Darren Baker takes a look at the 1/48th scale Bell AH-1W Super Cobra released by Revell of Germany.

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The AH-1W has had NTS and the new exhausts for about a decade now. The Hellfire, in any scale above 1/72, needs a clear dome (or better yet, clear fore section to ease masking) and some indication of the optics as well as proportionately correct fin sizes. Finally, a kit which has a primitive cockpit is better off having the console detail blasted out of the mold and the main panels flipped to allow replacement with an in-box Eduard zoom set.

This last should now be common place on all kits, IMO because it gets the junior builder over the hump of cockpit construction, painlessly.

On those four items alone, the Revell offering falls down as essentially no improvement over the original Italeri and Testors releases in comparison to the beautifully well done, 1/35th scale, MRC kit which, while of a similarly dated early variant, has vastly more detail, recessed panel lines and is closer to scale appropriate for armor modelers (which is to say impressively BIG).

To which I would add that the MRC kit is a commonly stocked item at Hobby Lobby in the U.S. and thus, while it retails for about 40-50 bucks, with a 30-40% off coupon which happens every couple weeks, the kit can be had for competitive prices to the Revell kit here in the U.S.

The only thing the reissue truly offers is the stylized shark mouth scheme and even that is second place late as the tri-tone scheme has also not been active on the Super for at least 5 years, even in the reserves.

While, compared to the black and gold markings of the original Super Cobra prototype (available from MRC in a separate boxing) with the full length snake, it's kind've dull.

Too bad. With a little more research-

http://www.hyperscale.com/2011/reviews/accessories/ww3507reviewpp_1.htm

Revell would have turned up a man who would have been glad to scale down a master for them, based on his 1/35th after market offering and they could have then included a 'cut and past' subsprue which would have let junior and advanced modelers alike pick up a kit which was different from what they had in their stash.

Myself, the T700 stretch-Cobra is ten kinds of ugly and the flat pack exhausts do nothing to help the 'which end goes forward again?' reality of it's appearance in comparison to the G and J which were the pretty versions.

But novelty has it's own appeal and with the AH-1Z by Kittyhawk now out, it would have made more sense to at least do a recent combat Whiskey variant from the SWA campaigns-

http://s70.photobucket.com/user/petebuilt/media/AH-1Wexhaust103.jpg.html

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dd/AH-1W_UH-1Y_take_off_from_Bastion_Afghanistan_2009.jpg/800px-AH-1W_UH-1Y_take_off_from_Bastion_Afghanistan_2009.jpg

The MRC/Academy 1/35 AH-1W kit has its issues too. The biggest is that it is about 5mm short in fuselage length, mainly right behind the cockpit. Also, the skid legs should be unshrouded round tubes. There are other issues too, so it is not perfect either.

I appreciate the vote of confidence in my turned exhausts. I wish they had done a better job.

Another inc wrong with the MRC kit is the canopy. It is really badly shaped.
Floyd