Hi,

I'm Fred from Armorama. I normally build AFVs but recently a friend if mine challenged me to build a helicopter. I only built one before - Italeri's Iroquey slick, rebox of Esci's. The only word to describe it was traumatizing.

So, what's the best 1/72 heli out there?

Criteria:
1. Due to space concern, the finished model must be compact to store. (I'm concerned about the rotor blades, so maybe there is an option to fold it or two blades only?)

2. I have absolutely no idea how to mask the canopy. So nothing too fancy there.

3. Err, relatively easy to build?

AH-1 Cobra would make a very compact size model. As for building I cannot offer any tips. i only built one when I was 12 and it went very very far south.

Naval helicopters like the CH-53 have provision to fold their rotor blades and some kit manufacturers provide for this in the kit. Italeri's (sorry it is a nice kit though) EH.101 in 1/72 allows you to stow the blades AND tail check out this link for a review and a look at the model.

The UH-1 Iroquois in it's various marks in various scales is one of the few two blade choices out there other than Huey Cobra.

I would recommend a Hasegawa 1/72 AH-1 Cobra. They make F, S, and T variants where the canopy lines are fairly straight and should be easy to mask. Cobra is a two-blader so should be easy to store.

Hi guys, thanks for the replies. I might change to 1/48 scale instead, because it's bigger and possibly easier to work with. Thoughts?

For two blades, you're pretty much restricted to Huey variants. Currently available kits are few. There's the Revellogram Huey Hog and Hobby Boss UH-1C.

It's not a 2-blade helicopter, but it is rather small so it may be an option for you: Minicraft's Hughes 500D.

All Helicopter kits share loads of clear parts to mask. This may be something you're not familiar with

Get a 2 seater gunship so you don't have a cabin to handle for simplicity. PAH 2, Mangusta, Apache, Cobra.

Here are some more options. Italeri has some good helicopter kits which are not too difficult to build.
1/72 kits. Recommended to fit your 2 blade criteria:
Bell 206, Bell 47, Bell 204, Bell 205 and while it's not a 2-blade helicopter this one is so tiny it can easily fit when a bigger one couldn't.

Up a scale, the 1/48 kits can be viewed here.