This is my second model - still picking up skills but this particular model is something I've wanted to do for a while as a retirement present for my father. I had a number of issues during the build process - losing clear parts, small parts, paint coming off with the tape but finally did it. I also did a simple diorama as my first attempt at one.
Thanks to those who offered advice on my various questions throughout the build.
For those of you who are interested in the history - this particular UH-1H (I could only find a 1D model) crashed in Western Papua New Guinea in 1977 with one fatality. I've attached a PDF that goes into the incident in detail - it's pretty interesting - crashing in hostile territory, severe injuries, medevac and SAS dropped in to destroy the craft - it's quite a read.
The pdf link attached contains a comprehensive rundown of what happened:
http://rasurvey.org/ACTNewsletters/9-11.pdf
And the aviation safety network crash info:
https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=60130
Here a couple of photos I managed to get of squadron helicopters before the incident (after a heavy landing damaged it) - this helped me with the paint job.
Here are some pictures of the crash site. For obvious reasons I've avoided any photos that may show the body of the pilot.
This picture was after the SAS destroyed the helicopter prior to leaving
Now onto the build - as I said, the main issues I had were paintwork as well as the clear parts - lost one and had to order another sprue from Italeri. Further, I had a lot of problems with the canopy glue making a mess of the clear parts - managed to save most of them but not all.
The 'Australia' on the right side of the boom was actually added by the crew using white masking tape. This was to clearly identify the Australian craft from those operated by the Indonesians, who operated similar craft with a similar paint job.
So here is the final product:
