1/50 Esci OH-58A Kiowa Vietnam Version

Gallery Article by El Rey on Dec 29 2014

 

      

In the last stage during the Vietnam War, the Scouts OH-6A Cayuse were replaced by the OH-58A Kiowa. Like his predecessor, the Kiowa carried a powerful minigun 7.62mm. For that, I wanted to do the US ARMY version in Vietnam. For me, is the Vietnam War the most interesting and varied numbers of military choppers from US.

Well about the kit: Is a very very old, has many fails and is poorly detailed.  I had to work so hard on the interior. I like the hyper-realism, for that I made the turboshaft and minigun in resin. All the housing and interior were superdetailed, I tried to show every detail according the original Kiowa of Vietnam. I added some steel wire on the main rotor and tail transmission.

The model was very difficult to assemble for me. The mingun has so much detailing, is very different from the original one. 

 

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The model is painted overall in Olive Drab 34087 of Gunze paints. The decal sheet is from the Italeri kit. The weathering is made in pre-shading, oils and make up made for me. The rear navigation lights are aftermarket items, others are made from scratch, the red ones. The search light is totally made from scratch. Matt Cote of Humbrol.

Proudly this model won the first place in its category, on the XXX National Convention 2014 in my country. One cute example, that included much scrachtbuilding.   We can do much to improve some kits with low quality. I hope you enjoy seeing it.

El Rey

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Photos and text © by El Rey