Italeri 1/72 scale
HH-53C
Super Jolly Green Giant

by Richard “RJ” Tucker

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Italeri 1/72 scale HH-53C “Super Jolly Green Giant” (kit no. 1035) and the MPC (Airfix molds) HH-53C kit used for detail parts.

This HH-53 was built for a friend who flew HH-53 CSAR missions in Vietnam; he logged a few mission in this helo. Later, he became a USAF Chaplain. (Draw your own conclusions about what that says about flying helos for a living.) This is the Italeri kit of the USAF Super Jolly Green Giant based in S. Vietnam in 1971-2. I, also, used the ancient MPC kit as a parts doner. The MPC/ Airfix kit is , frankly, a better rendition of the Stallion with much better detail. But, the clear pieces were so badly cast they made the kit unusable, and the clear parts from the Italeri kit didn't fit.

The Italeri kit has no interior, so I added enough to suggest more detail than is really there.

• The frames and overhead are Evergreen plastic strips and sheet plastic.

• 2 stretchers are plastic angle stock & floral wire. The fabric is a paper towel sprayed with wood sealer then painted with MM enamel. The belts are painted foil from a wine bottle.

• Crew bench is the same as the stretchers. Back webbing is painted foil cut into strips & glued together.

• Jungle canopy penetrator is plastic rod and square stock.

• Ammo boxes is thick plastic sheet & strip; filed to shape.

• Mini-guns & mounts: The kit mini-guns are in in a scratch built mounting made from (ancient) parts out of the old Revell USS Constitution kit & plastic stock. Handles are painted wire. The spent-brass collection bags are painted paper towel like the stretchers. The aft mini-gun doesn’t have a bag; it has a chute to direct the casings over the cargo ramp. The brass chute is wire insulation.

• Ammo fed tracks: made out of nylon cable ties painted metallic grey with the teeth painted brass. A black wash over the teeth provides depth.

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Thumbnail panels:

Testors Model Master paints cover the plastic and the decals are from the kit.

The base is a wood plaque with sheet plastic providing the tarmac. I’m not much of a figure painter as you can see, but he does give a good visual as to how big this beast really is!

The emblems came from the local airbase uniform shop. (uniform stuff is available online.) The trophy shop down the street did the placards.

The resulting model and display was a hit with the pilot! “Don’t git no better dan dat!”

Model and Text Copyright © 2017 by Richard “RJ” Tucker
Page Created 21 March, 2017
Last Updated 21 March, 2017

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