Airfix 1/72 Apache Longbow

[ShaunW]

OK I'll show you mine, now you show me yours

This was purchased recently from my LMS for the princely sum of £9.99, so let's see what you get.



89 parts on three sprues




Decal options for one British or one Netherlands Army machine



And finally the instructions in booklet form



I'm not certain as to how old this kit is, but most of the detail consists of a mixture of raised and recessed panel lines, together with plenty of rivets as seen here on the fuselage front



and also on the tail boom



Oh dear, I may have to sand that little lot off then. Or maybe I can learn to live with it. The cockpit detail is quite sparse and relies heavily upon decals, which I think is fine in this scale particularly as the cockpit glazing, although reasonably clear, is quite thick.

So, a bit of a mixed bag then but overall it doesn't look too bad and hopefully will build up OK. Accuracy? I haven't got a clue mate

Roll on the 15th then.

[MerlinJones]

Methinks that, like the Sea Cobra, you might have the ex-Zhengdefu kit...a nasty Chinese copy of a poor kit from somewhere else.
Check sizes to ascertain scale.

Regards and Good Luck!
Bruce

[ShaunW]

Ho hum I should've bought the Revell Huey that I almost went for then, serves me right for being patriotic for once! Not to worry, I'll get something out of it, even if it is only a poor copy of the real thing.

[AndrewR]

If it's 03077, then it's a newer version.
I believe that 04044 was the old copy of a bootleg copy version.

There's an interesting rumour that 03077 might be Italeri tooling.

http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.o ... 277372.php;

I can't confirm this, yet, but I'll get some sprue shots up so I can show you mine (as it were).

You will be glad to know that I paid the less princely sum of CAD 12.99 plus tax, about 8 quid.
Italeri have now hiked the price here to CAD 16.99, which would be about comparable to what you forked out. Italeri prices over here are now verging on the totally bonkers...

Cheers

Andrew

[AndrewR]

SNAP!




Your decals look much more comprehensive than mine, although I get a US Army bird as well as the Royal Dutch Army and "Royal Army" (Oh dear ). I also get a paintbrush in the box. Whoopee!

cheers

Andrew

[ShaunW]

My kit is 03077 and looking at Andrew's sprue shots I think there is little doubt that these kits are largely one and the same. In addition, my boxing is marked as being made in Italy. The Italeri version was retailing at £7.99 at my LMS, IIRC. I still don't like those bloody rivets though!

[AndrewR]

I agree with you that the sprues look identical. The funny thing is that that build on FSM was of 03077, too, and those sprues were not identical!

I suspect Italeri put out a new version - if you look at the Avionics bays on the FSM article, they are the AH64A style ones. Both of our kits seem to have ones much more like the "real" AH64D.

cheers


Andrew

[ShaunW]

My God it's a great feeling to know that we've got the later kits and not the dodgy copy of a copy - we can't go wrong with the right avionics bays in there - can we? Dodgy-looking missiles anyone? Did I mention rivets?

[AndrewR]

My God it's a great feeling to know that we've got the later kits and not the dodgy copy of a copy - we can't go wrong with the right avionics bays in there - can we? Dodgy-looking missiles anyone? Did I mention rivets?

Those rivets certainly give it a baroque look, sort of early 60's Airfix really. I wonder if they every looked at a photo of a real one?

Are you crewing your build up, or displaying the seatbelts prominently...

I haven't taken a look at the missiles yet

cheers

Andrew

[did_nev]

Ow joy, two Apaches! We're spoiled here.

[AndrewR]

We're still waiting for the photos, O Great Leader...

[ShaunW]

Your wish is my command

A somewhat...ahem....slow start but the GBL Apache has now been commenced. First up is the cockpit tub, any colour you like so long as it's grey

Main colour is Tamiya German Grey with the seats in Tamiya Dark Grey for a bit of contrast and the seat covers in Tamiya Dark Sea Grey. the tub has also received a dry brush with Tamiya Dark Sea Grey and Sky Grey. I have painted the rotor head/transmission part behind the cockpit in matt black. As there is nothing in there that really resembles what is there on the real helicopter, I decided to give it the black hole treatment! The tub side panels have received a coat of Tamiya gloss clear in preparation for the decals. The seat is not permanently mounted and has just been posed for the shot. Both seats required significant cleaning up with quite a bit of flash being present and ejector pin marks bang in the middle of the seat back seat covers, the latter being sorted out with fine surface filler. Seat belts will be added using wine bottle foil.



The IPs were painted Tamiya German Grey and have received a dry brushing of Tamiya Sky Grey. Damn that super macro setting, it highlights the worst in any paint job! I may tone these down a bit, but then again they will probably look passable under the glazing. There are IP decals supplied in the kit but they don't look like they will fit terribly well to me.



Whilst the cockpit bits were drying, I turned my attention to the fuselage. Again, quite a bit of flash was evident around the cockpit aperture, which I cleaned up with small files. I also gave the whole of the fuselage a rub down with a couple of fine grades of micromesh to tone down the rivets which IMHO are too prominent. In addition, I also shaved off the solid moulded grab handles at the sides of the cockpit and replaced with 0.5mm brass wire, bent to shape using pliers and a steel rule, inserted into 0.56mm drilled holes. The wire is not permanently fixed yet and there is sufficient length in it to allow for final adjustment of the gap twixt wire and fuselage. Maybe a touch out of scale but I think the wire is an improvement over the moulded handles.....so there!




Thanks for looking.

[JamesPerrin]

Grab handles, good! I've added about nearly twenty to a MB Wessex and they add a nice bit of detail.

[ShaunW]

It is well worth the bit of effort James and it's a cheap fix too! I've done this sort of thing on aircraft and AFV models for a number of years now.

[Jagewa]

Ooo nice grab handle work, they'll look good.

Cheers
Jim