British Army AH Mk 1's, to use the British Army terminology, do not carry Stinger missiles in the boxes on the ends of the stub wings, so these will be left off.
The colour guide:
Some sloppiness by Italeri - the British army is not the Royal Army, and the Dutch Apache Longbows are operated by the Royal Netherlands Air Force!
The sprue shots look extremely similar to the Airfix boxing. You do get an Italeri branded paintbrush in the box though.
Our Glorious GB Leader, Shaun has already commented on the rivet detail. I will be gently sanding it down a bit. Looking at photos of the real thing, there are quite a lot of recessed holes for panel fasteners in various places, but not many rivets visible.
The decals are different, as the Italeri versions give you some US markings too
This kit apparently represents a prototype version, modified from the AH64A, not a production US version of the AH64D. There are also some differences from the US version to the WestlandAgusta licence built versions, notably the communications fit for the British versions and the folding rotors, as the British version can be deployed aboard ship. I think I'm going to do mine OOB and just not worry about these details.
Edit: we've now established that there seem to be two versions of the Italeri kit, the earlier one I mentioned above, and a later version with the avionics bays looking a bit better. The Airfix kit that Shaun is building is the same as mine, the later version. Curiouser and curiouser...
cheers
Andrew
