Bell AH-1G Cobra 'Marines' - Special Hobby 1:72

[woody37]

Bell AH-1G Cobra 'Marines'

Special Hobby 1:72

The US Air Force started to use helicopters early in the Vietnam War as offensive platforms. Following a failed attempt to provide a dedicated attack helicopter in the guise of the Model 207 Sioux Scout in the early ‘60’s, Bell independently invested $1m into a new helicopter using some of the technology of the infamous UH-1 Iroquois, or more affectionately known ‘Huey’. This was in spite of the fact that the Army was more interested in a Lockheed venture with the AH-56 Cheyenne in response to Bells previous failure, however that didn’t come to fruition. Only 8 months later, the Model 209 made it’s first flight and subsequently won over its rivals in evaluation. The 209 was to become the infamous sister to the Iroquois, the Cobra. The airframe took the rotor, gearing and turbine engine from the Huey, but incorporated a new tandem seat cockpit arrangement with armoured panels to go some way to protect the crew from ground fire. Other key features were stub wings to carry a variety of suitable attack weapons and an under-nose turret housing a 20mm cannon and in some cases a grenade launcher.

In 1967 The first of over 1100 Cobras entered US Army service and provided much needed fire support in the Vietnam War for ground forces amongst other specialised activities such as forward ‘Hunter Killer’ teams working along side OH-6A scout helicopters searching out ground forces. The AH-1G also initially entered service with the Marines, although they wanted the extra reliability of two engines, so service in the Marines was short lived until the twin engines ‘Super Cobras’ became available. Whilst the US Army retired the last of its single engine AH-1’s in 2001, nine overseas operators included Israel, Japan and Pakistan. Israel widely used the Cobra, in particular in the 1982 Lebanon War against Syrian forces, but they too retired their fleet in 2013. Pakistan still operate their Cobra’s and Japan still operate their licence built versions too.

The kit
This is the 5th boxing of the UH-1 from Special Hobby. It comes securely packed in a top opening box with 5 medium grey sprues and a separately packed clear sprue. First impressions indicate a very good quality kit. Very sharp moulding with finely recessed panel lines and intricate detail is apparent with a coloured A5 sized instruction booklet on glossy paper. Presence of flash is negligible and I couldn’t find any sink marks on any exterior surfaces. There are a lot of optional parts included that aren’t used for this version, so fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your preferences, the parts use is much less than initially thought. Whilst the instructions are colour with good diagrams, the images are quite small and some of the locations for small parts are a little vague, so some studying before steaming ahead with the glue may be necessary. The paint guide refers to Gunze colours. There are decal options provided for 4 machines.

Parts breakdown is quite traditional with two fuselage halves and separate tail. Construction starts with the cockpit. I would say that the detail in the cockpit is adequate. Separate seats with additional side armour parts are provided with the forward cockpit getting collective and cyclic controls too. The rear bulkhead in the cockpit tub requires removal and an alternative part is provided to replace it that includes a padded surface effect The side panels on the cockpit tub are quite minimalistic, so the optional pre-painted PE set advertised in the instructions are an option you may want to consider. The instrument panels have recessed instruments and the instructions indicate a decal for both panels is included, but I can’t find them on either of the two decal sheets provided. With the tub assembled, it locates between the fuselage halves. Pleasingly, the halves have location pins unlike some of the early short run kits my SH/MPM kits making assembly a little easier. The surface detail in the fuselage exterior is a mixture of nicely recessed panel lines, raised panels and rivet detail. If one was to be critical, you could say the rivets are a little excessive in size, but under some paint, should look fine in my opinion. Two rotor mast base designs are provided, however there’s no explanation of which one would be fitted to which versions included. As I’m far from an expert on the Huey, I couldn’t help out on this. Personally, I’d go for the more detailed one!

Two separate tails are provided to accommodate either the left or the right sided tail rotor, depending upon which option you intend to build. The tail parts simply but on to the end of the tail boom of the main fuselage.

The stub wings are equally well moulded with good surface detail despite their small size. The instructions call out for the fitment of both the XM-158 and XM-200 rocket launchers (7 and 19 2.75” rockets respectively). However there are also two XM-18 minigun pods, two XM-157 rocket launchers and an XM-35 stub wing mounted minigun included on the sprues which may go to good use. Three of the four schemes included call for the combined minigun / grenade launcher turret to be installed, however one of the versions is a test aircraft using a blanking part. This is provided as an additional resin part. Not called for in the instructions, but provided is a minigun only turret too. The nose section calls out for a weight to be added. Take care here, I for one often forget this or don’t notice the instruction!
A great addition is the parts included to add the ground handling pack. This includes 2 x two wheeled bogies that locate on the skids and a trailing tow bar.

Unlike Cobras provided by other manufacturers, the canopy is provided as all separate parts. This does make assembly trickier, but gives much better opportunity for an open cockpit display. The parts are very clear with minimal distortion. There are also several tiny clear parts included on the sprue, but fortunately, you only need a few of them with this kit as they are very small and would probably end up feeding the carpet monster!

Decals
The two decal sheets included have good register. The text on the stencils is a little vague, not as sharp as some I’ve seen, but again, I’m being critical here. Schemes are provided for 4 rotorcraft:

• AH-1G 68-17108, VT-26 HMA-367 Scarface, USMC, Vietnam 1969-70
• AH-1G 68-15194, US Navy Test Pilot School, NAS Jacksonville 1974 in midnight blue scheme
• AH-1G 68-15045, ex USMC HMA-773 assigned to US Navy Test Pilot School, NAS Patuxent River ‘75
• AH-1G 68-17105, HMA-169 (VMO-2), USMC Camp Pendleton, California, ‘72

Conclusion
This is a very nicely detailed kit, arguably, the best on the market currently with no less than 4 schemes to choose from. I matched the main parts up to drawings in the Squadron Publication for a ball park check of accuracy and there were no obvious errors to raise attention to. There are lots of additional options on the sprues to venture in to aftermarket schemes if you can get decals, and the spares box will also be treated to some new parts too. The small parts and none-single piece canopy make this a more challenging kit for young or beginner level modellers, but a joy for anyone with a few builds behind them who possess a good set of tweezers. Without too much effort, this could be built into a superb little diorama given the open canopy and ground handling pack included.

Also included in the box is a 25% discount voucher for 'Cobra- The Attack Helicopter' hardback book by Mike Verier, RRP £25 adding even more value for Cobra fans

Review sample courtesy of

[Antoine]

Nice and interesting review, thanks.

[IGKent]

Nice and interesting review, thanks.

I'm agree with colleague......

[Nobby57]

Now this looks like an excellent offering...I'm very tempted to go out of my modelling zone with this one. On the whole, I think Special Hobby are a terrific company offering kits that are a little different from the mainstream. Thanks for the review.

[woody37]

Helicopters aren't really my thing, but a few float my boat. The Wessex and this angry looking bird in particular. I quite fancy making a little diorama with this, it's a cracking little kit.

Cheers

[Nobby57]

I've always liked US aircraft of the VietNam period, especially Navy and Marine types, including Aussie machines. However, as a purely RN aficionado, when I came back to modelling I thought I'd be purely thematic. Alas...I've broken my well prepared plans and fallen into the trap. With both 1/48th Academy F-4s (USN and USAF) I guess stuff like this will just keep me buying and buying and buying.

Silly for me perhaps, but supporting manufacturers when they do well, will benefit everybody in the long run. VIVA le Plastique! I'm definitely going to buy this kit now...you rotten scoundrel Woody!

[Navy Bird]

Take the time to visit the links in this post, which compares the AZ and Special Hobby AH-1G Cobra kits, and translate them from the Czech into English using Google or one of those services. Then, do your best to decipher the machine generated English. Both kits have some problems, but there seems to be some big ones on the Special Hobby kit, the biggest being the width of the fuselage over the engines. Much too wide.

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234941695-172-bell-ah-1gqs-cobra-kits-families-by-az-model-and-special-hobby-released/?p=1717799

Whether this Czech website has any bias towards one manufacturer or the other, I don't know. But their arguments seem to be backed up with measurements and pictures.

Cheers,

Bill

[Antoine]

Review of further AH-1 boxes are planned, or???

I'm thinking mainly about the Israeli one?

[bentwaters81tfw]

They were knocking these out at £6 unboxed on their stand at Telford. Not my thing though.