Hobby Boss 1/48 UH-1C Huey Quick Build Review

By Michael Benolkin

Background

For a brief description of the Huey or a look at this kit out of the box, click here.

The Build

This is my second quick build of a Hobby Boss 'Easy Assembly' kit ( you can see the first one here) and I was curious how they'd do with a subject like the Huey. This kit is very simple with the instructions showing the assembly in two steps. I didn't photograph the process as this was going to be a quick build (literally) and this was more for fun than science anyway.

The assembly starts with the cabin and this all goes together with few parts, all of which fit nicely. The lower cockpit windows and the windows on the main cabin doors install before assembly of the fuselage and the fit is flawless. It is important that you remove any remaining stubs from the kit parts where they attach to the sprue trees as well as any hint of molding flash as this will affect how well your model goes together. I did note a few minor 'bumps' in the edges of the fuselage halves that would have left gaps had I not filed the edges smooth.

The cabin goes into the fuselage halves, the halves go together with liquid cement, and the main and tail rotors go together and mount to the airframe. The skids mount to the underside and the clear transparency that covers the front of the cabin go on. This last part is nice as it fits great, it eliminates the need for installing each of the forward windows individually, and all you need do is mask the windows and paint the airframe.

The only glitch that I discovered in this quick build is the center of gravity (CG). You can see in the images below that I have a clear dome under the tail to hold the aircraft up for these shots. The final photo shows what happens to the model without the help. The cure for this is simple enough, add some lead ballast to the nose ahead of the instrument panel. Since I'd already glued the cabin transparency in place before discovering the C-G problem, I won't be able to recommend how much weight you'll need to get this model to sit on its skids without external help. I've marked down the instructions for not warnign the modeler about the need for ballast.

Conclusion

Hobby Boss has engineered another simple build model that would be great for a new modeler or someone coming back into the hobby. If you take the time to carefully remove the mold stubs, the kit literally falls together. I spent around 30 minutes assembling the model. With a very reasonable retail price, this kit could also serve as the basis of building multiple airframes quickly so time can be spent on rendering several of the many colorful paint schemes available for this subject in the aftermarket decal world.

My sincere thanks to Squadron Mail Order for this review sample!