I was delighted to see a new kit from AMP of a U.S. Army OH-6A Loach in 1/48th scale. I am a real rotor head and so any new kit of a helicopter is good news for me. At first glance it looks ver nice and seems to be a good representation of the OH-6A. There are 3 large sprues of gey plastic that cover the main airframe and one sprue of clear parts for the canopie and windows. There is also a very nice color photo etch sheet with lots of detail parts. Included is a set of decals for one Vietnam Helicopter flown by pilot Hugh Mills in 1972.
There are currently no OH-6A models in 1/48th scale so this is a welcome addition. The last one that was available was the Tamiya kit from about 1980 that is no longer on the market. This new kit has very fine scribed panel lines and a nice delicate 9 peice rotor head and blade set.
There is mini gun with ammo box and the doors are already off the helicopter so there is no need to cut them out like on the older Tamiya kit.the tail rotor gear box is very nicly done and it is also very delicate and detailed.
The general fit is very good with some monor adjustment needed in fitting the interior bulkheads to the fuselage but this was done with very little trouble.
The clear parts fit OK with alittle careful work but I was disapointed by the fact that the windscreen is a bit foggy and not as clear as we are used to in modern kits. I will have to try and polish it a bit before fitting it to the model.
The interior is well detailed and seems to be very complete with the exception of the rear gunners/observers seat is left out so it will need to be scratch built. To be fair however; some times the gunners would just sit on the floor of the aft section with no seat so that may be what AMP had in mind.
The only real problem with the accruacy of the helicopter is the landing skids are too long for the A model. AMP has a picture on the box of an OH-6 that has been restored to look like Hugh MIlls ship and it has the longer skids so this is probably where the problem came from, but it does not show very much and I will just leave it alone when I build the kit.
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SUMMARY
Highs: This kit fills a hole in the 1/48 th scale helicopter area and has very nice detail in the rotor head.Lows: The canopy is foggy and the skids are the wrong ones for this model of OH-6.Verdict: I am overall pleased with this kit and hope that AMP does some more 1/48 helicopters.
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