In Arizona, awaiting night time load-up into C-5 Galaxy, destine for Puerto Rico. Photo via U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 01OCT2017.
Photo via U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 02OCT2017.
Photo via U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 02OCT2017.
C-5 delivers the CBP UH-60s to Puerto Rico. Photo via U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 02OCT2017.
Photo via U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 03OCT2017.
Photo via U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 07OCT2017.
Photo via U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 07OCT2017.
Photo via U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 13OCT2017.
Minicraft first issued its 1:48 scale UH-60 kits in 1986. In 2001, Minicraft re-boxed it as a U.S. Customs Black Hawk. The box art, and even photos of completed kit on the sides of the box, depict it with a FLIR pod under the chin, but no such animal can be found on the sprues. All you get is a crappy looking search light. I’ll have to scratch build the FLIR, or steal it from a different helicopter kit. Many of the Customs Black Hawks have the bent tip rotary wings, the Minicraft kit still has the straight blades from the 1980s. The Minicraft markings are for U.S. Customs, which ceased to exist as an independent agency in 2003, merged with U.S. Border Patrol, and parts of Immigration and Naturalization Service, becoming today’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). As you can see from the photos above, the CBP markings are slightly different from the old U.S. Customs markings, and today’s Black Hawk has an extended nose for housing the FLIR (Forward Looking Infra-Red) as well as mounts on the side of the cockpit for other electronic gadgets.
The interior of the Minicraft UH-60 is devoid of details, but can be expeditiously improved using the old-but-gold Monogram crew figures from the still viable Monogram UH-1 Huey (interesting that the Monogram ‘copter first issued in 1959 is more detailed than the Minicraft ‘copter first issued in 1986).
PJ Production also has a new resin set of 1:48 U.S. helicopter crew figures, although they’re sold as Vietnam era crew figures I think they could be used for late Cold War Black Hawks.
IDAHO BLACK HAWKS HEAD SOUTH, DOWN CENTRAL AMERICA WAY, YOU PAID FOR IT!
VEHICLE I-D: BLACK HAWK WITH SKIS
RF-84F THUNDERFLASH & YRF-84F, AN APPEAL TO MONOGRAM!