Italeri 1/48 AH-64D Longbow Apache

[yak face]

The canopy is the next challenge...you’ll see why soon!

Aargh ! Problem canopies on 1/48 scale helicopters - this is giving me flashbacks of the Hind :confounded::confounded:
Im sure youll sort it chris , youve mastered it so far , cheers tony

[boatman]

LOOKIN GOOD Chris im followin this
chris

[Guest]

Thanks chaps!

The issues with the canopy aren't as bad as I expected.

The first is with masking it. Weirdly the window frames are moulded on the INSIDE. I had to mask inside to paint anyway because it is a big canopy with one whole half that is exposed, but this presented a problem with the outside masks, which I usually press into the moulded edges and cut with a blade. With no edges there are no guides! The only solution was to go slow and careful!




The canopy also doesn't sit snugly and will need to be coaxed, as you can see here with this gap, and there was a big gap between where the fuselage meets the top of the canopy which I filled with a slither of plasticard.




I will be trying to get this on to protect the cockpit internals asap.

[Jim R]

Hi Chris
Well done to get this far. Patience, ingenuity and skill, I think I'd have lost heart. Most definitely getting there now.
Jim

[Guest]

Thanks Jim. Honestly, it's not as bad as I make it look! I'm just a pedant and can't move on from something if I think I can at least try to make it better. It's also a great opportunity to learn from mistakes, and with this kit I don't mind risking it.

I model for the mindedness....focusing narrowly on smoothing out a seam or making sure something fits perfectly helps my mental state!

[Guest]

Phew!

Had an idea for something that had the potential to ruin the progress.
We all know that aircraft don’t sit on perfectly round wheels and that rotor blades are not horizontal and being able to imitate this makes a model a little more realistic.
I remembered from my younger days that you could weight kit wheels that were assembled from two halves (i.e are hollow), but couldn’t remember how.
Tried hot water but it cooled too quickly. So decided that gentle heating over a flame would do it, but much riskier...



Blade sagging worked by submerging in hot water. Here you can see the added bow compared to kit part above.

[flyjoe180]

Great work going into this Chris, the tyres look convincing

[Jim R]

Hi Chris
The little details so often raise a model to the next level. The wheels and the rotor blades have been nicely done.
Stay with it
Jim

[Guest]

Thanks chaps. Appreciate you looking in and leaving a comment.

On the subject of the 'little details', my son woke me at 4:15am having had a nightmare so I got up and cracked on. I had the rest of the Snyder edit of Justice League to watch anyway and these things keep my hands busy!

I've run some more primer over the fuselage on the final hunt for defects, of which there are a few, so I applied some surfacer to these and left it to dry.




Then I turned my attention to the weapons systems.

The hellfire cradles are a simple two part assembly and in the spirit of my usual builds I am leaving off armament. Reviewing these cradles reveals what looks like a runner groove, which would make sense. As you can see, the kit part does not, so I pulled out my razor saw and added it.




I also drilled out the rocket pods. Might need to run through the back plate with a slightly bigger diameter.




Then I turned to the 30mm cannon. After cleaning it up I clipped off what seems to be a bracing / protective cage. I could not figure out what the instructions were telling me to do and no matter how I offered it up it didn't seem to make sense.




I took to google and looked up some references for examples of the cannon under British use and found this. The kit part bears only a passing resemblance!




Queue another bout of scratching and I've got this. There are some other details I'll consider adding. I won't attempt the slots in the flashider, it's just too small! There is also a kit part for the cable cutter that has been added...it's close enough!




Thanks for bearing with me. Hoping to get some paint on soon!

[yak face]

Nice work chris , the added details make a big difference , cheers tony

[flyjoe180]

That gun looks a lot better, nice work Chris

[Guest]

This week....I are mostly been....sticking on all the dangly bits.

I checked out all my joints for the third time and approved as acceptable, so started getting all the final parts ready. There were ALOT of bits to stick on; I would estimate at least the same as I’d already used to get the fuselage together!






They aren’t all in exactly the right place and the handles are a little heavy, but they are close enough.
I am going to change the aerial on the tail though, the gauge is just too great for the scale.

[Guest]

All primed and lightened exposed areas.

I’m going for a sunbleached look on this and aim for decent contrast.



Olive drab top coat next.

[Guest]

...and its green!

[Tim Marlow]

Looking great Chris. I always like the way the first paint coat snaps everything into focus.