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AH-1G in 1/72 by Special Hobby


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My first entry here: The Special Hobby AH-1G Cobra in 1/72, propably the best kit of the "Snake"!

 

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Will do "Cindy Ann" with the 20mm M-35 Gun System. Read "Snake Pilot" by Randy Zahn and loved it, so doing his bird is a tribute to his actions and his book.

 

 

HAJO

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OK, some progress:

 

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The instrument panels are nice, but the decals provide instruments that are way too bright and "white". I tried to tone them down by brushing a thin layer of black of them. In the end it looks good, I´d say:

 

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As you can see, the cockpit itself is already done, and the kit is very straight forward. Fit is extremely well and I didn´t had to sand or correct anything yet. So I can really recommend the Cobra!

 

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In fact, the only step where I had some problems was when I tried to put in the engine exhaust AFTER glueing the halves together. The instructions say that this part needs to be glued in BEFORE shutting the halves - I thought I´d be smarter, and was proven wrong! So, the kit is very well engineered and will outsmart you if you´d try! ;)

 

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HAJO

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Yep, the "toilet bowl" exhaust is part of the kit!

 

I just have praised the kit for accuracy and excellent engineering - something I shouldn´t have done, I think! Because now I have something that simply doesn´t look right:

 

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The exhaust opening of the engine looks different than the pictures I know. But as you will see on the next picture, this strange ring that I glued on the end of the exhaust opening should go there, at least according to the instructions:

 

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Any idea if that´s a correct feature? And if not - how do I correct that?

 

And a bonus question: I attached two small rings (one can be seen on the first picture below the fuselage), what is their purpose?

 

 

HAJO

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Thanks to Floyd Werner I was able to get my questions answered, which were in short: Cut it off! So I did.

 

Progress of the last days was good, as you will see. I worked on the crew figures and started with the bodies, using two figures of the Revell pilot set. First I made sure they both fit in the seat:

 

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I had cut off the heads since they belonged to Jet-pilots. But before adding helo-heads (rotorheads? ;) ) I equipped the two with "chicken plate" body armour:

 

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I simply cut some paper in the right form and glued it on the upper chest. Voilà, new heads and body armour!

 

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After painting the two guys:

 

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Both look really good when seated in the cockpit!

 

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And I started with the clear parts. The center windshield went into place without problems:

 

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HAJO

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Hajo,

  Looks like you got your question answered, but yes, that exhaust ring is just silly and is one of the things about the kit really annoys me.  I actually like the AZ models kit as well. It really just needs a new canopy to be excellent.  Both kits also come with the wide chord tail rotor of later cobras and need the Werner Wings tail rotor to be accurate.

    Ray

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Thanks for the replies!

 

I nearly forgot to mention that some ballast in the nose makes things a bit easier. I fortunately did so, maybe it would have worked without it, but you´d better don´t take any chances.

 

Some update. The canopy was finished and went on quite smoothly, although it´s consisting of five different parts.

 

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Then I painted the Snake with Revells 46, adding Orange for the elevators, nose and tail-fin-tip:

 

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And just a couple of minutes ago I applied the decals:

 

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They are very thin and wet on good, although some of the detals are not that crisp as could be expected. For example the name of the Chief Engineeror the "24" in the yellow circle are no really good...

 

 

HAJO

 

 

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Well, the last item I added to the Snake was the main rotor. I don´t know what´s the idea here, but this can´t be right, can it???

 

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As you can see, the rotor will be simply put on the doghouse, no mast or similar thing stabilizing it! This is definately NOT good and somehow damages the excellent reputation the model had so far.

 

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The weapons are spot on, thought!

 

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Aaaaaannd: "Cindy Ann" is ready for war!

 

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HAJO

 

 

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