Another one for all helo fans! Brian Kuehn (Huntercottage) opens the box of Italeri''s 1/35 scale Blackhawk.

Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

It is a great model. It is an Italeri rebox of the Academy kit, which is a much welcomed model in 1/35 scale.

A few issues with it though. The Italeri decals are about 10% too small. Somehow, they made them closer to 1/48 scale, than 1/35. If you compare them to the correctly sized Academy ones, you will see the problem. It is most evident in the decals that are supposed to cover an entire area, such as the black antenna and anti slip areas on top of the ESSS wing stubs. They are just too small and don't cover the area.

For the rest of the kit, it is pretty good. It does not build up as a true L model out of the box though. It is somewhere between an A and an L. The L has wider step fairings, the protrusions under the pilots' doors where the wheel struts attach, to accommodate a roll stabilizer bar that was added. Also missing is FOD (Foreign Objects and Debris) covers on the side intakes on the engine inlets. These are both corrected in the Cobra Company UH-60L Correction set, http://www.cobracompany.com/35004.htm. Also, There are only 3 seats for the 2nd row, rear facing, troop seats. There should be four seats on that row as well, Academy left you one seat short. The collectives and cyclic control stick in the cockpit are devoid of detail as well. They should have buttons and knobs all over them. Pilots' seats are pretty bare and need seatbelts added as well. All this detail, and then some, can be found in the Cobra Company UH-60 Detail Set, http://www.cobracompany.com/35002.htm.

Overall it is a great kit. I would go with the Academy boxing though. It has the correctly sized decals and is usually much cheaper.