Bell 214A Imperial
Iranian Army Aviation
I built this
model back in 1992 to keep me busy while my wife and I were having our first
child. I kit bashed this from a Fujimi 1/72 UH-1N and an Italeri 1/72 AH-1W
Super Cobra. I really like the B214. It truly is a rare breed in the Huey
Evolution. The airframe of course is very much B212/UH-1N in appearance. But
what sets this Huey apart from the B205/212 is the Main Rotor and
Powerplant. The main rotor retains the Bell tradition 2-blade
semi-ridged teetering hub but without the stabilizer bar and very wide-chord
blades (approx. 34") also shared with the Cobra AH-1T+ & upgraded
transmission to handle the (then) Lycoming (now) Honeywell T-55 powerplant
top rated at 2930 shp and derated to transmission max of 2050 shp and max
operating range of 1850 shp. All this for HOT climate and HIGH
altitude operations. The fuselage was also strengthened at all critical areas
because of the massive power loads.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The details on the build were
pretty straight forward. Fuselage of the UH-1N and Main rotor and
Tail rotor from the AH-1W Super Cobra as well as the main
vertical tail fin. The engine cowling and jumbo exhaust can were
scratch built to the best of my abilities. Back in the early 1990's no one
had a 1/35 scale UH-1N so I settled on 1/72 scale. The details are
very simple and clean. Almost die-cast like. For me 1/72 is very
challenging scale when it comes to detail. I did not want to over think
things out for fear of botching it up. As for the Decals and color
aesthetics I think it turned out well. Back in 1992 good detail picture
references on this type were hard to come-by, either in book
print/photos or pre-internet days (I didn't own a computer in '92). I
chose the Iranian scheme here because Iran was the largest military
operator of this type (well over 300) before the 1979 revolution. Iran
continues to operate the 214 to this day although in smaller numbers.
Oddly enough those
patches in one shot I recently acquired in 2007 from a close colleague at
my job who was a USMC helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War. After which
he took a civilian job at Bell Helicopter in the mid 1970's to train Iranian
pilots to fly B206 Jetrangers. These were his momentos of his time and
experiences in Iran. I had loads of fun building this little guy. I would love
to give it a second go in 1/35 scale in the future. Enjoy.......kw
Kurt Wengler
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