Huey Vietnam Nose Art NOT a Tutorial on Skins

[DishDoggie]

The one fun thing I like to do other then Fly a Huey is to play around with making custom Skins I want to have and use for myself. I tend to upload them for others just incase I am not the only person that may like them. I feel that my ability (for the Huey ONLY) is one of the hardest skin making endeavors I had to learn at my advanced age. (OLD MAN) Yes like Grandad old. The Huey is Probably the Easiest Skins to make in DCS. SO today I will drool into my cup as I ramble off about making Huey Skins and the things I learn as I go. 1st off this is NOT a tutorial on making Skins.

I want Vietnam Skins so I set off on making more Vietnam Era Skins for myself I posted a Picture of what I have been doing here

 

I will upload them when finished if they are wanted to use. I find looking for Huey Nose Art from Vietnam can be fun, Easy, HARD, Confusing, and why?? I ask myself and after forcing myself to try to educate my brain at my age I find out stuff like Most Pictures of Vietnam Nose Art are only front shots taken by Soldiers in the Field at the time. Thanks to them you can find the pictures they have shared with the world. PROBLEM picture quality and close ups are issues. Recreating Graphics can test you and take hours upon hours to reach. Even cut copy paste can take hours to make look useable on a skin. So you research the Nose Art. You Pick out what you want. You spend Hours with Graphics Art Program reworking and making it useable. Then the next PROBLEM is ready to try and find. TAIL SECTION skins are the hardest to find true accurate documentation on and I have spent way more time looking for pictures of Tail Sections of Nose Art from AHC (Assault Helicopter Company) Hueys from Vietnam I want to make. I am NO EXPERT on US ARMY Vietnam Battalions AHC and the Platoons in the AHC's so you try to read and you find your way to discovering lots of PROBLEMS along the way.

The Huey AHC's were formed and sent to Vietnam. Through the years of the war they got moved around in and out of Battalions and the AHC (from what I could read) keep the same name or MAY have took a new name but I can NOT find this information on When a Nose Art AHC name was Started and Ended other then Some Few Documents of the unit returning to the US and disbanded or stood down.  SO you find AHC's with 2 or 3 totally different looking Nose Arts for the same Company. EACH Company has 3 Platoons in them 2 Platoons are Slick Platoons. You know Troop transport Duty Cargo Duty Picking up Wounded Soldiers just about anything needed at the time in the Battalion. There is No documentation found (By Me) yet of when the Nose Art was changed or if the 2 Slick Platoons in the AHC used different Nose Art. BUT you can and do find different Nose Art when looking. Some Battalions did not allow Nose Art. I Believe all Nose Art had to be approved before use.

DUSTOFF Nose Art was one I THINK, that was more relaxed for use. In Vietnam they split areas up and they would put 6 Dustoff's in each area. You find unique Nose Art for Dustoff's. Again lots of them had No Nose Art.  

TAIL SKIN is the hardest to track down to Match the Nose Art you are using. I WILL ADMIT this is so hard for me I GET IT WRONG on my skins. ONLY a few are dead on correct. I TRY HARD to do it right but if a AHC was moved to a new Battalion the Tail Skin was changed for that Battalion it was used to Identify what Battalion and Company a Huey was in. You have Rotor Blades with painted markings that were used in different Battalions and Companies it gets so CONFUSING to get correct.

QUALITY of Nose Art in Vietnam from BAD to VERY GOOD so if a name turns you on and the Art work is bad your facing a problem like I did with the Sidewinder Skin. I figured It will make some NOT want to use it because I did not use the Image of the real Nose Art because I hated it. there were 2 different Nose Arts one bad looking and the other looks more like a Cobra not a sidewinder and no rattle SO I went looking and used a unreal Vietnam Nose Art with the name. Other PROBLEMS are the type of Huey from the Early model to the H model in game. Firebirds put the Sticker on the Side Window Glass. You can not do this in DCS. SO I put it on the Nose but the real on did not have it on the nose. The real unit had a MOTTO I liked U Call - We Kill so I put that on the Nose too. Not Real but still kind of in the spirit of.

I was in the Air Force in the 70's I know nothing about the ARMY I was just out of High School in 75 so Vietnam was Just over. I had a draft Card at 18. I signed up during my High School Year. I love flying the Huey, Best Damn Job I Ever Had.

Do You have knowledge on this topic please add to this for me to read.