Nam '68: Major Malfunction

Another iconic vehicle of the Vietnam war for me is the CH-46 Sea Knight, used heavily be the USMC, it shows up in many famous photos from the war and to me has a very distinctive look, a sleeker looking smaller brother of the CH-47 Chinook.

Off i went looking for suitable model kits to add this to the expanding collection read for this project. Sadly I didn’t find many options, theres a few 1/48th scale kits but these are pretty pricey and also being model kits more fragile than I would like.

My search eventually found me on Amazon US, and I spotted this 1/55th scale diecast model from NewRay. It very much has many features of a toy but looked like it should be a good basis and would certainly add some narrative and scenery on the gaming table.

Taking a plunge into this side of the project was very much inspired by @warzan and his excellent use of toys as a basis for repaints and conversions so I after a few beers watching the UHH ordered one.

It arrived today, and much to my surprise its rather good. Testing it out against a few of the Empress USMC miniatures (28mm) its pretty much an exact match when you use photos as a reference to see how high a person is against it.

Its not without issues though. As from the stock image, the colour scheme is a modern USMC one and the markings are not the best, but I already knew a repaint was necessary so no problem there, it will certainly be passable at a push in the meantime.

As from the stock photos, all the windows are solid and painted in, not a huge issue but obviously not as great as being able to hang door gunners out the side!

Theres some defects, flash, mould lines, paint marks and what looks like paint that was still wet when packaged getting deformed, all things that should be easy to fix up!

I wasn’t expecting it but the rear hatch does actually open! It will needs some modelling but this was a very pleasant find!

Overall though it feels like a very decent starting point for the price paid, the scale seems pretty much spot on and it was a lot cheaper than buying a 1/48th scale model kit that would both be too big and also much less robust on the gaming table.

At the time of ordering the mini was $28 (its currently down to $23), after shipping and import fees (all handled by amazon) the final price work out just over £33, that was under half the price of the few I could find from UK sellers or getting a 1:48th kit so a hefty saving.