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Italeri 1/48 AH-1Z (built as a AH-1(4B)W)


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Hey ARC,

This is a project that had been thinking about for a while. My plan was to build all the (major) USMC Cobra variants in 1/48. Before KH released their Whiskey and Zulu variants, the venerable (read: inaccurate) Italeri kits were the only options. I had read that the Whiskey would take a lot of work to make accurate, and the Zulu was a mix between the (inaccurate) Whiskey, Bell's 4-bladed (4B) demonstrator, and the Zulu. I realized that making either boxing into accurate-ish representations of a Whiskey and a Zulu was beyond my skills, so the kits just sat in the closet...until recently.

 

One day, while surfing the web, I ran across some information and pictures of Bell's 4-bladed demonstrator. With a little more research, I found that Italeri's Zulu could, with some work and artistic license, be built to look like Bell's demonstrator. So, with that, I decided to build it up for a group build over on another site.

 

The original 4B started as a Tango model that was converted to a Whiskey model that was eventually converted to the demonstrator. Unfortunately, it was lost in to a mid-air collision, killing the crew. Here's a list of mods I made to Italeri's Zulu boxing.

 

  • Reshaped the nose between the TOW sighting system and the canopy using sheet styrene and Milliput
  • Added a "bulge" between the TOW sighting system and the cannon
  • Extended (what I think is) an avionics bay on the belly below the cockpit using styrene strip and Milliput
  • Modified some Monogram AH-1S skids (thanks Floyd!) to get round instead of the kit supplied airfoil shaped skid support struts
  • Extended the skid between the struts using some wire and styrene tube
  • Modified a TOW launcher and tubes from a Fujimi AH-1S
  • Cannibalized 3 pitots from various sources
  • Same with the two ventral aerials
  • Sourced the chaff dispensers from a Hasegawa A-4
  • Used CC/LSM AH-1W resin exhaust 
  • Moved the stabilizer aft using KH's AH-1Z for measurements and "scabbed" the original mounting locations using styrene sheet
  • Replaced some raised detail with Archer's Resin

 

The rest of the build is a mix of "Whiskey" and "Zulu" plastic from the box. Paints are MM and Testors' "little square bottle" enamels. Decals are mostly from Caracal with the BuNo pieced together from my spares drawer. Weathering is practically nonexistent because the real demonstrator was very clean in the pictures I saw.

 

Let's move on to the pictures, shall we?

 

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I still have Italeri's Whiskey in the stash. I know KH will be releasing (if they haven't already) a new -W soon. I already have Italeri's in my stash, and since my modeling budget is pretty limited, I probably will be building it up instead of picking up the latest and greatest. I do have KH's Zulu though. I'll be tackling that one when my skills can match the task. 

 

Anyway, I know this isn't a contest winner. Heck, it's barely a three-footer! Still, I think it'll make a cool "missing link" when I finally get the -J, -T, -W, and -Z built up.

 

Thanks for looking! Comments, questions, and criticisms welcome! 

 

On to the next project...

-O

Edited by oortiz10
broken photo links
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