1:72 AH-1G Vietnam Cobra "Dr. Oldsmobile" WIP - FINISHED! on page 2

Too cool. I'm a huge Olds 442 fan. Going to enjoy watching you assemble this one. does anyone make decals or will you have to print your own?

Hello!

Thanks a lot for your comment! The plan is to have custom decals printed. I already have most of them drawn up in CorelDRAW!, including Dr. Oldsmobile himself. Do you want me to print an extra copy for you?

Thanks for looking and have a nice day

Paweł

Pawel

Hello!

Thanks a lot for your comment! The plan is to have custom decals printed. I already have most of them drawn up in CorelDRAW!, including Dr. Oldsmobile himself. Do you want me to print an extra copy for you?

Thanks for looking and have a nice day

Paweł

 

OH Hell yeah! iv gotten into helo's since doing the Viper and this would be an excellent build. 

Mongoose - thanks a lot for your comment! Sorry for replying so late...

This build somehow goes very slow... Here are some pictures of the work I've done so far in the rear cockpit:

Thanks for lookin' and have a nice day

Paweł

Awesome. My favorite element is the quilted looking back plate!

TheMongoose - thanks a lot! I think it shows that I had my fun shading it...

And in the meantime the cockpit is done:

I wanted to go on and close up the hull, but one thing got me thinking - yeah, better late than never! The SpecialHobby cobra is quite a nice kit, but the way they handled the main rotor mast just doesn't seem right to me:

That's right - they have you just glue the mast in the hole! I just can't accept that. I think I will try to scratch something in the style of the Hasegawa Cobra I did before, so that there's a meaningful hole there and so I have the rotor rotating or maybe even removable - I like this option for many reasons, one of them being it helps to protect the rotor from breaking when something touches it.

Thanks for looking and have a nice day!

Paweł

The cockpit looks great. Job well done.

I totally agree on the rotor! Definitely a smart idea. You don't want to do allthis great work and then catch the blade on something and have it snap off. 

Looking good.  I also agree on redoing the rotor.  I always leave them removable so they can be removed to transport to shows or just move them around safely.

Hello!

Thanks a lot for your comments.

I'm working on the main transmission and here's what I got so far:

Thanks for lookin' and have a nice day

Paweł

Unless you are going to open up the side panels to show the transmission, none of that will be seen.  On AH-1Gs, at the base of the rotor shaft, just above the swash plate, there is a circular anti-dust shield that completely covers the opening below it.  I would just cut a square of thick plastic or resin and put it in the fuselage, drill a hole in it and add a lower shaft to the kit part.

Hello Gino!

I know about that dust shield, it's just that many photos show it being gone, and even the reference I have, when you look at it, the opening is definitely there:

Plus I would like to have a transmission to put in other models, like a Huey, and for other people wishing to detail up a Cobra - that's why I decided to put some work in.

Thanks a lot for your comment and have a nice day!

Paweł

Hello!

I got the transmission ready for 3D print:

https://www.shapeways.com/product/UHVYQVYX5/1-72-main-transmission-for-the-ah-1g-cobra-2x

I have designed the parts so that a 2mm metal axle can be used for the actual rotor mast to make it durable and to reduce the risk of a resin part "fading" on a hot day.

Now I have to wait about two weeks until the parts are printed and shipped to me.

Thanks for looking and have a nice day

Paweł

Hello!

The transmissions just got here from printing at Shapeways. I have primed them and painted the sprue (to be cut away) red:

I cut out the rotor part, fitted some 2mm brass tube for the shaft and put the rotor together:

Then I have built a "symbolic" internal structure for my Cobra and did some dry fitting:

Now I have a nice rotating, removable rotor!

Thanks for looking and have a nice day!

Paweł

Oh boy did that solution come out nice!

It came out looking great. Good job on designing the fix.

Hi Pawel!

          You did it again. That Office took my breath away! It is Awesome as usual from you!. The rest of this is going to be that way too. Thanks for such great work. It brightens my day!

Hello everybody!

Thanks a lot for your kind words and please excuse me for replying so late. This build is going really slow (as almost all my builds), but it's not like nothing is happening at all, so let me post a little update.

First, the tail rotor is also designed in the kit as static, which I don't like, mainly because such a rotor is much more damage prone. I decided to install a metal axle here, that would let me install a painted up tail rotor at the very end of the build. Here's what the parts look like - I turned the axle from brass:

Then I started preparing the hull for closing it up at last. I painted the interior and installed the engine exhaust, but I took the part from the AZmodel kit, I think it's a little nicer than the Special Hobby part:

Then I closed everything up and did the first filling and sanding:

I have also discovered a little error in the otherwise very nice Special Hobby kit:

In real life it looks more like this:

Now I will have to rescribe this area, I just have to make sure my lines aren't so much worse than the kit lines...

I have also (very carefully) filled the nose with hot lead (very small drops) and I am also working on custom decals for this one.

Thanks for looking and have a nice day

Paweł

Pawel that is looking great as usual from you. I like the fact that the rotors are removable. Great job.

Coming along nicely.  The transmission part fits well.  Good job.

 Hi Pawel,

Your model looks like it's coming along really nice and nice job. I mostly build AH-1 Cobras and currently working on 2 more Special Hobby kits, their new 1/48 G model and another 1/72 kit of the S(Mod), they incorrectly title it a Q model though and can explain that later. 

I to don't like their rotor system either and just glue it in place, but admire you went over and above with a shapewave transmission which I didn't know was available in 1/72 scale. Special Hobby improved on this on their new 1/48 scale kit but only down to the swash plate with no transmission. I’ve been also sending them pictures and manual drawings to do make a cowls open to see the transmission and engine. I’d like to hear more of how you got the transmission from Shapewaves because I’d like to have a 3D printed engine and cowls in 1/48 scale though.

There are a few other inaccuracies with their kit and have been e-mailing Special Hobby about them such as the rotor tower cowling access door is mis-shaped and should be more of a squared off rectangle than a long skinny rectangle and the top of the door should be parallel with them bottom of the door. The kit's door is parallel with the top of the rotor tower cowling. I think the whole tower is needs to be taller. Another error is the 90 degree tail rotor drive shaft cover has 5 metal lock strips with dzues fasteners that should run parallel with the cover, not run horizontal across the cover like the kit has. I scrape these off and install tiny adhesive backed aluminum strips. I’m not entirely positive on the G model, but they were parallel to the cover on all our S(Mod), P, E and F cobras after the G model.

If you need any reference material on the AH-1 Cobra, I saved all my manuals from the US Army for the S(Mod), P, E and F, no G model though. They are available on-line and can be down loaded for free. Google liberated manuals and the manual titles are TM 55-1520-234-xx for the S(Mod), TM 55-1520-236-xx for the P,E and F models. Let me know if you are looking for any reference material of any part and I can help you find it in the AH-1 Cobra manuals.

I like the 442 picture, I was in C Company 227^th AHB

Thanks,

Tom

lurch, Gino - sorry for taking so long to answer - I thought Iäd post another update soon... But the build goes soo slow... Thanks a lot for your kind words!

Tom - thanks a lot for your message.

If you like, you can check out my AH-1F build here:

https://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/16/t/189173.aspx

As for the transmission - it's 100% my design, I have drawn it up in 3D and now it's on sale on Shapeways:

1:72 Main Transmission for the AH-1G Cobra (2x) (UHVYQVYX5) by pmroczko (shapeways.com)

To get one in 1:48 I'd have to draw it up again - scaling designs up is possible, but usually doesn't look good, the details tend to get clunky... The doors would be tricky to draw, with all those complicated curves...

Good catch on those tower cowling doors - I didn't notice it until you pointed it out. The Special Hobby kit looks so good in the box that looking for bugs just doesn't feel like the thing to do... I'm not so sure what you mean about the tail rotor gearbox, though.

It would be cool to know if there were any quirks or special features the D/227th snakes sported - I know sometimes in a unit soldiers tend to do something special to their ships. Painting tops of the rotor blades is such a thing. Otherwise I'd be glad to get bach to you when I get stuck on some detail.

One thing that would be interesting right now - do you have any photo or drawing showing the two-gun turret from below? I believe there were two large openings there, models tend to omit those, I'd like to model that, maybe you could help me?

Thanks in advance for your help, have a nice day

Paweł

Hello Tom!

Unfortunately this forum still doesn't give it's users at least a few MBs for pictures - as disk space gets cheaper and cheaper this is slowly getting standard on other forums, but not this one...

I always say it's best to concentrate on 3D design in some CAD software. There are many 3D printers just waiting for something to do, if you don't print 24/7 it's cheaper to have your design printed by somebody already owning a high-tech printer.

I'm glad you like my F model, good luck with your 3D designs, and thanks for the explanations on the Cobra tail.

That's what I found out, too - looks like nobody ever bothered to crawl underneath a Cobra with a camera and shoot any photos of the turret underside.

Do I understand it right, that you were with a Cobra unit in the time of Desert Storm? Do you have any contact to people servin in the times of Vietnam War?

And in the meantime I corrected the fuselage side. I have also attached the nose (filled with lead) and stub wings:

I have sanded the underside smooth, then added a few scribed lines, but mostly the PE from the Special Hobby PE set. For the flat parts I used white glue to attach them, for the curved parts on the tail CA was necessary:

I also have a vacu-formed canopy for this kit by Pavla, I'm working on fitting it and I also thinking about making the turret movable... Thanks for looking and have a nice day

Paweł

Hello!

Today I'd like to show my process of fitting a vacuform canopy from this set (there are two pieces inside):

This is how it looks like OOB:

And another photo on a background that would allow you to see how transparent it is:

With a jeweller's saw I have cut off the front and back first:

I hope I don't have to stress that you have to be careful and above all make sure you don't take out too much material...

To remove the chunk in the rear I've punched twosmall holes and then connected them with the outside with three short cuts:

At that moment I had the canopy roughly cut out. Then I started fitting it to the fuselage and taking out smallportions where necessary:

To do this I used sharp scissors (only very small cuts), sandpaper on a sanding block and fine file, and a sharp scalpel (actually only scraping material away):

This allowed me to get a dry fit like this:

No I intend to dip the canopy in future, fully eqip the insides and close the cabin up.

Thanks for looking and have a nice day!

Paweł

Looking good.  Nice job of cutting and mating the vac-formed canopy.  They can be a pain to get right.

Hi Pawel, I forgot I had a drop box account so I'll just need to figure out how to post pictures soon.

I tested attaching a drop box picture of my AH-1S(Mod). If you are able to see it, let me know. If you are able to see it, I know, it was pretty worn out, but what do you expect, its an old Vietnam war veteran, I found numerous bullet hole patches all over it.

As mentioned I used Special Hobby’s 1/72 scale M28 turret to 3D print a 1/48 scale M28 turret. It’s pretty low clearance under the turret to get a good picture and I did look through all my reference material for the underside and no luck. You might get lucky google searching for pictures of AH-1s that are on display that are elevated up in the air. There are about 75 or more at VFW posts here in the United States. Wikipedia has the listings of Cobras on display. I’ve seen some underneath M28 pictures, but can't remember where. The AH-1G, AH-1S(Mod) and AH-1P are the only Cobras that used the M28 turret.

I got out of the US Army right before desert storm and I’m not in contact with anyone who served during Vietnam. I do know people, one was a Cobra crew chief, but I haven’t seen or talked to him in 40 years unfortunately.

I too am working on special hobby’s 1/72 kit, although it’s the AH-1S(Mod), they label it a Q which is not correct though. The Q was a development model for the TOW system and not a production standard used by active US Army units. The US Army used the S designation on all Cobras after the G until 1987 I believe and designated them P, E and F thereafter. The (Mod) stood for modified at the time and that’s what we wrote on our log pages as the model series.

Pre and post redesignations: AH-1S(Prod) = AH-1P, AH-1S(ECAS) = AH-1E, AH-1S(MC) = AH-1F. (Prod) meant production, (ECAS) meant Enhanced Cobra Armament System and (MC) meant Moderized.

What kind of primer are you planning to use? I only use Mr. Hobby Mr. Primer Surfacer 1000 on my kits from now on thinned a little with leveling thinner. I might use 500 thinned a bit more, but it absolutely smooths everything out. Depends on how much scribing and sanding I do.

One trick I use because I hate sanding and filling is to use adhesive aluminum tape especially on the tail rotor drive shaft cover. You can also make panels with the tape. Use a pounce wheel on the back side for the hinges on the right side of the tail rotor drive shaft cover, or for rivets. It works best with paper backed tape or foil. I use the same method making panels. The aluminum also works great to weather the paint for exposing bare metal. I’ll have to post some pictures of it, works great.

Tom

Stazie190

I tested attaching a drop box picture of my AH-1S(Mod). If you are able to see it, let me know.

Nope, no pic.  You have to have it on a photo hosting site like Photo Bucket, Imgur, etc...  Drop Box won't work.

Hello!

Tom - unfortunately I couldn't see the picture at first, neither. I could post it here, but the link was destroyed by dropbox after a few hours, so looks like Gino is right here (ain't that a nasty tendency, eh, Gino? :-).

I could folow the link, though, and eventually I've seen the picture. Lookin' good, what was the serial of that machine? When I was building my AH-1F it was fascinating for me to see through how many mods those babies went through. Also, the designations had a real problem to follow those mods and at a point in time AH-1S could mean almost anything.

As for primer - I didn't decide yet. Sometimes I use surfacer 500 from a spray can - usually for some rough surfaces. I also like Tamiya spray primer a lot, especially the white one for difficult colours. Here the colours are going to be rather dark and I'm using Humbrols, so I think I could get away with no primer at all, but I'd check the spots where I used filler with a little primer.

That trick with aluminium foil sounds interesting. A long time ago I've built a paper model (Ki-61 Hien) and covered it all in aluminium foil.

I'm working on the insides of the canopy now - I'd like to do the yellow outlines of the pilot and gunner doors, let's see how this turns out.

Thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł