Kittyhawk AH-1Z Viper 1/48 Completed !!!

Good looking 'pit, Brandon. I've been eyeing this kit, so I'll be following along to see how it builds for you.

Happy Holidays!

I've just completed this kit and currently working on the Yankee Venom.  I planned to post photos of both birds when they are finished.

Your cockpit should be almost entirely dark.  Not all black but dark.  The light gray you used on the side panels should be a lot darker.

I had lots of trouble with the rear engine compartment panels.  They will not show up at all in the final model.  On the Yankee, I'm not using them at all.  The fit went much better.

I'll keep an eye out for the compartment you mentioned. Thanks. 

Ya, the color callouts on the instructions made me scratch me head as I thought they looked darker in what pics I could find. But, being helo ignorant I went with the instructions and I thought (justified to self) the pit would view better in a lighter color. If I do another it will be much more correct for sure, Thanks again.

I took alook at my pic posts and noticed that the flash really washed out the dark. The color to the eye is much much darker than they appear in my shots. No where near that grey.

BK

Ok, so the sheet filler worked out perfect. Now the fit on the windscreen is perfect. The rest of the kit fits perfect so far; except for perhaps what Mike mentioned about his kit.

I did find an error in the instructions. It calls for PE5 to be placed in a hole that is 4 times larger than the PE piece. With further inspection, PE9 fits perfectly there. I still haven't found a spot for those two little screens. I'm gonna have to pay attention or I may miss them altogether. Tomorrow I will clean up the seam, what little it needs and move on.

BK

Brandon,

Your cockpit looks good.

Be careful on the color call outs in the instructions.

The correct FS numbers are FS 36375 Light Ghost Gray and FS 35237 Medium Gray.  Both are pretty standard USN and USMC a/c colors.  I've lightened the top color on both of my helos slightly with some white.  Not much, but a bit for scale effect.

Here are some good links for Viper photos:

http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?aircraft_genericsearch=&airlinesearch=&countrysearch=&specialsearch=&daterange=&keywords=AH-1Z&range=&sort_order=photo_id+desc&page_limit=15&thumbnails=

http://www.navy.mil/gallery_search_results.asp

The USN shots are high res so you can enlarge them for details.

Since you are new to helos and you are building a model of one with new rotors, I'll mention something about "rotor droop."  Most rotor blades droop to the ground somewhat when the rotors aren't turning.  The new H-1 helos' blades don't droop as much as other, older machines, but they don't appear straight out from the hub as the kit will represent them. Looking at photos, the blades themselves don't bend much, but they do bend downward somewhat from the hub itself. I assembled the rotor then taped a nickle to each blade until a got a little permanent droop of the blades from the rotor hub.  Other guys will have different suggestions for this trick I'm sure, but the model will display the rotors too straight if some adjustment isn't made.

Best of luck on your build.  Please let me know if you have any other build questions while I have my build still fresh on my mind. (Such as that might be!)

How are the color callouts on the exterior of the two grey varients? Are they accurate or even close? It's too late for the pit this go around, but Ill make a note of those for the instructions that I keep.

BK

The two colors I listed in last post are the correct exterior colors.

Quick update.

I decided to go with a closed cockpit for two reasons. One, it's a lot easier to mask and paint, and two, you can still see the vast majority of the pit anyway so it will stay clean in there better that way.

I have the majority of the building done and I have to say that this kit comes with A LOT of very small bits. I mean VERY small, almost too small to work with. But, it adds a lot of detail and looks great once done. On the other hand it can be quite difficult to work with so many small bits that are really easy to loose. So, that's a win/lose situation.

The PE that comes with the kit to make up all the screens is very nice and will certainly make the kit look wonderful once painted. I lost two really small bits and I have Emailed Kittyhawk for replacement fret, no word back yet. I'll keep you informed of their customer service.

One thing to note on this kit is the ejector pen marks have a great deal of overflow and nearly all of them, if not all, will need to be cut off before assembly. Most are hidden once assembled though, so not that big of a deal. Flash so far has been very minimal. 

I  managed to rig up a jig for my rotor blades to get a tad bit of a droop from them and then used my hot air gun and a few moments of heat to get just a tad of a bend. It worked great and they should display wonderfully.

No real issues with the kit thus far but I can say you really need to follow most of the construction steps in order on the main body or it will be difficult to assemble. I didn't but managed to pull it off.

I did take the time to clean up the intake plenums as they have locator pins that show when you look inside. SO, I removed them and filed the surface smooth and now you cannot see anything that shouldn't be there.

Thanks for looking guys, more to come later.

BK

Great work so far.

I've been pretty busy with other builds lately, I have 7 going at once right now. So, I managed to get this one to the paint booth over the weekend and get the two primary colors down. It went well and the paint laid down quite well. I used Mr Color 338 FS36495 and Mr Color 335 BS381C for the colors. I found this exact aircraft online and the colors I chose are very close, so I am pleased. I will post up more later but I have tons more to paint yet on this kit. Thanks for looking.

BK

Well, I am slowly making headway on the Viper. I have most of the major detail painting done. I'll finish up the weapons and I should be ready to add decals. This is a lovely kit but it takes tons of extra time to detail paint all the little stuff it comes with. But, it is beginning to look pretty good.

BK

Wow!

midnightprowler

Wow!

 

Well, more slow progress. I have the decals mostly complete. It took nearly 9 hours to add all the stencils.  I have most of the assembly done, some small bits yet to go and lots and lots of work still to do. I have to seal the decals, give it a panel line wash, flat coat it, weather it up with pastels and seal that and then final assembly. Not sure at this point, but I hope to be done by next week.

BK

I'm gonna stop using my flash because it washes out the colors in my photos. Here is a shot without the flash. It is more representitive of the actuall colors.

I also built up my PE main gun assembly. Wow, that was tricky to build and quite delicate to handle, but it looks way better than the kit parts.

BK

Ok, so all the weathering is now complete. I just need to paint the nav lights and some bits here and there, then final assembly.

I first gave the whole kit a overall wash using Detailer grey so that it wouldn't contrast too much with the colors. Black would have been too much on the rivets and panel lines. The grey is just dark enough to highlight them. I removed the wash over the whole kit with a wet cotton Qtip leaving only the recessed areas darker. 

I then sealed the whole kit with MM flat clear and followed that up with an overall dusting of pastels is a tone in between the two primary colors to help fade and blend them together. I then used progressively darker tones to show dirt around panels that are used accessed often and some panels that exibt some stainer over time from moving parts, etc. I also applied some staining on the exhaust nozzles and on the tail as I saw in some photos. I sealed all this in with artists Fixative so as not to disturb the pastels. Other clear coats will cause them to run and pool up and ruin your look.

Anyway, hopefully I should be buttoning this up this weekend. Thanks for looking.

BK

Here with the wash applied.

And here is with the wash cleaned off.

And finally, the pastel weathering is done.

Well, now we can call this one done. Final assembly and some painting of odds and sods finished it off. I really liked the kit, it is well done and of very high quality. Aside from some of the handling of the really tiny bits, of which there are many, the kit went off without any real issues. I am really pleased with how it turned out. If you guys are wanting to get this kit but just couldn't decided; get it, it's worth every penny.

Till next time,

BK

It came out looking great.  Very nice.

HeavyArty

It came out looking great.  Very nice.

 

Thanks, it was a pleasure to build.

BK

Wow! I am speechless!

That is one mean ass looking helicopter.  Awesome build and thanks for sharing.

John

Wow, Brandon! You have outdone yourself! Outstanding! Ha, I bought this kit when you first posted, now after your commments, I'm glad I did. Great job!

I love every bit of this one Brandon, excellent! I have talked myself out of buying this kit so many times since its come out but I still want it so bad. May have to splurge and pick it up.

Beautiful build!  

   Ray

Thank you gentlemen, I appreciate the kind words. It was fun.

BK