M197 20mm gun & turret

Snake,

When I scratchbuilt the turret for my AH-1F, I used photos from the Squadron AH-1 in action book, the Aerofax Datagraph on the AH-1 and a copy of World Airpower Journal (can't remember the volume number, as I lent it out a while ago). I'll see what I can find over the weekend.

Thanks Cobrahistorian.
Have I mentioned that you are the MAN!?
As a side note about all of these good modeling reference books, are any of them available in your average city library? Or do most of you guys purchase them outright?

Semper Fi
PS, think twobobs would make a decal sheet from my new sig?

I scratched mine up from photos for my AH-1S as well. Not too hard to do, basic breach and mechanism, mostly done by gizmology.

Here are a couple of pics. I only have a few on this computer; all of the rest are on my laptop:


For the gun itself you can find alot more pictures by doinga goggle image search for M-61 20mm or vulcan rather than M-197 - same gun. If you want to spend the money Verlinden's AH-1W set has the turret with the bottom cowling open. Cheaper is to get a M-113 (APC) Vulcan kit and rob the gun out of it.

For the sig, probably need to get some more noseart to warrant another Cobra sheet. I'm thrilled theydid what I gave them:

Supercobra, Snake,

That's exactly what I did. The Italeri M163 PIVAD kit provided the base for my scratchbuild and then I added lots of tidbits of detail. Its a little small if you're doing a 1/32 conversion like I did, but its perfect for the 1/35 AH-1W. The mounting ring, breech, barrels, etc can all be used as a starting point to detail from.

Thanks supercobra, especially that turret pic. Now I kind of remember how the gun fits in there. Never was an ordie, but I did work on fire control for 7 months, so I had plenty of play-time with the weapons systems....on the ground, at least. Also found somewhat more info by searching for an M-61 instead of an M-197.
This won't be too bad, then....just build the breech and rotor assembly out of some round stock, add on the gun drive motor and feeder assembly, and snake a gawd-awful wiring harness around in there. It will be my first scratchbuild attempt, so why not? If I mess it up, it'll just get hidden by the turret cowlings again, lol. Thanks for your continued help, guys.

As for the noseart, I have probably about 10 more photos of good artwork -- just from 269 in OIF. But yes, I am very grateful with the Whiskey sheet that's out right now! Maybe they could put it on a combined "skids" sheet with decals for both some new cobras and some stuff for a 1/35 UH-1N!!

Hey Snake,

Would you be willing to post some of your nose art shots? I'm doing '06' for my AH-1W simply because of the nose art. I wish some more of the Apaches I've seen had better artwork. Best we tend to get is a name or a sharkmouth.

Cobrahistorian:
Here you go.....just a few of the better ones that I uploaded quick last night to a file host. Enjoy!

** All images courtesy of HML/A-269
Semper Fi

Snake,

You DA MAN!

Ooohh, 007 License to Kill ROCKS!!! They all look cool, but that has to be my fave. Thanks for posting those photos.

Cheers,