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Special Hobby 1/72 AH-1G Cobra build report

This time i build Special Hobby 1/72 AH-1G Cobra. I build this kit for an Vietnam war online group build in wich i participated. The AH-1G Cobra was one of the first dedicated attack helikopters wich was first used in the Vietnam war. Newer types of this helicopter are still used with armed forces arround the world today. I choose to build this kit as 68-15189 “Wretched Mildred” when she flew with D Troop. 3rd Brigade, 4th Cavalry from Chu Chi in Vietnam in 1971.

The box art is verry nice and when you slide the top off you find a box packed with a lot of sprues. Wich certainly look really neat and have a lot of nice surface details. I followed the kit instructions and construction was pretty straight forward. The kit was a real joy to build and the overall fit is verry good.

The cockpit

Construction work on the kit started straight forward with cutting the fuselage halves and cockpit parts from the sprues. Following the provided instructions, I cleaned up each piece and then glued them together as mentioned in the instructions.

To enhance the cockpit’s detail, I added custom seatbelts made from the tin of a wine bottle. While this is only a small addition in my opinion it makes the cockpit more visually interesting.

After finishing the cockpit construction, I started the painting process. I applied a primer coat of Mr. Surfacer 1500 Black to the interior of the fuselage and all cockpit parts, thus creating a base for the rest of the paint work.

Once the primer dried, I painted the interior using Gunze Aqueous H317 “Dark Gull Gray”. I then used a brush to paint all the cockpit details. Not only following the instructions but also checking various reference photos. To make all the small details stand out a bit more, I drybrushed the parts with a light gray color.

After completing the painting, I sealed everything with a gloss varnish. I added the kit-supplied cockpit decals, followed by a second layer of gloss varnish and a brown Tamiya panel line wash to highlight the smaller parts.

Finally, I applied a coat of flat varnish for a realistic finish, before assembling all the cockpit parts. I’m happy with the results.

Fuselage assembly

After painting the cockpit parts, I shifted my attention to constructing the fuselage. I began by masking off the canopy both inside and out, followed by spraying the interior color on the inside of the canopy windows.

Next, I moved on to the fuselage assembly. I glued the cockpit to one side of the fuselage and, after some careful test fitting, joined both fuselage halves together. To get a strong bond i secured them in place with some masking tape as the glue set.

I then assembled the chin turret, adding some lead weights to both the turret and the nose. This prevents the model from becoming a tail sitter. Once the glue on the fuselage dried, i sanded down any small seam lines and restored some lost panel line details.

Finally, I added all the remaining small parts. As can be seen, everything fitted together very nicely.

Painting

With everything assembled, I was ready to start painting. I began by applying a primer coat of Mr. Surfacer 1500 Black to create an even basecoat for the model.

The instructions and reference images showed that the tail had a darker olive drab color, as it was replaced in the field after sustaining damage. To replicate this difference, I first sprayed the tail boom with Gunze Aqueous H52 “Olive Drab.” After that it dried, i masked it off and painted the rest of the fuselage with a lighter shade, using Gunze Aqueous H304 “Olive Drab”.

To make the olive drab finish look a bit more intresting i added some highlights, I mixed a drop of yellow into the base color and sprayed this lighter shade onto the panel centers, creating a less monotonous finish.

With the base colors complete, I turned my attention to the smaller parts. I masked off the canopy and walkways, then i applied a coat of Gunze Aqueous H12 “Black”. Afterwards, I painted all the smaller details with a brush. I used the same method for painting the weapons and rotors. I sealed all the paintwork with a coat of gloss varnish.

Decalling and Weathering

Applying the decals was a straightforward task, thanks to the clear instructions that indicated their placement. I used Microscale Set and Sol, which helped the decals settle beautifully into the panel lines. The only area requiring extra attention was the shark mouth on the nose, composed of two large decals. I carefully ran a sharp hobby knife along the panel lines to ensure they settled well.

After allowing the decals some time to dry, I sealed them with a second coat of gloss varnish. Once that dried, I began the weathering process. Weathering was kept minimal. I started with a Tamiya black panel line wash to enhance the details, followed by a flat coat to unify the finish.

I used an AK Interactive metallic-colored weathering pencil to create scratches and wear. With that step complete, I unmasked the canopy, glued all the parts in place, and called this model done!

The final result

I love how my Special Hobby 1/72 AH-1G Cobra turned out. The build was for my standards pretty quick but also a lot of fun. Maybe i will build another one sometime. Altough the kit is pretty green overall i think i was able to keep the result intresting with the use of different shades of olive drab and some highlighting of the painted panels. Here are the pictures of the end result.

ElveScaleModeling

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