Tuesday 16 July 2019

UN helicopter - Matchbox "Mission Chopper" repaint

Z Force deploy from their helicopter.

Last year I picked up a nice Matchbox "Mission Chopper" helicopter in the local charity shop.  I decided that it would become a UN helicopter which can fulfil the dual roles of either being transport in/out of action or being a game objective.

New and old.

Unfortunately Number 1 Son spotted it and appropriated it for his own use.  It now has a fine collection of "landing lights" (stick-on craft jewels which can now be found dotted throughout our entire house) but is no longer available for wargaming.  Luckily a quick check on ebay provided me with another Mission Chopper plus an F4 Phantom and a couple of Spitfires for only £4.

"Landing lights"

I moved quickly with the new one and had it washed and undercoated before anyone else got hold of it!


Base colours are Vallejo cold grey and Russian uniform green.  After a Future and black ink wash, it ended up looking much more RAF than I originally planned but I decided to go with it and added a Union Flag to shown who has supplied it to the UN.  I could have gone for traditional UN white but decided the camo scheme will be more useful for game purposes.


Repainting provided the opportunity to add extra windows on the front which are clearly implied by the moulding on the model.


Side windows have also been painted larger than originally printed on the model, again to match the actual moulding.


Decals are all waterslide transfers and come from a variety of sources: Space Marines, Matchbox A34 Comet cruiser tank, JB models land rover, Matchbox Panzer II, Airfix Westland Sea King, Airfix Westland Scout, Italeri Hind-D.  Plenty of Vallejo decal medium was used to soften and stick the transfers to all the curves!  A top coat of Future floor polish has hopefully sealed everything in.

Z Force trooper helpfully pointing out nose warning sign.

Although perhaps a touch on the small side for GZG or Brigade figures, it still scales pretty well with my Peter Pig infantry and they'll be the main people interacting with it during 1980's through to modern skirmishes.


1 comment:

  1. Very nice, good job on the front windows in particular!

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