The Duke's Helicopter Group Build

[Duke Maddog]

Okay everyone, I finally got the chance to get started on this Group Build. I chose the Special Hobby AH-1G Cobra for the Marine Corps.

I started my Special Hobby AH-1G Marine Corp Cobra by looking in the box. The first thing I saw made me say out loud: "SERIOUSLY? I have to do WHAT?" Yes, I have to assemble the entire cockpit canopy piece by piece when the time comes:



Well moving on, I started; once again, with the cockpit. The first thing I had to do was to cut off the back part and replace it with the one shown in place right here:



Then I added all the control sticks and targeting equipment along with the instrument panels:



Afterwards, I added the armor plate and then painted this up:



The instructions said to apply the decals to the instrument panel faces but there were no instrument panel decals on the decal sheet! So, I painted them too:



After that, I assembled the seat and set them aside to dry. While they were drying, I assembled the tail section that my particular version was supposed to have:




I then went through and put all the weapon pod halves together:







That's as far as I got so far on that. Hopefully this coming week I'll be able to get more done.


Thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.

[midnightprowler]

Looking forward to this. What scale?

[Duke Maddog]

Thanks MP. It's in 1/72 scale.

[midnightprowler]

Cool. We badly need a 1/48. I have a set of NASA and 1st Cav decals in 1/48 for a G Cobra.

[Stuart]

woohoo - Nice start Duke and an excellent choice of Subject. I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes.

Well now that we've had a few starts, I'd better get on with mine over the weekend!

Cheers

Stuart

[Duke Maddog]

Thanks Stuart! I'll be looking forward to seeing yours soon.

[Stuart]

Thanks Stuart! I'll be looking forward to seeing yours soon.

This'll be my main build come the weekend along with the 262.

[Duke Maddog]

Okay, I got a small amount of work done on this. Here is my latest.

I completed the cockpit and went to add the decals to the instrument panels as specified in the instruction sheet. Unfortunately, nobody told the instruction sheet writers that there are no decals for instrument panels on the decal sheet. So, I did a quick dry-brush with white:



After that, I closed everything up inside the fuselage and added a few other bits and bobs:





Next up will be the challenge of assembling the canopy for this. I already dipped the parts in Future, so I should be able to get this done fairly soon.



That's all I got done so far on this. Hopefully more will get done soon. I'm going to be trying to find a way to make the main rotor spin; right now the instructions tell me to glue it down into place. Not good.

Stay tuned, more to come.

[speedgraflex]

Lookin' good, Duke. I checked out the instructions—Is it just me knowing next to nothing about helicopters... or are these instructions harder to follow than most? What is your take on this kit? Is this for advanced modelers? What happened to the missing decals for the IP? Lots of questions, I know...

[BorgR3mc0]

That cockpit does look miles ahead of the Italeri Cobra. Maybe you can keep one of the windows open to show it off?