Hello all,

I'm normally an armor modeler, but I have always liked military aircraft. While working on my armor stash, I had slipped a few heli models in there, specifically the Kitty Hawk AH-1Z and UH-1Y.

So in preparation for tackling a new style and scale of model I have decided to do the 1/48 Italeri AH-1W as a practice kit.

One of the major differences I have noticed is aircraft kits kind of being 2 builds, the cockpit and then the rest of the vehicle-



When doing armor I liked to break the kit into sub-assemblies to make painting a little easier, so I have kept the gun, sensor pod and parts of the cockpit separate -



When I do an armor kit I enjoy doing the research and using after market parts and get really engrossed into the subject and kit. This one, being a practice model, I didnt do the research and am building it OOB -



One of the parts of this kit that really irked me to the point of modifying it, were the jet nozzles. they're hugely wrong, and so I had to do some fairly minor modifications to get it semi-accurate -



I've now gotten the cockpit painted (simplistically) and gotten it installed, as well as getting the fuselage together and the canopy glued into place. I dont know if its the best idea, but I figured I could glue the canopy down and then mask it off, that way I could weather it all together and then pull the masks off at the end.









Thanks for having a look!

~ Steve

I've got the same kit underway, the worst defect I've found so far is the main rotor blades rotate in the other direction form the kit parts, had to chop the rotor head and turn the blades around.

Yikes, what a mess this kit is! Really wish there was a better alternative kit, but I haven't been able to find another 1/48 scale AH-1W that wasnt based on this kit.

Unfortunately I didnt pick up on the rotor issue until I started painting, so I'll leave it as incorrect.When I'm more confident with aircraft kits I may re-do this kit using after market and doing some more research to get it more accurate.

I've got the base coat down, and the decals - so many more decals than a WW2 armor kit!







Thanks for looking

~ Steve

I've added a little pin wash and some oil filters. I think the colour differences on the real vehicle are far more subdued than the model, but it looks interesting.

I feel like I should have put a gloss coat on before moving to the oils, as the filter has reacted differently with the decals resulting in the outline of some of them being very obvious. While this was not intentional, it is present on some real vehicles where stencils were used, but it is not what I was going for.









Thanks for looking!

~ Steve

Calling this one done. It was a lot of fun to branch out and try a new scale and subject. I'm not entirely unhappy with the result, and I think I'll try my hand at some larger scale aircraft in the near future -















Thanks for looking!

~ Steve

you've done a great job with this model. I'm just a little confused, is this the kitty hawk kit or another brand?

Sorry David, I can see how I was pretty unclear in the first post - this is the Italeri kit, and I am doing it in preparation for the Kitty Hawk kits, as this is a new scale and subject matter for me

Looks pretty nice. You might consider having this moved to the Rotary Wing Forum though as it is a helicopter. Check with Kevin Brant and I'm sure he will move it for you.

Will do mate, cheers!

Good deal. Welcome to the party.