28mm Huey Helicopter

    My 3-D printed Huey "Slick" lands in a rice paddy, as the infantry leap off and head for cover

One of the scenarios in my Surviving 'Nam rules is called "Hot LZ." The player's fire teams are inserted one by one into a landing zone with Viet Cong guerrillas present and firing on them. Since this is a miniatures game, I felt obligated to obtain at least one 28mm scale Huey helicopter. In addition, if I run the scenario at a convention, it would be great eye candy on the tabletop. Since 28mm die cast helicopters seem fairly expensive to me, I reached out to my friend Ted, who has a 3-D printer. Sure enough, he had a STL for a "slick" (troop carrying Huey, as opposed to a medevac one or a gunship). He said he would check into printing one or more for me. Long story short -- I now own four 28mm Hueys! Ted did an amazing, high quality job printing them. From there, it was just a matter of finding time to get them painted up.

    I chose not to use the 3-D printed rotors & instead created my own rotor effect with clear plastic

I decided to be smart, too, and paint up just one first as a test rather than trying to do all four simultaneously. Also, I have not purchased any door gunners to go along with the Hueys, yet. Honestly, I wasn't sure how the Hueys would turn out or how often I'd used them. So, this model is just the helicopter -- I will add gunners later. To begin, I spray painted it with Krylon acrylic Matte Black, which I often do with 3-D prints to give them some extra strength. I went over that with my usual 50/50 mix of acrylic black paint and water to get black in all the crevices. Next, I did the interior mostly in a light gray, with some parts olive drab. I highlighted each sparingly with a lighter version of each color.

    Painting up the chopper was relatively straight forward -- it is mostly a weathered olive drab

Next, I did the entire exterior in olive drab, except for the windows, which I left black for now. I dry brushed the exterior a lighter OD, and looking at it afterwards, felt that I had ruined it. Jenny insisted it looked good and more weathered this way, though. So, I persevered. I painted a blue sky reflection effect on the upper part of the windows, then went back over the wipers on the front in black with a medium gray highlight. I was pretty happy with how the windows turned out. Typically, I like how windows done in this method by me turn out only about half the time. I got lucky here, I guess!

    I probably could have looked for decals for the 'United States Army', but did it with micron pen

There were not a lot of other details to do. I painted a Big Red One 1st Infantry Division patch on the nose of the helicopter, because I'd found an image online of a Huey painted that way. The words "United States Army" were done with my smallest nib black micron pen on the tail boom, like I saw online. I also mimicked some numbers under one of the windows like I'd seen. The tail rotor was painted black with yellow tips. I gave it a black wash all over, and finally agreed with Jenny that the dry brushing looked more like faded weathering than incompetent brush strokes...ha, ha!

    A good look at the blurred black outline of the rotor's "strobe effect" that I agonized over & over

Because it is 3-D printed, and we all know how fragile long and thin filament pieces can be, I decided to skip installing the main rotor that Ted had printed separately. Instead, I cut out a circle of clear plastic that I purchased from the local craft store. I measured Ted's rotor blade against several circular tins or containers I own until I found a close match. I put masking tape on the bottom of the tin to help keep it from shifting, and then installed a fresh blade on my X-acto knife. I ran it around the tin a number of times until I felt that I had cut most of the way through the plastic. I removed the tin and was able to snap off the excess plastic, leaving me with a relatively nice circle. Placing it over a cutting mat, I marked the exact center and drilled through it with my pin vice.

    The 'swirls' on the clear plastic were painted with Liquitex Glass Medium

Next, I found a cylindrical bead that matched the height of the vertical shaft that holds the rotor blade. I drilled into the 3-D printed helicopter with my pin vice, trimmed a piece of piano wire to appropriate length, and then epoxied them all into place. I carefully guided the circular plastic atop the small section of the piano wire protruding from the bead. I supported the plastic disc with wooden blocks to keep it level. I added more epoxy to the top and crossed my fingers and let it dry overnight. The next morning I was very happy that it all seemed firmly attached together. I turned the model this way and that and the plastic circle of the rotor blade didn't wobble or shift. The plastic represents the spinning rotor blades, of course. However, I wanted to add some of the blurred "strobing" effect like I did with one of my 20mm helicopters for Wars of Insurgency. 

    Compare my disc above to the photocopied transparency sheet on my 20mm Alouette helicopter

I could have left well enough alone here, but I just wasn't satisfied with a 100% clear disc. I watered down some black paint and did my best to recreate the strobe effect to match the photos I found online. Still, I felt that the rest of the plastic disc was too transparent. So, I painted the non-rotor blade part with Liquitex Acrylic Matte Medium. Whoops! That frosted the whole thing and made it opaque except for where the rotor blade effect was. Had I just ruined it...again??

The next morning, I tried to scrub off the frosty matte layer with a soft brush and water. It didn't work, and turned opaque again when dry. Weirdly, though, I noticed that water had made it relatively clear again, temporarily. Jenny suggested I painted over the matte with gloss. That worked! It wasn't 100% crystal clear, and instead looked like seeing something through water. While putting on the gloss with a wide, flat brush, I had also tried to give a swirling effect with my strokes. Once it was dry, I still wasn't 100% satisfied. Are you seeing a trend here? 

    My rotor is not as precise as the transparency, but I like how looking through it is slightly distorted

So later, I went back with a smaller brush and tidied up the black of the rotor blade with my full strength black vehicle wash. I did a series of fat line strokes in the spin direction, starting at the center and moving out to the edges. I also added in more arcs with gloss medium all along the transparent part. After doing these two things, I liked how it looked better already as it sat on my desk drying. One last touch was to paint the edge of the disc with matte, again. I felt a slightly frosted edge would hide the imperfections from cutting the plastic out with an X-acto knife. Finally, I set it aside to finish drying. Before I went to bed, I went downstairs and checked on it. Finally, I was satisfied! I really like the clear but distorted effect in the transparent part of the rotor blades and the suggestions of the swirling rotor blades.

In the long run, doing the rotor blade disc seemed to take up most of the effort. Otherwise, painting the Huey was relatively straight forward. Now that I know how to do the rotor blade disc, though, I won't have to duplicate my efforts on the next Huey or two (or three?). I plan to eventually add in door gunners, like I said, once I find a less expensive source for them. I know Crucible Crush's Black Sun range has two door gunners in one of their 5-figure packs, but that would end up being $10 per figure if I don't use the seated or standing pilots also in the pack. So, I'll continue to look for more affordable options. If you know any, let me know in the comments.

    Close up of the relatively sparse detail of the interior of the chopper (which was fine with me...haha!)

So, what else is on my painting desk? You should see two of those things tomorrow. I just finished two ruined buildings this morning that I purchased from Sword & Scabbard Games at last Advance the Colors. By the way, if you don't know, the Tabletop Events site for ATC 2026 is open. You can buy your badge or submit games, now. I also have the six mounted Elven cavalry on my desk that are more than halfway done. And my next batch of "old unpainted figures" is ready to go, receiving their base coat of flesh this morning. They're for a thread on the Lead Adventure Forum's 20th Anniversary. So, no spoilers for now...!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 179
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 135

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 12
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 26

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 21
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 59