OK here she is. This is Acadamy's 1/35 Whiskey. Other than every or darn near ever decal silvering on me. The only other thing that the kit was lacking was the canopy fit problems. The front of the canopy was too small at the front and wouldn't fit around the instument panel leaving a gap and not fitting flush to the nose.
There were many firsts for me on this kit. The camo scheme was freehand airbrushed was the big thing. It came out alright for a first time, but with a little more practice I'll get it right yet.
Any and all suggestions welcome.



There are more images in my galley below if interested

Paul

While I do not know much about modern helicopters the build and paint/weathering look very effective and well done. A pity the decals silvered. Is there any way they could be removed and others put in their place? or maybe another couple of coats of matt varnish would do the trick.

Decal silvering occurs when air is trapped between the decal and the surface they are applied to. It is caused when the surface is not smooth (flat surface as opposed to gloss) and allows the air to collect in tiny pockets. To fix your decal problem, rewet and gently peel off. Next, put down a gloss coat where they need to go. Reapply the decals using thinned white glue (Elmers type). Lastly, put a couple of coats of dullcoat over them once dried to seal them on the model. A couple other pointers. The Hellfire racks and missle pods should be either sand or dark green. Lastly, the color scheme that MRC/Academy calls for (sand and med. brown) was not actually used by USMC. The correct Desert Storm color scheme was simply an overspray of the Gray, Green, and Black Mediterranian scheme. The Sand is sprayed over the Black and Green and the Gray was left in tact. This left a Gray and Sand aircraft. The markings were also sprayed over, therefore, the sand areas have no markings, while the gray areas do. This was done due to having to be pushed into service quickly in theatre. Makes for an interresting scheme. Other than that, looks like a great model.

Lord Pauly,

Been talking with you about this chopper in chat for ages, and it's great to see it's here now. The free hand camo looked very convincing, and I especially like the shot hat you take top down, with the scratch on the blades, they look very nice, I need to try it on one of my future chopper, maybe another AH-1. (in Marine marking of course). The rocket pods looked nice and used.

The silvering is muche unfortunate, I don't know about the ones in the front, but the Marine one might be due to the millions of rivets, they are like tiny air trappers.

But other than this, very nice.

Is that a gold canopy or just the sun glint?

Paul, Good job on freehand paint scheme. If you have not sealed the decals I would get rid of them and try something else. Maybe dry transfers could be a option? The one thing I dislike about the kit decals (I have an unbuilt one) is they have two different colors on some of the lettering/numbers based on blue/green camo which makes them almost worthless when it comes to desert type camo. Anyway nice build it does look like a Cobra!

Brian

You have a good nice coloured chopper there buddy. I f i were you i d wet with warm wter the decals to shave em off (and dont reuse them as they will tear apart for sure!!) and try applying gloos varnish under the next set or using drytransfers which is great as far as i have used them..

Thanks for the comments and suggestions all. The thing I can't figure out is. I put two thin coats of gloss on her. I used Testors rattle can gloss and not future. I am thinking that may have had something to do with it. ( Won't do that again). I used the mirco sol on the surface then on the top of the decal and they settled down nicely. When I put the dull coat on is when they silvered up. This one got me scratching my head.

Cliff: thx for the comments coming from you that means alot. After seeing some the paint and weathering jobs you produce.

Dave: I think your onto something there about the details maybe the kit decals are too thick to settle down around them. You mentioned trying one. If you do and decide to go OOB (the details are good enough to do it). Watch the front canopy fit. The instument panel is too wide for it to sit flush on the nose. The only real fit problem with the kit.

Zach: No gold on the canopy that would be the sun glinting off it. The only paint is what is on the frames of it. I thought I saw a pic that the bubble over the gunner was suppose to be tinted but couldn't get a real good pic of it so I left it off. Discreation being the better part of valor on that one.

Arty: Thanks for the info on the true colors. I tried to find a pic of the actual scheme, but only found one and it wasn't really that good so I went with it and tried to match the colors by using it. If you have a pic of the real deal I would love to see it. I am planning on doing another one and one cannot have enough resources. You are right about the pods being green, but they were also white too. I Ioaded many a white pod on those Snakes in GW1.

Unfortunately I have sealed the decals. So changing it now is going to be a chore. One that I will probably do at a later time. The dry transfer idea maybe the only option I have to get the decals halfway decent.

So for the time being I think I gonna leave it as it til the next one. Then use it as a referance of what not to do the next time around. Use future not Testors rattle can gloss Then fix it up to sit beside it's sister.

Thanks again for the comments and ideas keep them coming I am writing notes as I read for future projects.

Paul

Paul aside from the silvering she looks good. Marine would be proud to have her on the deck of the LHD. Thanks for the hint about the instrument panel i hope to avoid it when mine gets here!!! STUG

I'm currently working on a NTS AH-1W Paul but I was wondering something, if you did some research on yours did you ever come across pics of a desert storm Marine squadron that had the light tan and blue camo scheme?

Oh Paul there was one thing I noticed that you should heed if you want to make any more Cobras, the color of your seats are wrong. Both seats for the AH-1W are brown or OD green with a lighter shade of either color for the inside mesh part.

Whiskey tyhanks for the info on the seats. I'll have to check the pic I used again but I am sure you are right about that. So that will be another lesson learned.

As for the camo scheme you asked about that was the one I was originally looking for but couldn't find one. The pic below is the one I used for the entry. It was the only desert scheme pic I could find.



If you do find one or someone out there can find one I would love to see it..

Thanks again and keep the suggestions coming....

Paul

Whiskey:
You are right about the seat colors. I looked at photos other that the ones I used and you are correct, either my eyes are going which is probably the case or my screen on this computer is off. Below are the pics of the cockpit is used. Either it is the flash from the camera. but the mesh in the pick looks gray to me please chime in for a second opinion for this. Below are the two picks I used.



this one looks like OD green mesh and gray trim.



Pleas give your second opinion on this or do I need to start thinking about glasses.

Thanks
Paul

I can't find the only photo I have of that squadron in that particluar scheme. I saved it on my harddrive but I can't find the web addy. Anyway bet you've never seen this cobra before:

Hey Whiskey:

You ae right I haven't seen that pattern before and I too will be saving this to my hard drive as well thanks. After posting it though I did a google search grabbing at a straw and came up with this pic. Does it looks like the same pattern as the one you showed. At least to these old eyes anyway. If so if yu go to google and type AH-1W Sea Cobra this is one of the ones that came up. Hopefully the unit stated in the pic (HMLA 369) will spark something to help you remember the addy. You have got my curiuosity up now. Keep them coming this is truely great stuff..



Thanks for your efforts to help me along for the next Whiskey in line.

Paul

Nice one Paul, you have certainly done a good job on it. I wish I had your skill and the confidence to airbrush freehand. Have you thought about painting over the silvered bits of the decals with the underneath colour using a fine brush? It may not give a perfect finish but may make it less obvious. Silvering of decals seems to occur at random, I've never yet got my head around why one decal out of a full set will silver when the rest are OK, even though they are applied the same way.
Anyway, congratulations on a fine looking helo.

Thanks for the compliments Martin . I too wonder about the decals myself. I guess that will be one tf the great unsolved mysteries of the hobby.
I never really thought about rthe painting over the silver but may give it a whirl to see.. Thanks for the tip.
As for the freehand. I have seen you recent model post of the Illustrious. and I think you do have the skill to free hand the camo.
All I really did was. Built the model to the point of where I would be ready to camo it up.
Took a mechanical pencil and lightly drew the pattern on the primer coat.
Set the Airbrush up to spray the finest line I could get. Then traced over the line with the A/B. Filled in the space between the lines and. bingo freehanded camo.
Of coursed this only works if you want a soft edge. work light color first to darkest as usual
If I can do it I am 110% sure you can too..

Paul

Thats not the same picture I'm talking about. That one is off of The AirCav.com and yes it is HMLA-369, "The Gunfighters." The one I found is a side profile shot of a/c number 244 on an airstrip. But I did find these pictures. All this guy did was take the decals for the second Cobra from the Academy kit, the sand camo one, and add it on this paintjob.



Here is the web address for more pictures AH-1W

Hi Paul

That looks very tasty. :-)

I know just where you're coming from with the silvering... you've done everything by the book and STILL it happens! A mate of mine had everything looking great until he sealed things with a top-coat... you've guessed it - silvering like you've never seen!

In cases like this, as Martin says, over-painting can be the best solution - carefull masking and a fresh coat of paint can work wonders.

All the best

Rowan