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AH-1G Cobra ‘Over Vietnam’ with M-35 Gun System (SH48230) 1:48 Special Hobby Hi-Tech The AH-1 Cobra was the first production Gunship or Attack Helicopter to see US service as a new type of weapons platform. During the Vietnam war the US Army began to see the need for armed helicopter to escort its unarmed UH-1 Hueys into combat. Fortunately, Bell Helicopters had been independently investigating helicopter gunships as early as the late 1950s, so in 1962 Bell was able to display a mock up concept to the US Army, featuring a 20mm gun pod, and a ball turret mounted grenade launcher. It was felt by the Army to be lightweight, under powered and unsuitable. Following this the US Army launched and Advanced Aerial Fire Support System (AAFSS) competition, which gave rise to the Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne heavy attack helicopter that proved to be too technologically advanced and therefore risky for its time, eventually being cancelled in 1972 after 10 years of development (some things never change). Despite the failure of the AAFSS programme, Bell stuck with its idea of a smaller, lighter gunship and invested its own money developing the AH-1 further. They used as many of the proven components they could from the UH-1 platform, adding these to a newly designed slender fuselage that had a minimal front profile. When The US Army later asked for plans for an interim gunship for Vietnam, Bell was in a fortunate position to be able to offer the ready-made AH-1, or the Bell 209 as it was then called. Given the work Bell had already done, the programme was completed in a relatively rapid eight months and won the evaluation battle against the competition. In 1966 the US Army signed an initial contract for 110 aircraft. Some slight modifications were made to the production airframes. The heavy armoured glass canopy was replaced by Plexiglas with an improvement in performance. Wider rotor blades were fitted and the original retracting skids were replaced by simple fixed units. The G model was the initial 1966 production model gunship for the US Army, with one 1,400shp (1,000 kW) Avco Lycoming T53-13 turboshaft. Bell built over 1,100 AH-1Gs between 1967 and 1973, and the Cobras would go on to fly over a million operational hours in Vietnam, losing approximately 300 to combat shoot-downs and accidents during the war. The U.S. Marine Corps would use AH-1G Cobra in Vietnam for a short period before acquiring more damage resilient twin-engined AH-1J Cobras. The M-35 Gun System was a single M195 20mm cannon (a short-barrelled version of the six-barrel M61A1 Vulcan) on the port inboard pylon of the AH-1G, with 950 rounds of ammunition stored in boxes faired to the side of the aircraft. The system was primarily pilot controlled, but featured dual controls so it could be either pilot or gunner controlled. For this purpose the pilot was provided with a M73 sight. The AH-1 went on to serve the US Army until it was replaced by the AH-64 Apache. The last one leaving active service in 1999. The Kit This is a Hi-Tech reboxing of a new tool from Special Hobby and brings us a long-overdue update to some of the older kits of the type on the market, plus a big handful of resin, Photo-Etch (PE). This edition depicts the American airframes used in Vietnam, and arrives in a standard top-opening box in Special Hobby’s Hi-Tech black theme, and inside are eleven sprues in various sizes in grey styrene, a bag of resin parts totalling 47 in all, a 3D Printed palette of 5 finely detailed parts, two frets of PE, one of which is nickel-plated and pre-printed, a tiny slip of acetate film, a sheet of pre-cut kabuki-style masking material (not pictured) a large clear sprue with a choice of canopies for upcoming versions, a decal sheet and their usual glossy A4 instruction booklet with spot colour throughout, plus colour profiles of the decal options in the rear. There are a number of red Xs on the sprue diagrams, as they have been tooled with future boxings in mind, so after you’re done building it, you will likely have a number of parts left over. I’d also recommend checking the sprues for parts that have come off the runners during shipping, as a fair few were loose in an boxing and one in this one, so don’t go tossing it in the recycling before you’ve checked for lurkers. Detail is excellent, as we’ve come to expect from SH, especially in the upgraded cockpit, the exterior surface and the rotors, while the instruction booklet takes you through the build process with colour and scrap diagrams used to clarify the process. Construction begins with the cockpit, which will be highly visible through the crystal-clear canopy parts, and this starts with the new resin seats with separate cushions and pre-painted PE seatbelts, with scrap diagrams showing the correct layout of the belts, and the further installation of a set of bases for the two seats, which differ between mountings. These are installed in the cockpit tub along with resin foot pedals front and rear, and a pair of boxy cushions to the side of the front seat. A 3D printed control is glued to the front-right side console, and other 3D parts are made up into a weapons control column, plus cyclic and collective sticks for the pilot in the rear, with more resin parts completing the consoles. The modeller has a choice of highly detailed multi-layer pre-painted PE instrument panels for both crew, which fit within styrene coamings, or these can be exchanged for styrene panels that receive dial decals to complete them. The completed panels are applied to the appropriate crew seat, with a 3D printed gunsight fitted to the pilot’s coaming with small pieces of film representing the glazing. To the sides of the gunner’s seat, a pair of resin wedges are applied to build up the bulkhead, with a resin fire extinguisher applied to the port side. The quilted rear bulkhead is augmented with a pair of resin upgrades before it is inserted into the fuselage. We’re rapidly starting prep of the fuselage halves by drilling out a number of holes, adding the nose cone and tail fin, taking care to align them carefully as well as choosing the correct one, as there are two tails provided on the sprues. The rotor-head is installed on a flat plate, allowing the head to rotate if you’re careful with the glue, then it is inserted into the fuselage along with the cockpit tub and the short exhaust trunk, closing it up and leaving it to set up so you can deal with the seams. With that done, the cockpit is outfitted with more styrene and resin armour panels on the internal sidewalls and on the port side exterior, adding a number of appliqué panels in two parts. The underside of the fuselage is bereft of detail until you add the two armoured panels under the cockpit, and glue an insert into the hole in the underside after drilling out a pair of holes from within. Two narrow intakes are added to the sides, followed by the main intakes with PE grilles above that slot into recesses on the fuselage sides. The Cobra has wings! Little winglets that are essentially weapons carriers, and these both have a separate wingtip plus a root mounted ammo pod under each one, the port pod later directly feeding the M35 Gatling gun and a link between the starboard and port pods. At the rear you have a choice of two styles of stabiliser fins, one covered in rivets, the other flush. Speaking of the tail, the boom is covered in well-rendered raised rivets, as is correct for the type. Two pylons attach to the underside of the winglets, one in the tip, another fitting into two holes. There is a short exhaust ring, and a pair of inserts just below it to complete the fairing between fuselage and the boom. The fuselage is flipped on its back to create and insert the nose turret, with a pair of inserts added into the main turret part, and a resin 7.62mm Gatling gun in one aperture, plus a 40mm grenade launcher in the other, or twin Gatling guns if you are depicting one of the schemes. The large underwing 20mm Gatling gun is made up from styrene parts for installation under the port winglet along with the routing for the ammo feed, antennae, pop-up light and the rotating gun turret, plus the tail bumper rod under the two-blade rotor, and the very tip of the nose cone that has a pitot probe added near the top. A choice of skids with the thicker or thinner supports finish off the main fuselage for now, after which the cockpit is enclosed. The Cobra’s crew exit on opposite sides, and the long narrow top is fixed first, with the windscreen moulded-in. A small instrument and PE grab-handles are glued to the side of the screen, after which it is glued onto the fuselage. After the fixed sloped starboard section and port rear section are fixed in place, the two openers can be mounted in the open position and supported by styrene or PE props to achieve the correct angle for them. The Cobra had a twin-blade tail rotor that slots straight into a hole in the top of the tail fin, with a control mechanism fixed to the centre. The main rotor sits on a chunky axle, over which an angular washer slides that is joined to the base by a pair of actuators. The two main blades are moulded as a single item, and are first detailed with additional parts before they are glued to the top of the drive-shaft, and supported by a pair of long control rods linked to the blades to adjust their incidence. A scrap diagram shows the various parts in false-colour to help you get everything correctly aligned. It is lowered into the top fairing later and glued into place. In addition to guns the Cobra could carry rocket pods, and two each of the seven-shot M157, M158 and four of the 19-shot M200 pods are included on separate sprues, the M157 & M200 pods are cylindrical and have detail inserts in both ends. The bare tubed M157 pods are replaced by two resin parts and a curved PE cover at the top that is attached to the pylon. An optional towing equipment pack is included that consists of a pair of strap-on wheels that attach to a pair of pegs on the upper rear of the skids, lifting them off the ground, and it is towed by a pair of bars that also have castors near the skid-end to facilitate movement when they’re off the airframe. The bars attach to the front of the skids, then it’s down to you to find a suitable towing vehicle if you wish. Incidentally, the resin parts include a pair of pilot helmets with two-part PE chin-straps for you to build, paint and leave lying in the cockpits if you feel the urge. Markings There are four markings options in the box, all painted in a variant of olive green with various personalisations. From the box you can build one of the following: S/n. 67-15536, Thor’s Hammer, 7th Sqn., 1st Cavalry, Tra Vinh, Vietnam, 1971 S/n. 67-17068, Cindy Ann, 1st Sqn., 9th Cavalry, Phuoc Vinh, Vietnam, August 1970 S/n. 68-15031, Pandora’s Box 2/20 ARA (Aerial Rocket Artillery), Vietnam, Summer 1971 S/n. 68-17074, The Gladiator, C/16 Cav, Can Tho, Vietnam, January 1972 Decals are in good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. As the PE appears to have been made by Eduard, I wouldn’t be surprised if the decals were by them too. I’ll be testing to see whether the carrier film can be peeled off using a spare decal when I build this one, because I like that facility. Conclusion An impressively comprehensive Hi-Tech boxing of this gutsy attack helo that stayed in service for a long time and saw service with a wide variety of operators. Upgraded detail and relatively simple construction add to the appeal, but if you're masking phobic, you already have a full set in the box. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

This project is finally finished. It was started in 2004 using the information available to me back then. So here's the model wrong markings, configuration and all. Thank you for taking a look. Don Engine and cowling - Obscureco cowling and a frankenstein R-2800 Cockpit and wheels - Hi-Tech Sliding canopy - Squadron vac-form Windscreen - Hasegawa F6F-3 kit modified to incorporate a 0.015" plexiglass flat panel Prop markings - Archer Fine Transfers HS logos Decals - Aeromaster, White Dog Decals, Yellowhammer Models

Keeping with my resolution to finish, or dispose of, my abandoned projects, this conversion of a 1/48 Hasegawa F6F-3 into a BPF Hellcat II is next in the queue. My first completion, a 1/48 Tamiya P-47D Razorback is posted in the Ready for Inspection forum. This Hasegawa 1/48 F6F-3 was a storage queen. This kit was started around 2004. I cannot remember why I shelved the partially built model for all these years. The model and parts were eventually boxed up and survived a number of moves and long term storage. Thank you for taking the time to look. Updates soon! Don

Hawker Tempest V Hi-Tech 2 1:32 Special Hobby The Tempest was an attempt by Sidney Camm's team at Hawker to "fix" the Typhoon's shortfalls, which although they were few were important enough for them to throw a lot of time and money at them. As far as attempts go, it was pretty successful, but it left us modellers with a fairly confusing array of designs that look substantially different from each other, let alone the Tiffie.The over-thick wing of the Tiffie had resulted in too much drag, so this was ditched and replaced by the new Laminar Flow aerofoil as demonstrated by the then new Mustang, which necessitated an exceptionally smooth riveted finish to maximise the benefits of the design. Because they were to be fitted with engines that were experimental at the time, the Ministry insisted on a number of different engine fits to prevent delays re-engining the airframe if one type was delayed or terminated. This led to a the differences in the front end, from the Mk.I with a Spitfire-like nose, the Mk.II with a Fury-style nose, and the V which had the more recognisable Typhoon-style nose. The V was the first to receive approval from the Ministry and after the IV had engine problems the V became the main initial variant, and after the Tornado was cancelled the Mk.II went ahead with its Centaurus engine and cylindrical cowling.In service the Tempest Mk.V was found to be an excellent aircraft, and was the fastest prop-driven fighter of WWII at low altitude. It was also rugged, and could take punishment, and could be thrown around the sky by a competent pilot despite its thin wing. It was responsible for downing a number of jet-powered Me.262s and had an exceptional kill to loss ratio. The Kit This is the second Hi-Tech boxing of the Tempest V, the first was reviewed here with all of the plastic retained from the first Mk.V, along with the photo-etch, masks and HGW seatbelts. As the original kit has proved very popular Special Hobby have re-released it, however rather than just release the same kit they have gone to the next level. This boxing has a new plastic sprue which comes from the Tempest Mk.II (reviewed here), containing a full set of rockets for the kit. New Sprue As well as including this new sprue the fine folks at Special Hobby decided to change the resin around in the kit. You still get resin wheels and a pilots seat & Cockpit like the original Mk V, however you do not get the rest of the original kits resin gun barrels. This is not to say Special Hobby are short changing the modeller, far from it! This boxing contains a resin Napier Sabre engine, exhausts, complete engine bay; and resin engine bay panels to display next to the model. New Resin Markings There are four decal sheets, containing national markings, aircraft codes, stencils, and finally some additional codes with squadron crests and instrument dials for the cockpit. The decals have been printed by Eduard and are in good registration, sharpness and colour density, sporting a thin glossy carrier film cut close to the printed areas. From the box you can build one of the following: JF-E/SN222 "le Grande Charles", Flt Lt Pierre Closermann, 3 Sqn, Fassberg April/May 1945. JBW/EJ750 Wg Cmd Wary, Vokel late 1944. JJ-F/EJ762, Flt Lt Fairbanks, 274 Sqn, Volkel, October 1944. 5R-B/SN206, Flt Off Rens, Quackenbruk, 33Sqn, May 1944. J5-H/SN330, Sqr Ldr Cole, Wunstorf 1946. The last option is in overall High Speed Silver with Green codes, all the others are standard camo. Quite a broad spread of options that should suit most modellers, given the variety of the schemes. Conclusion Another stand-out Tempest from our friends at Special Hobby, with a box full of goodies that might usually be an aftermarket set with other manufacturers. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of