Blue Thunder - The movie and her 1/32 Scale Model Kits

Blue Thunder is a 1983 action thriller film that features a high-tech helicopter of the same name. The movie was directed by John Badham and stars the late Roy Scheider. A spin-off television series also called Blue Thunder lasted only 11 episodes in 1984 but it did show off more of the helicopter's capabilities.

Designer Mickey Michaels invented the iconic helicopters used in the film after reviewing and rejecting various existing designs. The helicopter used for Blue Thunder was a French-made Aérospatiale SA-341G Gazelle modified with bolt-on parts and an Apache-style canopy. Two modified Gazelle helicopters, a Hughes 500 helicopter, and two F-16 fighter aircraft were used in the filming of the movie. The helicopters were purchased from Aérospatiale by Columbia Pictures for $190,000 each and flown to Cinema Air in Carlsbad, California where they were heavily modified for the film.

These alterations made the helicopters so heavy that various tricks had to be employed to make it look fast and agile in the film. For instance, the 360° loop maneuver Murphy performs at the end of the film, which catches Cochrane so completely by surprise that he is easily shot down by Murphy's gunfire and killed, was carried out by a radio controlled model.

Described in the film as having 1 inch (25 mm) "no-lock metal armor", Blue Thunder had a chin turret with an "electric" 20 mm (0.79 in) six-barrel Gatling gun able to deliver 4,000 rounds per minute. Surveillance used twin cheek-mounted Nitesun spotlights, infrared thermograph, and airborne TV camera with 100:1 zoom and night-vision capability.[3] The cameras fed 3⁄4 in (19 mm) videotape, with a locker in the belly of the aircraft. External audio pickups were capable of hearing "a mouse fart at two thousand feet". A "whisper mode" granted her the ability to operate in silence.

Blue Thunder '​s cannon was controlled by a Harrison helmet in conjunction with a "Harrison Fire Control System" (which is named after one of the special effects prop designers and not an existing fire control system). The project cost was described as US$5 million.

Sadly both the Blue Thunder helicopters used for filming were eventually decommissioned and their bolt-on parts removed and placed at Universal's lot.

More after the jump.

Model Kits

Monogram

Monogram was the first company to release a 1/32 scale model of the Blue Thunder. The kit was easy to assemble and can be done straight out the box. The parts were very decently molded and they fit in together easily. Of course if you already have the kit or plan to get one from eBay, be prepared for Monogram's signature packing, Everything is just laid out in a box with a few of her parts already out of their sprue and flying about. Still, it was an impressive kit and a lot of fun to build.

Images of her parts were obtained from this site (not in English).

Model details:

Blue Thunder models were originally made by Monogram, now Revell

• 1/32nd scale
• Molded in metallic blue
• Detailed cockpit, rotating rotor
• 13-9/16" long (34.4 cm)
• 64 parts with 5 clear parts

Fireball Modelworks Decal Replacement

The decals supplied by Monogram were incomplete as they left out a lot of the fine details. You will need a better one supplied by Fireball Modelworks FMD-22 Blue Thunder to fill in the missing details, or better, replace the entire set. I'm not sure if this decal set is still available though but you can see it listed HERE.

And here is an excellent build up of the Monogram kit by Coen from Intscalemodeller.com

The Monogram 1/32 Blue Thunder Helicopter was released in 1984 but was soon out of production, making her quite rare. You can still find her via eBay, abet at higher prices as she has fallen into a collector's category.


KiTech (Zhengdefu)

Contrary to a lot of people's belief, Kitech is a China brand and not Japanese or Korean. They were formerly known as "Zhengdefu" and specializes in cheap knock offs from other established kits. When Monogram's 1/32 Blue Thunder kit went out of production, KiTech picked it up and reissued her along with Airwolf. The plastic used were hard and brittle, and the part's fittings from what I have heard can be a nightmare (for most of their kits). Their kits however are super cheap, hence that is your clue there if you don't know what to expect from them. But with some patience, KiTech kits can still be built up beautifully.

Model details:

• 1/32nd scale
• Molded in a light grey plastic, instead of the dark metallic blue as per the Monogram version
• Detailed cockpit, rotating rotor
• The decal sheet is not as detailed as Monogram's
• Comes with a small tube of plastic cement the size of a AA battery
• Supposed clear parts comes out fogged up - inferior quality
• Length/Width/Height: 340mm (13.396")/270mm (10.638")/80mm (3.152")

So how do you recognize it the kit you got is a KiTech kit and not Monogram, since the later release used a similar box cover design. Simple, look for the brand, check the clear parts and decals, and see the instruction sheet (KiTech's has Chinese contents). If you have all these, congratulations, you have just bought yourself a KiTech kit. I get them too .. but to use their parts for spare parts.

Here are images of her other parts.

Images were obtained from Mini Military Planet's blog who used this kit to convert into a SA 341/2 Gazelle