Pappy

G'day people, Well, to paraphrase ZZ Top, my Viper's got legs, and she knows how to use 'em! The more observant of you will have noticed the absence of the tail skid. There is a very good reason for that - I lost it :mad: I lost it some time ago. Working my way down the list, I contacted KH directly nearly three weeks ago asking for a replacement item and offering to pay for same - I have yet to receive a reply, piddle poor customer service. I also e-mailed the kit supplier who replied within 24hrs and offered to contact their supplier and ask how much a replacement part would cost if possible. I have not received any news from them either. Finally, I asked a mate of mine, David , if I could use the tail skid part from his Viper kit to cast a copy. Great success! Meanwhile, I have been carrying on with things under wings. I will be fitting a pair of AIM-9M's. The kits items are very nice, some of the nicest injection AIM-9's I have seen. I added a GCS cover to one, the other will have its cover removed to show off the seeker. The ordnance stencils are aftermarket items. I have not used any kit decals yet, but the ordnance decals supplied by KH are not very extensive. The M-261 rocket launchers are very nicely detailed and fit well. Aftermarket resin M-261's are available but I can't see what improvement they will bring. The AGM-114's are supplied as a solid body with two choices of seeker heads. the pointy heads represent the AGM-114B through K/K-2 flavours, whilst the longer blunter heads are for the AGM-114L. The problem of course is that the AGM-114L is optimised for use with the Longbow radar of the AH-64D/E Apache, so they cannot be used with the Viper Of course, I only found out about this after I had glued four of the heads on Luckily I have an AH-64D or two do so they won't go to waste. Finally, I have scratched up a new APU exhaust. There is nothing wrong with the kit part and I am sure it will suffice nicely, but it is comprised of two halves split horizontally. I find sanding things with round cross sections tedious and you tend to lose roundness. It is also a small part. To make a replacement I simply heated some round styrene stock gently and bent it to an appropriate angle. The styrene was cut to length and the end reamed out. A small section of brass rod was inserted to act as a locating pin. It took all of about 15 mins all told. cheers, Pappy

Nope Pappy

G'day people, I got to put the gun bits together today. The turret assembly was painted up, and the inner details were picked out with a brush. I did not go nuts here as most of the interior will be obscured by the breech mech. Having previously scratched up the gun breech mechanism, the breech was installed into the turret. I don't think this will fool any Viper chiefs or crew dawgs out there, but it is an improvement over the kit part which was basically just a featureless plate with a nasty seam across it, cheers, Pappy

G'day Colin, I hear ya! The springs arrived about three weeks ago but I had to motivate myself to use them. My first attempt proved to be a disaster as I didn't realise the end of the springs were slightly open (so they could be 'clipped' on over the pre-attached brackets), instead I had been threading them onto a bracket, attempting to glue the bracket (without the spring falling off) and then repeating for the other side. It was not a happy time. I then experimented with attaching the brackets first, this worked a whole lot better, still fiddly but doable, cheers, Pappy Thanks very much Simon.

I spent today working away at the fuselage seams. I have made progress with the fuselage seams, The base kit is the A-7E variant and as such features a cut out for the launch bar apparatus. This is not a feature of the A-7H which is basically an A-7D, so the opening was filled with styrene blocks These were liberally basted in sprue glue in preparation for sanding. The dorsal speed brake unit was attached. I had attained a good fit on one side but the lefts side required a shim This may not be the kit's fault as the air brake unit is made up of several parts, the brake itself, an inner face and a forward section which is part of the fuselage. I thought I could get a better fit if the brake was attached to the fuselage section first, then the whole assembly would be offered to the fuselage proper. Whilst the fit of the air brake was good, the whole assembly was less so. Meanwhile, some serious putty was required to fair in the intake parts. cheers, Pappy

G'day people, I spent today playing around with the 'zorsts. I bought some teensy, tiny springs to add to the 'zorsts but had to psych myself up to complete the task. I eventually took the plunge and this is the result, The hardest past was making eight similar ( won't say identical!) attachment brackets from thin copper wire. One these were glued in place, I was able to snap on the springs. A drop of CA secured everything once everything was in situ. Unfortunately, just when I was especially pleased with myself, one of the mufflers managed to land in a puddle of CA that I had been using. Once the blood pressure had returned to normal, I sanded off the offending blob, Painting tomorrow, cheers, Pappy

Thanks for the comments fellas. Mick, the glib answer to your questions is 'my spares box' The gun breech was from a Verlinden detail set I think? I bought a bunch of orphan resin bits and pieces a few years ago at one of the PX meets, a guy had a box of random resin leftovers in various scales for 20c each. I bought all sorts of seats, cockpit tubs, panels etc. I managed to identify a lot of it. The prismatic film was sources from some chrissy decorations that someone had discarded in the street. It was some sort of star with streamers. My supply is slowly dwindling ..... cheers, Pappy

It's okay I suppose.... G'day Jack! What a nice result from an often overlooked (in preference to the Airfix version) kit. You have turned out a corker and I am sure your boys will love it! I built one a little while back but fearing how deep the panels lines would appear, I ended up filling most of mine. Unfilled, they make the kit look more like a die cast kit than injected styrene. Great to see another Matchbox Bucc on the forums, cheers, Pappy

G'day people, The kit is fighting back but the wing /centre body seams are starting to get there. cheers, Pappy

G'day people, I have been playing around with the TSS some more. O filed the bulged sensor windows flat and then drilled the windows out to provide a little depth. I then punched out some clear discs and coated them with some holographic film. This is not the final version, more like a proof of concept, Some dry fitting to get an idea of how it will play in situ cheers, Pappy

G'day ED, I am not sure yet, but I am looking at the usual suspects, cheers, Pappy

I pulled this one out recently and have started working on it again. The fit of the fuselage halves was okay, but the seam needed a little filler in spots due to sink marks mainly. Undoubtedly, the worst fitting part is the main wing. The cross sections between the wing centre section and fuselage don't match, The wing underside is very gappy as well - eeeck! The speed brake assembly has some bad sink marks but I think that was my fault due to the liquid glue melting the plastic. The speed brake assembly is built up from several parts and I may have been a little too liberal with the glue. Even the MER's have sink marks! I don't know if this is due to the age of the kit (this is the Revell re-pop of the Has kit) or it is just how the kit is, but it is a lot of extra prep work, cheers, Pappy

G'day people, A little more progress today. The stub wings are on and she is beginning to resemble a chopper. I have started to play around with the TSS. The first step was to make a casting of the kit parts. This means a total screw up of my efforts won't matter as I can always resort to the original kit parts. The casting plug also makes doubles as a handle whilst I am working on the bits, cheers, Pappy

Me either! Thank you for your comments, I really appreciate them. Two steps forwards and one backwards today. I followed the KH instructions and drilled out the holes for the weapon hardpoints before gluing the stub wings together. The problem is that you have to pick only one set of inner holes to drill out as different stores use different hardpoints, something which is not overly clear on the instructions. The extra holes will now need to be plugged up, so I stuck in some chunks of sprue I also cut off the moulded in tie down rings and made new ones from copper wire So I spent most of today making the gun mechanism that will be seen through the bottom of the gun turret. I started by casting a copy of the M-61 breech Bits were added to busy it up and make it look less like an M-61 and more like an M-197 The turret interior also got some love My bodgy attempts don't really resemble the real deal very closely, I am just trying to give an impression of what is there rather than actually replicate every detail, so apologies to any ammo guys out there if this has fallen short of the mark, I have given the gun mech a basic coat and dry brush, it looks promising, The turret interior looks like it is grey inside but I shot it with some black since I was painting the barrels anyway Quick and dirty dry brush of the barrels To protect the barrels during the build I cut down a drink straw and slipped it over the barrels cheers, Pappy

Thanks very much for your comments, keep them coming. I was playing around with the rear stabilisers. KH have moulded these with a circular mounting pin, this is great as too many manufacturers depict these with with a fixed, slotted tab that only allows the builder to glue them in a neutral pose. Not all helicopter stabs are moveable, but I am pretty sure they are on the Cobra family. I wanted the stabilisers to be joined so that they moved in unison, not because I like moving features ( I don't) but it will allow me to pose the stabs in a spot of my choosing. In order to do this, I drilled out the centre of each mounting pin and inserted a small length of brass wire into one half. Once fitted, the end of the brass pin will be glued to the other stab. [[/url] The stabs are just dry fitted here but the idea seems to work okay. cheers, Pappy .

More progress, G'day people. This build is really picking up speed now. The fuselage seams have been tackled, and although they may look like they sucked up a lot of putty, it was really only a few spots that needed to be taken care of. The worst fitting part so far was the fuselage crosspiece that bridges a void immediately in front of the canopy. The crosspiece had a step either side that required some blending with filler The lower fuselage needed a smear of filler here and there but was relatively painless, and finally the intake seams The landing skid cross tubes suffer from some ejector pin marks so these had some blobs of sprue glue applied and left to cure. I have also commenced work on the ordnance. The AIM-9's are some of the nicest kit AIM-9L/M's I have ever seen from a manufacturer. There were a couple of ejector pin marks that need to be dealt with first, so another application of sprue glue followed Meanwhile the AGM-114 Hellfires were assembled. KH supply the bodies as a solid molding, requiring only a few wipes with a sanding stick to clean up any mold seams. The builder has a choice of two seeker head types, the older (earlier) AGM-114B/K seeker heads or the new, longer, laser guided AGM-114L, which is what I opted for, cheers, Pappy

Pay attention at the back, there will be a quiz afterwards! I like to build things as well, usually loaded up with woosh bangs and death bringer missiles, cheers, Pappy

G'day Angstrom, My cunning plan is to install nose weight in the void between the left and right equipment bays. That is one of the reasons I left out the plate behind the gun turret. I mentioned this in my thread. Pappy

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234975145-ah-1z-viper-148/ Well, moving along, the major assemblies are starting to come together now. The fuselage has been closed up and the tail boom added. No major fit issues there. The boom parts fit very well with hardly any filler required. The forward fuselage however was a different story, especially the seam along the belly. I think the issue is that the two halves are joining across a flat surface. I is not going to be a major issue, but compared to the rest of the kit, it is the only part that has really need filler so far. The shrouded exhaust unit was also added.I have read in other online builds that this has been problematic but I had no issues. I did test fit before gluing and found that a quick swipe with a file around the rear engine bay firewall helped the fit. The 20mm gun ammo drum was also installed after painting KH would have you install a blanking plate behind the gun turret to close off a void I left this part out. It will need to be blended into the front fuselage with filler as there are big gaps at the edges. The gun turret completely blocks this opening so adding the part would be a wast of time anyway. I can also use the opening to add nose weight, adjusting until I get enough to prevent a tail sitter. While all that was drying, I began work on the next area that needs attention - the gun turret. KH have moulded the bottom of the turret solid, but in reality, the bottom is open and the gun mechanism is visible. First up, join the turret parts, then mark out the material for removal. Next up, remove offending material, The KH gun barrels are very nice, commendably thin in fact, however the barrel clamps are way over scale. So I decided to use an aftermarket brass item. Here it is all assembled cheers, Pappy

G'day people, I spent some time painting the cockpit today. The equipment bay components also got a splash of paint The right hand bay items dry fitted and with the seats added Finally, the firex painted and for a size comparison cheers, Pappy

Thank you everyone. More progress. I have begun to assemble the cockpit. The heart of the assembly is the tub to which the various bits are added. The tub is blemish free, however the seats have ejector pin marks which I dealt with. To be honest, these would be very difficult to see but I fixed them all the same. The cockpit sidewalls also have a couple of ejector pin marks which were easily dealt with using a sanding stick. There are also a couple of armor panels which have a nasty ejector pin mark on one side. These are very visible through the large cockpit glazing so it pays to do a good job on these. Once these items were cleaned up, assembly was very rapid, Everything dry fitted to ensure there will be no problems. In another on-line build, the builder was able to install most of the cockpit items after the tub was installed to allow for ease of handling and masking, but I will be completing the tub before installing it. I will however leave off the collective levers as these are just begging to be snapped off and offered to the carpet monster! KH also provides detailed forward left and right equipment bays. This is where the next major error in the kit surfaces. KH provides an assortment of avionics boxes for these bays. Once again, the left and right bays are mirror images of each other - which is wrong. The bays are in fact one complete bay with access doors on each side, rather than two separate compartments as depicted by KH. I can live with the separate compartments, and you could either have only one only one door open or close both doors and this problem goes away. However, a further issue is that the right equipment bay is where the 20mm ammunition magazine for the M-197 gun is located. As already mentioned, KH provide avionics boxes for the right hand side and a moulded feature in the middle of the floor. The box like structure was removed. I decided that i would scratch up an ammo magazine for the right side using reference pictures (based upon the AH-1W which is very similar apparently) and some guesstimation! The left hand bay does have avionics boxes present but it seems that KH based their research on the AH-1W because the contents aren't quite kosher here either. I cut up and re-arranged what they provided to more resemble my refs. I also needed to scratch up a fire extinguisher (firex) and a battery. The firex is just dropped in, it will be mounted to the upper right corner when the time comes. cheers, Pappy

G'day people, A little more progress today. Having completed the left engine, the engine assembly was installed into its bay and some additional wiring was added to busy up the engine bay, Satisfied, the left engine bay assembly was installed into the left fuselage The lower engine access panels double as work platforms on the real jet, and they feature a small box like structure which is missing from the kit parts. I knocked up a representation using some plastic card Meanwhile the engine air intakes have been fitted [/url] cheers, Pappy

Thanks everyone for your interest. Angstrom, I didn't know about those, but I think I will opt for a more anonymous working chopper. I have been following 'intruder 500' 's work over at Z5, but I didn't want to post a competing thread. The work on the donk continues. The KH engine is quite nicely detailed straight from the box but I wanted a 'busier' looking donk. The KH engine bay, the engine core consists of 4 assemblies; The bay itself which is already assembled, the engine core, a particle air separator and an plumbing line of some sort. The engine core was detailed with the addition of some bits of wire and leftover PE. My philosophy is not to replicate every nut and wire, but to give an impression of the details (based upon references) whilst not going overboard. Everything was now given a basic colour coat Detail painting ensued and I ended up with this: cheers, Pappy

G'day people, The Kittyhawk (KH) arrived in the mail and I could not help myself so I started to put bits together straight away. Naturally enough, construction begins with the cockpit so I decided to start on the engines instead. In fact, due to the modular mature of this kit, I will be jumping around around a bit sequence wise. This is where the first mistake of the kit is evident. KH provide two complete engines, however, the left and right engines are depicted as mirror images. This is incorrect as in reality, both engines have the same orientation with respect to the various sub assemblies. This means that the left engine is correct however the right hand engine is completely wrong. Taking the line of least resistance, I have decided to close the right hand engine panels and only have the left (correct) engine on display. I did however assemble the right engine and its bay and installed these into the right fuselage as I thought this would help align the rear shrouded exhaust part as well as stiffen up the fuselage half which otherwise has a rather large opening allowing it to flex Although the bay fits well, I wanted to make sure it did not come adrift so some extra styrene was added to beef up the structure. The left engine halves were now assembled Before I could assemble the left engine bay, there were some annoying ejector pin marks to deal with. The majority of the ejector pin marks are situated in places that are not visible when assembled, but a few will need to be dealt with. Meanwhile, the exhaust fairing was assembled. It went together without any fit issues Still on the engines, the last job was to clean up the ejector pin marks inside the air intake parts Well, that's all for now, cheers, Pappy

G'day <att, I was an aviation TV tragic as a kid and this was definitely one of my faves, although I don't think it really effected me I would love to get my hands on this kit someday so following your build with interest Ref the clear fuselage parts. Are the cabin windows included as part of the fuselage mould? If yes, perhaps it offers the builder the option of not having to fit windows, just masking them? cheers, Pappy