Hey gang, wow, there's some great work going on in here! I'm always impressed by your talent and skill. Very inspiring! Pushes me to be a better modeler myself.
So I've been able to make a little progress on my Cobra. Last I left you, I had the cockpit built up and ready for the next step. Well, the next step was to install it.
![](https://i.imgur.com/FUo72me.jpg)
The resin cockpit was a bit of a challenge because I had to do some grinding to get the resin to fit. Also, there are no locating tabs so I had to do some careful measuring and comparing to an AH-1G I'm concurrently building.to get it pretty close. Well, as close as I could. Something you don't see in the above are the armor plates. I added them after I took the photo but before I closed up the canopy.
Speaking of canopies, I got both the canopy masked up and installed. Again, there are two because I'm also kitbashing an Army AH-1G.
![](https://i.imgur.com/HD0khoy.jpg)
![](https://i.imgur.com/A2aVxnH.jpg)
![](https://i.imgur.com/M8eg8dL.jpg)
Shortcomings of kit are the intake and exhaust assemblies. The intakes are molded as hollow openings that allow a viewer to see into the empty doghouse.
![](https://i.imgur.com/h72DpOB.jpg)
I'll have to figure out a solution for that. The exhausts are just these two shallow ovals molded onto a piece that mounts to the rear of the doghouse. I pressed some tissue soaked in white glue into the shallows to mold some FOD covers. A small hole drilled into the backing of the exhaust allowed me to push them out after they dried.
![](https://i.imgur.com/hX0fZg8.jpg)
![](https://i.imgur.com/DF6PGld.jpg)
The last thing I did was attach the rotor blades to the hub. When I kitbashed a USMC -1G, I found that the assembly was very weak and allowed for a lot of flexing. So much so that I accidentally snapped a blade off during construction. This time I used a couple of small styrene strips to add some rigidity and reinforce the joint. I'm sure once everything is painted up and washed, the extra plastic won't be noticeable.
![](https://i.imgur.com/nTvLiUJ.jpg)
So the main fuselage is assembled. Next will be to clean up all the joints and fill the gaps around the canopies. After that, I think things will go pretty quickly.
Thanks for looking. Feel free to share any comments, questions or criticisms. I hope to be back soon with more progress.
Cheers!
-O