I have the kit, but I haven't started to build it. It's in line behind my next masterpiece, a WWII destroyer. I was the lead test engineer for the Army on the Comanche, so I know a little bit about it. What I've seen from looking at the cover art and instructions:
The tail numbers are correct for the two prototypes: 94-0327 (aircraft 1 - structural test) and 95-0001 (aircraft 2 - mission equipment package test).
We never flew the full NVPS/EOTADS on the nose. 95-0001 got a prototype NVPS late in the program. The rest of the time we flew with a blank dummy of the correct shape, with internal ballast to match the estimated weight. The dummy had the upper turret turned 180 degrees, back towards the cockpit, in the "stowed" position, and had no lense openings - surfaces were solid.
As someone else mentioned, we flew a different tail configuration on 94-0327 near the end. This was to fix some aerodynamic problems, and the final configuration would have been part of the production design. The aft pylon was also changed on 94-0327, and this is not reflected in the Italieri kit. The fuselage shape reflects the early flight test configuration of both aircraft. Oh, the model also doesn't have the anhedral main rotor blade tips that were tested on 94-0327, and would have been on a production bird.
We never flew the external wings and stores on any of the aircraft. We did mount dummy missiles in the internal weapons bays for displays, but the bays were filled with instrumentation for flight test, so the doors couldn't be closed with the dummy missiles mounted. I have some photos that show one of the prototypes ready to fly with the doors open and dummy missiles mounted. The most correct way to build it would be without the external wings, and with the weapons bays closed. I'm contemplating building mine with one of the bays open, and modeling the "orange wire" instrumentation package, but that's just me.
The headrests were black, not red as shown on the cover.
GEN Sullivan's name was on 94-0327 at aircraft rollout, as he was CSA at the time. I talked to him briefly during the ceremony. his name disappeared after first flight, as he had retired.
The aircraft was occasionally displayed with a dummy 20mm gun. We never flew it with the dummy, and the real gun was never mounted. The flight test aircraft flew with an orange airspeed boom mounted on the gun location, with a YAPS head on the end. Oh - the production gun only had two barrels, not three.
The cutouts on the landing gear doors are incorrect. The real ones had a rounded cutout to clear the wheels only, not the oblong cutout on the model.
The model does not have the radome for the Comanche version of the Longbow radar mounted above the mast. We flew an aerodynamic dummy of this - it looked like Darth Vader's helmet. Had we continued, 1/3 of the fleet would have been fielded with it.
During the flight test program, 95-0001 was renamed "The Duke" in honor of John Wayne, as a USO promotion. Garth Brooks sang at the naming ceremony. The name was painted on the left side of the forward cockpit, and remains to this day.
The two pitot/static tubes on the nose are correct for the prototype aircraft, but would not have appeared on the production version - they were for flight test only and would have been replaced by an airspeed system based on sensors mounted on the rotor blades.
Basically, the shape is the original DEM/VAL aircraft. Cover the windows on the NVPS/EOTADS, mount the upper turret facing the cockpit, leave off the wings, close the weapons bay doors, and leave off the gun (sealing the opening), and you'll have an early flight test prototype. Put all that stuff on, and you'll have a concept of what we thought the production aircraft would be as of about 1995. Put on the NVPS, and you'll have aircraft 2 as of about 2003. Add the anhedral tips, vertical tail endplates, and revised aft pylon, and you'll have aircraft 1 as of about 2002. Converting it to the final configuration, representing what we expected the production aircraft to look like as of 2004, would require mods to the tail and aft pylon, and changing the gun to 2 barrels. The production engine inlets were also planned to be different, having a square rather than a triangular shape, and the production fuselage was a bit longer in the cockpit area.
E-mail me with any questions: hollenbaugh@mindspring.com
On the bench:
Not much right now, just getting started again.