Italeri AH-1W WIP update DONE!!! Pics Page 3

It is looking good. Fit always seems to be an issue with Itileri kits! The same goes with interior detail. Good luck. Look foward to wathcing this WIP.

Travis/STFD637

Cheers, i thought people had lost interest so i didnt bother with anymore WIP shots, ill get some tonight and post.

im so gonna smash this kit, fit issues are so bad im not sure if i want to actually keep going with it.

Great patience must the Italeri modeller have , for his sanity to test they try .

 Faith comes to those who allow The Force to guide them to completion .

Scorpiomikey

im so gonna smash this kit, fit issues are so bad im not sure if i want to actually keep going with it.

 Awe, c'mon now, that's badger talk!!!  Don't let the plastic beat you....kick its arse!!!!

I guess this has to to be done!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbt30UnzRWw

lol, thanks for the support guys. ill finish up my mosquito tonight and then get back into this. the kit shows it with green, brown and black camouflage which im thinking of doing.

But the cobras all seem to be the 2 one grey lo vis camo. only very rarely have i found pics of it in 3 tone like this. Any pointer for paint schemes? or ideas?

Scorpiomikey

But the cobras all seem to be the 2 one grey lo vis camo. only very rarely have i found pics of it in 3 tone.

Every Cobra I saw up-close was painted gray. They belonged to HMM-163 and HMM-166, who were embarked with my ship (USS Peleliu) during her 2003-2004 and 2006 deployments. I'm not sure land-based Marine helicopter units would have used camo paint schemes. If you like the camo, then by all means, paint it camo.

And keep up the good work on it. Building a 1:72 Italeri kit is tangible proof that you're far more patient and tolerant than I!

lol cheers for the support, well the winglets are made and the zuney pods are assembled. quick question about the zuney pods, are they meant to have a ridge along the underside? or are they smooth cylinders like on fixed wing?

 Can't help with the pods,

 For what it's worth, Academys 1/35, has the pods smooth.

 but for the paint, I'd go with the grey/green/black. A bit more interesting than the grey on grey. Or, you could always go digital!!!

Hi Scorpiomikey ,

All helicopter kits are rather challenging but if you stick with it the end results are most satisfying .

Italeri's cobra's are a bit easier to build than Airfix's cobra's , Hasegawa's probably fit together better than the other two , although I'm yet to put together a Hobbyboss cobra .

Revell's boxing of the italeri AH-1W cobra has two sets of decal markings , one in the three tone camouflage and the the other two tone gray ....{I think} , Revell's paint instructions call for the darker color A=grey mat 57 [50%] +sky blue mat 59 [50%] and the lighter color B=sea green mat 48 [75%] + yellow mat 15 [25%] .

I'm yet to figure out if this is a two tone gray finish ??

Don't forget to add some weight to the nose or under the cockpit floor , cobra kits tend to be tail sitters ...

HTH

                             John .

im still trying to work out where to put the weight, ive left te front controll pannel off but theres no room to put enough weight in.

I have a metal vice on the workbench in the garage , it's perfect for squashing large fishing sinkers nice and flat so they can fit under cockpit floors if there is not enough room in the nose section . I think you can put some behind the pilots seat/rear wall . You could also drop some down the hole where the rotor shaft fits , add a few drops of super glue to one side so they wont roll back towards the tail .

                                               John .

wow, i never thought of that, legend mate. thanks heaps.

A hammer also works great on lead, if you don't have a vice.

Ok, small update (no pictures unfortunately) Ive got a base coat of desert yellow down. still hunting for some lead shot. got the winglets on and working on the skids now. Had a pin snap on me so im trying to get it square. Working on armaments aswell. Got the zuney pods painted (OD over Flat Black with blue tips on the missiles) At this rate ill have her finished by the end of the week. ill get photos up when i can.

Helo 53

I'm yet to figure out if this is a two tone gray finish ??

 

John,

I'm pretty sure that the colors in the scheme you are referring to are HMLA-367's sand and brown Desert Storm scheme.  I have a picture of it here somewhere.  367 came back and transferred it to HMT-303 (QT) and they added their markings.

Scorpiomikey

Ok, small update (no pictures unfortunately) Ive got a base coat of desert yellow down. still hunting for some lead shot. got the winglets on and working on the skids now. Had a pin snap on me so im trying to get it square. Working on armaments aswell. Got the zuney pods painted (OD over Flat Black with blue tips on the missiles) At this rate ill have her finished by the end of the week. ill get photos up when i can.

Sorry to be nit noid but I think what you are referring to as Zunis are probably just regular 2.75" rockets.  Zunis are 5" rockets that come four to a pod.  I'm not aware of any of these in any Cobra kits.  Regular 2.75" rockets come 7 or 19 to a pod and are in most (all?) kits.

meh, its a rocket pod, i call em zunis cos i couldnt think of anything else to describe them without going into detail lol. but yes your right, 2.75 rocket pods, 2 of them in fact

Got the zuney pods painted (OD over Flat Black with blue tips on the missiles)...

Blue on ordinance is to denote inert practice rounds.  Unless you are going for a training mission look, they would not be on a combat-loaded helo.  Standard 2.75 in. rocket tips are steel color.

The fuses (tips) are steel colored but the actual warheads are color-coded for identification:

M151 HE  - Olive drab with yellow markings

M156 White Phosphorus  - Light green with a single yellow band and markings

M247 HE Dual Purpose - Black with yellow markings

M257 Illumination - OD with white markings

M259 Smoke - Lt green with red markings

M261 HE Multi-purpose submunition - OD with single yellow band and markings

WDU-4A/A Anti-personnel (flechette round) - OD with white markings

HMA1369

 

The fuses (tips) are steel colored but the actual warheads are color-coded for identification:

M151 HE  - Olive drab with yellow markings

M156 White Phosphorus  - Light green with a single yellow band and markings

M247 HE Dual Purpose - Black with yellow markings

M257 Illumination - OD with white markings

M259 Smoke - Lt green with red markings

M261 HE Multi-purpose submunition - OD with single yellow band and markings

WDU-4A/A Anti-personnel (flechette round) - OD with white markings

 

Wow, thats quite comprihensive. So really i should be painting the tips silver or white? I went for blue cos i saw them in a walkaround and thought they looked cool. didnt turn out how i wanted though lol

Ok, quick update, a few photos of everything dry fitted together (that would stay on without glue anyway) As you can see i ended up going with desert camo. Kind of an accident really. I started with Desert yellow intending to use it as a base for the green black and brown. Then i want to paint something else with Buff and started doing camo on the huey. lol. Its looking good. Im finding it hard to get the paint looking good as poor lighting is making things difficult. i dont get the opportunity to model by daylight so i do it by lamplight.

Anyway enough of me. heres the pics. lemme know what you think.

Good thing you didn't scrap the build. Top-notch work!

Cheers. any idea what colour the inside of the intakes are?

Ok when i first posted this i mentioned i got the kit to use for a school project. Below are some screen shots of the 3D model i made. as you can see its very bare of detail. this was due to the fact i was importing it into another program which works in surfaces instead of solids. so the less detail the better. also even at this detail level it took several hours to render the animation into a video.

Enjoy

I think i caught the shape quite well. Canopy need much addressing. same with engine nacelle. but otherwise i think i did alright.

Both projects look great!!!

However, I do believe the rotorheads are all black. I haven't seen a pic to disprove that.

you mean the hub? yeah i havent got that far yet. if i get time tonight ill do some painting (grocery night, yay) but yeah i seem to remember them being black, or at least very dark grey.

Looking pretty good.  Yes, the whole rotor hub is flat black, both the main and tail rotors.

sweet, shes nearly finished, hopefully monday or tuesday