There are quite a few ‘72nd scale AH-1 Cobra kits available on the market including two from Hobby Boss.
For a helicopter themed campaign on Aeroscale, called Aerial Screw, I picked up the AH-1F kit by Hobby Boss. The first thing to note about this particular kit is that it isn’t an AH-1F at all but actually an AH-1E. You can check out my previous post to get an overview on the differences between Cobra variants but, sufficient to say, the exhaust scoop and the nose cannon are good giveaways.
Despite Hobby Boss mixing up their AH-1 kit boxes the kit is very well detailed with finely engraved panel lines, a nicely detailed cockpit and a few armament choices including two different style or rocket pod, 7-shot and 19-shot, as well as two 4-tube TOW missile launchers.
It’s a little difficult to see the detail in the cockpit from this picture due to it being overwhelmingly white but it is is there in both the front and side consoles. The panel behind the rear seat is textured with a pipe running along it, the seats feature cushion detail with seatbelts as well.
I painted the cockpit in Vallejo Basalt Grey to give it a darker look than usual, details were then picked out in various greens, yellows, reds, whites from the Revell and Vallejo range. The control stick handles were painted with Revell Tar Black.
When I was working on the cockpit I glued the front seat before painting it because there was plenty of room to work with. There is not a lot of space when the rear seat is fitted however so I decided to paint it separately; before painting the seat fit easily enough but after applying the paint to both the seat and the tub the fit became very awkward. I ended up having to force the seat in and damaged the paint in the process but it was easily repaired.
Hobby Boss do not include any pilots with the kit and as I wanted to add two I borrowed them from an Airfix kit; they’re the usual guy you get in most Airfix kits. I painted their uniforms in Revell paints; Light Olive for the uniform, Tar Black for what I suppose is the webbing on the torso and Gloss Black and White Black for the helmets. Vallejo Basic Skintone was used for the flesh and then the pilots, and the cockpit, was given a wash with Citadel Badab Black.
Now, after fitting the cockpit to one side of the fuselage there are a few other things that need to be fitted before you close up the fuselage halves. First you need to assemble the 30mm nose cannon; Hobby Boss have designed it so that the cannon with swivel from side to side but will also elevate which is a nice feature. On the downside the cannon barrels are not bored out but solid although anyone with experience could probably do it themselves.
The second installation is the nose sensor which is also designed to swivel from side to side and is nicely detailed with two lenses. The landing skids can pose a bit of a problem that may be fixed early on; they can be attached at any time during the build process as they slot into holes in the fuselage but they’re not very strong. I broke off one skid about three times during the entire build. It may be advisable to fit the skids before joining the fuselage halves and then add internal reinforcement to ensure they don’t break later on.
The fit of the fuselage halves leaves a lot to be desired as well, at least in my case. I was left with seams in the front of the cockpit on the nose and right along the underside; these were not too difficult to work with, just regular sanding. Worse still there was a seam along the very top of the helicopter where the rotor mast was to be installed, this area features a few ‘lumps & bumps’ that are probably aerials and it can be awkward sanding in between them. The worst seam of all though, and the worst I’ve experienced in a kit to date, was inside the exhaust scoop. It wasn’t so much a seam as it was a trench and incredibly awkward to deal with; in the end I applied several layers of filler to lessen the severity of it but it seemed that no matter how much I applied the problem never fully went away. If I was to implore Hobby Boss to fix anything about the kit this would be it, they could reprint the box while they’re at it.
I should also mention that some weight will be needed to prevent this from sitting on its tail. There isn’t a whole lot of room in the nose but on the underside of the helicopter, just behind the cockpit, is a panel that can be added anytime during the build. You can easily fit a couple of weights in this area and the weight will sit just over the landing skids; another good reason for reinforcing them.
This was the scheme I was trying to replicate throughout the build. The picture above shows an AH-1 based at the U.S Army Aviation Centre in Fort Rucker, Alabama. This is where the U.S Army trains all of their helicopter pilots as far as I know. The bright red panels mark the helicopter as a training unit. On the helicopters tail is a 4-digit code, on the fuselage behind the wing stub is the last two digits of that code plus a letter. By the way, I think the above helicopter is an AH-1S without the ‘sugar scoop’ exhaust fitted.
To recreate the Cobra from the reference picture I began by painstakingly painting in the red panels. Thankfully the panel lines on the kit appear to correspond to the panel lines on the actual helicopter and I was able to follow them. Still, keeping to a perfectly straight line with a brush can be a torturous affair sometimes especially when the overall colour was applied to the Cobra. I used Vallejo Flat Red for the panels and, I must say, it covers incredibly well.
The overall colour of the Cobra, as gathered from the reference picture, is olive drab and, apparently, plenty of dirt. I used a bottle of Vallejo Olive Drab for the overall colour and although it may appear very light in the picture above it is actually a lot darker. In fact after a clear and subsequent flat coat the olive drab came out a little to dark I think. In future for olive drab I’m going to try out Vallejo Brown Violet to get a lighter coat.
Flat Red was also used for several lights located on the front and back of the gunship while Vallejo Gunmetal Grey was used for the cannon and Gunmetal Blue for the sensor lenses. I painted both rotor blades separately before adding them to the Cobra; the blades were painted with Revell Tar Black and the metallic areas with Gunmetal Grey. Finally I used Vallejo Gloss Varnish to give the entire helicopter a clear coat.
When it came to applying the decals I was a little stuck. Most of the decals that I have are black or grey and I needed white. I needed two four-digit codes for the tail, one on each side, which proved difficult enough. Thankfully a friend was able to donate some white decals left over a great Corsair build and I was able to settle for two three-digit codes instead; I chose the number 530 as you can see.
With the small decals sorted I was still left needing some large ones; I required two numbers, the last two from the tail code, and a letter. On a bit of luck I hunted around the back of a closet and found the remains of a disastrous armour project with a decal sheet for the PLA complete with several large numbers and letters in bright white; perfect.
Hobby Boss provide some markings for both the U.S Army and the Israeli Army but no stencils are provided. I studied the few references pictures I have on the training unit and there are very little in the way of stencils so I didn’t bother borrowing any from my decal bank.
I followed the decals with another gloss coat and moved onto weathering. The reference photo shows that the Cobra appears pretty dirty and I wanted to replicate the same level of grime. I used the same concoction that I had used to weather my Indonesian Hawk, a mix of oil pastels, water and washing up liquid. I applied it over the entire model and after it had dried a while I took a damp cloth and began to wipe most it away hoping to leave it in the panel lines.
Honestly I think the effect has been overdone and I don’t like it terribly much. I’ll be replacing it with a Flory Models Wash and Tamiya Weathering Powders in future. With the weathering complete I only needed to add few more bits and pieces to finish the build starting with armaments.
As I mentioned before Hobby Boss provide four rocket pods, two 7-shot pods & two 19-unit pods, as well as two 4-tube TOW missile launchers. I wanted to mount the 7-shot pods and the TOW launchers on the wing stubs but early on in the build I fully assembled the TOW launchers and subsequently found them impossible to build.
I thought about mounting all four rocket pods but research indicated that the 19-shot pods would only be fitted with 12 to 14 rockets at most if fitted to the outer pylon. I’d already fitted the smaller rocket pods to the inside pylon and, not wanting to bore out several warheads, I decided to leave the larger ones off.
I would also like to mention that the fit of the rocket pods could be much better, some sanding and filling with be required with them. I painted the rocket tube with Revell Nato Olive and the warheads black; I don’t know if this is entirely accurate but I had a difficult time finding good pictures of the pods online.
The next step was to add the canopy and, as usual, it turned bad. When I had joined the fuselage earlier in the build I dry fitted the canopy and found no issue with it but I when I dry fitted after painting it wouldn’t fit at all. It turned into a struggle just to get it in place and lined up along both sides of the fuselage. When all was said and done I had to dilute some PVA glue to fill in the gaps, repair some of the paint and I was still left with dirty glass. You can see it is rather dirty in the glass above; terrible.
Finally I need to add the main rotor blade and the tail rotor. The main rotor on this kit is very fragile when glued into place and could also really do with reinforcement. I used some small drops of super glue to help strengthen the bond but it isn’t enough. The tail rotor is very solid though and nothing extra is needed to secure it.
There is the finished product, an AH-1E Cobra gunship finished as a training unit at Fort Rucker, Alabama. Hobby Boss produce a nice kit despite some deficiencies and some mislabelling. I’m fairly happy with the finish of the kit although if I was to build it again I would take the build much slower; I ended up rushing this kit to finish it in time for a competition and also so I could focus more on the Hawk from my previous postings.
Still, it is not bad for my first helicopter and my first Cobra Gunship.
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