Here are the test pictures with the helo on the diorama, just to check how it looks ...

Hi Csago,

Great build all around! While I know this post is really about the new helo - I've got to say, the landscape looks great - terrific layering of vegetation types and density - now, if you could just get that helo (which looks great too) to defy gravity and "float"!! Haha - your technique for suspending it tho looks very convincing! I don't know if it's feasible - any way to show the palm fronds being adjusted to look windswept or tossed about as a result of the helo hovering above? Sorry to sound picky! I realize the "idea" might be a lot easier than figuring out how to do it! 😃

Cheers
Nick

I was wondering what had happened to this awesome work. Nice to see some progress with the helo! It looks convincing to me.
J

It is good to see that this diorama is almost complete. The vegetation, the AA Gun position, the rice paddies, and the hut look outstanding. The way you have the LOACH suspended in air skimming the treetops looks awesome and is very convincing. Like Nick mentioned, there would be some affect on the closes palm leaves from the rotor wash, but how that can be accomplished is the mystery. If it cannot be done, I don't think it would take anything away from the awesomeness of this diorama.

Great work,
James

Thanks for your comments, and about palms "downed" by rotor blast, is a very hard effect to do...I tried that effect, and you can check that palms near the helo are much more "downed" that the ones beside the AA post...But probably the effect is not enought for a perfect look ...



Anyway, you must note that the helo is not overing, just making a fast low level pass firing first minigun and second the gunner´s m-60 (the gunner isn´t in the pictures), so the "downed" effect is lower that in a hovering.

It is just a difficult effect to depict in a scene that is a snapshot of a second of time. After reading your reply I looked at that tree closer and knowing to look for the palms being a bit lower I can see the effect better, but it is kind of subtle. Your work is still great and something you should be very proud of. I wish my vegetation looked half as good as yours.

Our comments about the prop wash wasn't meant to seem like we were trying to be overly critical. We were just making an observation that if feasible could help make your awesome diorama even more so.

Cheers,
James

Don´t worry about it James, I put here my pictures just because I want to know what people think about them...I know your comments are constructive comments, of course Thank you very much ¡¡¡¡¡¡

I just saw a video of a helo going over some trees like this. The downward prop blast doesn't really push the leaves/branches down all the time. The branches sort of oscillate and move around but don't get pinned down like you would think. So this snapshot in time on the dio is plausible.
J

THIS IS GREAT!!! I like the resurgence of interest in the Vietnam War! Now all we need is a CAD-designed, slide-molded, brand-new-tooling 1/35 USMC UH-34D!!! UH-1s WERE NOT the only Assault & Utility Helos serving in Vietnam!

I second your propose, a UH-34 should be great, but please together with a decent uh-1 D/H ¡¡¡¡¡

And about the effect of rotor blast on the palms, we must remember that the OH-6A is a very little machine, with a body as big as a little car, so the blast of rotors is not as powerful as the one of UH-1 big helicopter we use to see in films and videos ...

I've been impressed with this dio every step of the way. Thanks for the updates.

I guess the reason why I thought the prop blast would create a greater effect was because it looks like the water in the rice paddy was being affected by it in some of the pictures. The only time I flew in a OH-6 type helo was a MD-500 in Afghanistan and we weren't anywhere near any trees, so I never saw any affect of the rotor wash since we took off and landed on a concrete runway. When I did get dropped off and picked up in jungle areas earlier in my career, it was in larger helos where we could see the rotor wash as we came down lower to the trees, but perhaps it is because of a different way the air circulates under the rotors blades when going up and down. I am sure there is some physics in there that is involved. I guess a ground pounder like me should refrain from commenting about air stuff when my specialty is ground stuff:)

I agree that since the leaves oscillate and since the trees are frozen in a second of time that it is very plausible. I guess visions of that one LOACH slowing down to engage the VC who threw the grenade into the Huey during the air assault scene in Apocalypse Now came to mind when I saw the LOACH in the diorama, some of the NVA in the rice paddy looking like they were getting shot at, and the AA position. I was envisioning the LOACH slowing down so the gunner could better engage the NVA. Damn my overactive imagination:)

Cheers,
James

Wow! This looks fantastic at every angle … very convincing! And it goes very well with ‘Ride of the Valkyries,’ I’m listening to it now — volume is up!

One observation: After having a closer look at your OH-6a WIP, I wish to add one very minor critique regarding the figure … At this stage of the build, is it at all possible to have the pilot’s head look down and to his right (kind of chin-to-the-shoulder)? He looks just a bit static right now. Even still, awesome work as-is!

—mike

Hello Csago - my question about about the wind from the rotor might have been theoretical as much as anything - that is, I suppose we are all trying to depict a scene, but also, to make them look dynamic! I know, asking the impossible! This is clearly an excellent build, and already dynamic, and to the point above, the "snapshot" in time, where the pilot dares to just breeze over the treetops in an intense situation - I'm not sure if you know this reference, but to make the scene an "11"!😄😄...just a slight bit more intense!!!😄😄

It looks great!
Cheers
Nick

Well, I will explain the story of the diorama...First the helo isn't howering, just making a fast low firing pass, first with minigun, an after with gunner M60. the gunner will have a Red smoke grenade in his left hand ready to mark the target for the Cobra gunship flying above ...But the scout pilot didn't see the duska,ambushed,..

Hi csago ,

it looks very good to me and i know from my own experience it's not simple to make an in-flight diorama.

About the diorama , if you create a diorama you actually make a photo in three dimensions . That means that you freeze a certain event. I read your story about this diorama but i'm a little bit afraid that you want to tell to much on one diorama. Sometimes i have the same problem . If i'm right the helicopter is doing a low pass over the trees while the door gunner is firing his machine gun. That's the exact moment that you freeze that event and depicting on the diorama..

Personally i would replace the helicopter in a more dynamic position, i mean the nose a bit low aiming to the tree top so the tail should be in a higher position .

But like i said before it looks very good especially the groundwork and buildings , water effects...

Kurt

Hey Csago, great, great dio. The coments would be good especialy the placement of the nose being tilted more forward if possable. I think the book I read on the Loach pilots was called Chicken Little. It told of them skimming the tree tops looking for enemy troops and coming back with branchs and palm fronds attatched to the shids and various other places and even a few cracked wind screens. Many crew chiefs would get out after a flight and stand there scratching thier heads in wonder. This dio has been very well done and I have followed your build all through it. I have 6 helos to build from the V.N. war so seeing this one is an insperation to soon get to work on some of them. bob d.

Excelente que has retomado este increible diorama! Congratulations coming along great.

Hey Csago, I kinda’ like the LOACH suspended the way you have it now. Looks like the pilot came in low … got startled by the ambush from the ground … and desperately yanked-back on the cyclic to get the hell outta there!!!

—mike

After all your kind comments, I'll modify the helo position to a nose down one to represent a fast firing pass over the nva regulars.. .Thank you for all your constructive comments!!!!

Hey Csago,
a very impressive build, i initially came here and wanted to reply to a comment about the "red" grenades hanging on the wire behind the minigun ammo box, those were not smoke grenades but incendiary grenades, thus the red color, we used them to start fires and burn structures, among other things, i flew with the Outcasts in 1970-71 as a crewchief/gunner.

We stopped carrying the incendiary grenades after we found that they could be ignited if they were hit with a bullet, switched to trip flares. Because if an incendiary got hit, they would drop down and burn right through to the 400 gallon of JP4 in the fuel cell below and boom, no more LOH.

Again, excellent work on the model!

As to the nose up or down, depends on the maneuver being undertaken, if the LOH is making a hard right turn to come around on a target the nose will be up to slow down so it can make a quicker turn with the aid of a pedal kick, which is best done at a slow air speed.

a quick comment on minigun runs, if u are too low and slow, u end up flying through the debri the bullets throw up and which can do some serious damage like knock out chin bubble or the whole front bubble and injury the pilot, also the minigun firing torque can actually turn the LOH if u are going slow enough, our LOH miniguns had 2,000 or 4,000 firing rate switch on the cyclic.

Hi MR
good to see you here
i learned so much from your skill and so on
your work is my inspiration
Cheer
Best regard
Jang

Thanks for your comments, I read "Low level hell" by Hugh Mills, where he talked about miniguns...My dio is based on a mix of the stories of that books...I remember the one mr. Mills spended all his ammo in less than two minutes on a group of VCs he discovered in a rice paddy without any cover ... In my dio the helo is making a high speed low level firing pass, ending up with target marking with red smoke, so the Cobra above could finish the work ...

Very impressive work! I wish we'd see more Vietnam-era dioramas.

What is your plan for the spinning rotors on the helo?