1/48 Italeri AH-1W Instructions

Thanks for all the comments and feedback.

Hopefully when the Zulu enters service, an accurate kit will be released in 1/48.
Alternatively, maybe Cobra Company will come up with a Zulu Update/Coversion in the interim.

If anyone goes out and picks up an Italeri kit, watchout for the main rotor assembly as you can see in the photos. I was forced to reinforce them with toothpicks.

And the kit is a tail sitter, I didn't put enough weight in the front.

Jon, did u manage to scan the instructions yet?

warlock0322 wrote:

One quick question though. I thought I read somewhere that Italeri's Cobra was used from the same molds as the Academy molds. correct? Or is my mind been affected by too much glue and paint fumes.

You are only partially affected by paint fumes.  Italeri's 1/35 AH-1W is a reboxed Academy AH-1W.  The above Italeri AH-1Z is a 1/48 kit, based on Italeri's 1/48 AH-1W.  No relation to an Academy kit, which does not exist in 1/48.  Italeri reboxes many Asian manufactureres' kits and markets them in Europe. 

John Looks like a great build from the pics. You are right. Overall it looks like a Z model and you had fun with it, so it will look great on the shelves.

One quick question though. I thought I read somewhere that Italeri's Cobra was used from the same molds as the Academy molds. correct? Or is my mind been affected by too much glue and paint fumes.

If true then you have an Academy Cobra with an Italeri "conversion set"

Great looking build John you may have sold another Z model on top of Lemon Jello's 

That's a good looking build, John, and if you had fun, that's the most important part.  Thanks for sharing the photos.

Over all, it looks like a good kit, I'm not sure how accurate it is as a Z Cobra, but it'll make a nice addition to my collection of USMC Air.

Hi guys

Its amazing how things don't look to bad to the human eye but show the same thing through a digital camera and things look terrible.
Be warned my masking was terrible on the canopy! Decided to invest in canopy masks for all future builds.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I just built this over the xmas holidays to have fun. I didn't put a lot of effort in to it but I'm happy with the results. It looks like a Cobra and more importantly I enjoyed building it.

As promised here are the photos:

osjohnm wrote:

Gino, the Italeri Z kit contains all the parts required for the W. Two-bladed main and tail rotors, engines, stub wings, pylons etc. They just grey them out in the instructions.

O.K., cool.  Didn't realize they just added some parts/sprues to make it a quasi-Z model.

LemonJello, the Italeri kit is based on the prototype and isn't all that accurate. I'm no Cobra expert but looks like Italeri took the W mold and added some parts to make it a Z. To me it looks like a Z and I'm quite happy with it.

The fit is ok, although I didn't like the way the front fuselage top bits (not sure what to call them) get added, leaves nasty gaps. My main rotor didn't survive for very long, it wasn't holding the wait of the 4 blades. I added toothpicks above and below to support it, hence my main rotor section looks quite funny.

If you want I can take some pics of my finished model and then the experts can point out what Italeri got wrong?

Just remember, I built the kit rapidly as a fun build and didn't bother to fill the gaps as well as I could.

Hi guys  

Jon, thanks for the assistance with the instructions, I really appreciate it. I'll supply my home and work email addresses, incase one doesn't play along:

macphersonj@xsinet.co.za
jmacpherson@ois.co.za

Gino, the Italeri Z kit contains all the parts required for the W. Two-bladed main and tail rotors, engines, stub wings, pylons etc. They just grey them out in the instructions.

Thanks again