate forms of the small scale. Now it appears to be due to my lower building skills.

Well done, Kacper.