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Hi again, With the main colour applied, the next step was painting the yellow tail band. I delimited the area using masking tape: IMAG7036 The rest of the fuselage was protected using kitchen cling-film: IMAG7037 The tail band was first painted flat white, as a base for the yellow: IMAG7038 The tips of the rotors are also yellow, so they were painted white first as well IMAG7039 Here's the end result for the tail band: IMAG7040 and for the rotors: IMAG7041 There's also a tail probe, which was painted yellow with red stripes: IMAG7044 The fuselage and all the small parts were sealed with a microgloss coat, in preparation for decaling. Here's the set-up for decal application: IMAG7045 There aren't many decals and they behaved very well. The decals were sealed with another coat of microgloss. The final result can be seen in the next pictures: IMAG7048 IMAG7049 The next step was applying a dark wash to the fuselage and all small parts. This was done using Vallejo's acrylic "Oiled Earth" wash. Here's the operation under way: IMAG7050 Next, the fuselage and small parts received a coat of Alclad Flat, to give them the final finish. There were several small task to conclude however. First, the exhaust ring and PE guards were glued in place. I also brush-painted the intake grids with Gunze's H18 Steel. The presence light on top of the engine tower was first painted Tamiya's Chrome Silver. It will later receive a coat of transparent red: IMAG7051 The PE parts for the armament were applied: IMAG7052 Here we can see the armament by the fuselage: IMAG7054 Before glueing the armament in place there were a few smallish PE parts to install on the wings: parts 32, 33 and 34 on the picture below IMAG7056 These parts make up a mechanism to be installed between the centre pylon and the lower surface of the wing. Here are the the parts for one of the mechanisms glued together, before installation on the wing: IMAG7057 The following pictures show how these look installed in place: IMAG7058 IMAG7059 IMAG7060 Finally, the armament was installed: IMAG7061 IMAG7062 IMAG7063 IMAG7065 That's all for now. Hopefully, the next post will be the last. Thanks for looking Jaime

@Serkan Sen @Heart Failure Thank you very much for your interest and kind words, much appreciated! Cheers Jaime

Hi again, While manipulating the model, I managed to knock out the gunner's instrument panel and control stick. I had to re-glue them in place: IMAG7008 I used thin strips of plasticard to straight the horizontal edges of the front air intake. Unfortunately, the grid of the intake wasn't perfectly aligned and I couldn't adjust it: IMAG7011 The piece of acetate representing the pilot's head up display was CA-glued in place. A better option would be using Aquagloss or other clear varnish to glue it in place: IMAG7012 Next, the canopy was glued in place with Contacta Clear glue: IMAG7013 The wings were next. They were glued in place and the model was left to rest on a LEGO gig to ensure proper alignment of the wings: IMAG7014 IMAG7015 The horizontal stabilisers were next: IMAG7016 The joints of the canopy, wings and stabilisers with the fuselage weren't good enough, so additional PPP was applied: IMAG7017 Look after removal of the excess PPP: IMAG7018 The cockpit interior colour was re-sprayed but the joints between canopy and fuselage still needed improvement: IMAG7019 IMAG7020 Therefore, additional work was done to improve these joints: a lot of scraping, sanding and more PPP. I also sealed the opening for the main rotor shaft and the exhaust with blu-tack, to protect them from the main painting phase: IMAG7021 IMAG7022 Another task before starting the main painting phase was drilling a hole on the nose for later installation of the pitot tube: IMAG7023 Another re-spraying of the canopy with the cockpit's interior colour was done to ensure the joints were now good enough. After that I applied a coat of Alclad's Black Primer and Microfiller. This revealed several seams that still needed improvement. After a lot more work, the final black primer coat was applied: IMAG7024 The primer on the nose area was masked to make the black anti-glare area of the nose. For providing tonal variance, I applied a layer of "marbling" using two shades of green, both lighter than the Field Green of the colour scheme: first Gunze's H312 Green (the shade used as "interior green" by British Aircraft of WWII) was mottled inside the panels, followed by Sky. IMAG7025 IMAG7026 The same "marbling" was applied to the small parts: IMAG7027 IMAG7028 IMAG7029 The main colour was applied in thin layers, panel by panel: IMAG7030 IMAG7031 IMAG7032 Thin layers of the main colour were also applied to the small parts: IMAG7034 IMAG7035 IMAG7033 Thanks for looking. Cheers Jaime

I considered doing something like that but opted for not trying to cut the kit canopy and risk ruining it. By the way, the Special Hobby kit provides separate transparent parts for the moving and fixed parts of the canopy. So it seems... In a quick search I could only find a Printscale decal sheet for AH-1 Cobras, but only two schemes are applicable to the version of this AZ Model boxing. Cheers Jaime

Hi again, Finally, a new update on this build, which I already finished two weeks ago. I glued the pilot's instrument panel assembly in place: IMAG6992 The left side panel is partially obstructed by the instrument panel but the later sits well in place, nonetheless. IMAG6995 The tail fin sits a bit below the tail spine. I had to elevate it using a piece of plasticard: IMAG6993 IMAG6994 The excess plastic was later carved out. On the lower edges of the canopy, I carved out a small indent to install the PE opening handles for the moving panels of the canopy: IMAG6996 IMAG6997 Next, Perfect Plastic Putty (PPP) was liberally applied on the seams on the fuselage: IMAG6998 IMAG6999 PPP was also applied on the joints between the wings and pilons: IMAG7000 and on the seams of the weapons: IMAG7001 The PPP dried for at least a day and the excess was, then, removed with a damp cotton-bud. I also masked the canopy, both outside IMAG7003 and inside: IMAG7004 The interior colour (Gunze's H317 Dark Gull Grey) was airbrushed outside and inside: IMAG7005 The paint was allowed to dry and a gloss coat was applied to the inside of the canopy, in preparation for the application of a dark wash. IMAG7006 Here is the set-up for the wash application: IMAG7007 To finish with the canopy, the PE parts were applied and the inside was sealed with an Alclad Flat coat. Here's the end result after removing the inside masking: IMAG7009 IMAG7010 Thanks for looking Jaime

Thank you for your interest Jackson! This kit is a bit "vague" in terms of fitting but the level of detail and the shapes are good. My experience with the Pavla vac was frustrating, as shown in the posts above, and in the end I used the kit provided canopy. The Brengun set is good and is a great improvement to the detail of the kit. I'm now waiting for the delivery of Special Hobby's 1/72 Cobra, in its "early tails" boxing. Seems to be a good kit, hopefully less problematic than the AZ's. I still have to order the PE set from Brengun for the SH. Thank you very much Colin, much appreciated!

Hi @CedB Indeed life gets in the way. I've already finished this build (mid-December) but my time has been very limited since the Summer holidays and I had to choose between progressing with the build and updating the thread. I'll update the thread in the following days, hopefully. Cheers Jaime

Thank you very much, Ced! Very kind, as always! I'm afraid I didn't manage to finish the build in the time frame of the GB, in keeping with my tradition regarding GBs... I did manage to progress slowly since I returned from my holidays in September but real life has been extremely busy since. I'll update the thread in the coming days, possibly in the regular WIP area. Cheers Jaime

Looks good! Congrats! Cheers Jaime

Hi again, After closing the fuselage, I test fit the canopy and found that it didn't fit in the front. This was due to the incorrect positioning of the front instrument panel: since there were no location tabs, I had glued it in a position that was too inclined to ther front and interfered with the front of the canopy: IMAG6906 After a lot of sanding of the instrument panel's cover and thinning of the canopy's front under the frontal rim, I managed to make the canopy fit in place: IMAG6909 This is how the instrument panel's cover was after all the sanding: IMAG6908 Just to compare, I also test fit the vacform canopy, which still showed gaps, especially in the frontal area: IMAG6909 IMAG6910 IMAG6911 The somewhat loose nature of the fit of the parts of this kit also showed up in the back of the cockpit, where gaps between the back cover and the sides can be seen: IMAG6912 Since the underside opening of the fuselage was still not closed, I filled in the gaps from the inside using super-glue. There are also gaps between the cockpit base and the port fuselage part but I didn't manage to reached them from inside to fill them with super-glue: IMAG6913 Finally, I closed the underside of the fuselage. As can be seen, the fit of these parts could be better and I'll have to fill in a few gaps: IMAG6914 Thanks for looking. Jaime

Thanks for the kind words and interest! Cheers Jaime

Hi again, The kit's canopy had a sprue stub attached, which I sawed off. The setup used to avoid damaging the transparency of the part was this: IMAG6885 The canopy was washed, left to dry and later given a bath of Alclad Aqua Gloss to increase brilliance and transparency. Next, I painted the cockpit parts, including those still in the PE fret: IMAG6888 After applying a coat of Aqua Gloss, a dark wash was used to weather the cockpit parts: IMAG6889 Here's the cockpit base after application of the wash and a silver dry-brush on the floor and side consoles: IMAG6890 Here's the PE fret in final form, with all the colours applied: IMAG6891 The next step was the assembly of the instrument panels. Each of these are made up of a PE part and an acetate with the instruments (whose back I had already painted with flat white): IMAG6892 The PE parts were removed from the fret and the instruments cut off the acetate: IMAG6893 I used Aqua Gloss to glue the PE and acetate parts. This also provides a nice "glass-like" cover to the instruments: IMAG6894 Final assembly of instrument panel consoles: IMAG6895 Next, I installed the PE seat belts: IMAG6896 and the control columns and levers on the cockpit base: IMAG6897 The seats were glued in place: IMAG6898 From reference pictures, I noticed that a control lever was missing on the left front console: So, I scratch built it using a piece of plasticard and a small length of copper wire: IMAG6899 This was painted matt black. A bit of red was also applied to the inside of the front right console, to replicate the label that can be seen in the picture of the cockpit above: IMAG6900 I glued the cockpit base to the starboard inner side of the fuselage. I also glued in place the front instrument panel and the back end of the cockpit. However, there were no guides or tabs to keep the front instrument panel in the right position. I had to guess where to glue it and inserted a piece of sprue to hold it in place: IMAG6901 Here are two views of the results: IMAG6902 IMAG6903 To finish this phase of the build, I closed the fuselage: IMAG6904 IMAG6905 Thanks for looking Jaime

Hi again, After priming the parts that will be painted with metallic colours, I needed to mask some of them. Here's the PE fret after the first round of masking: IMAG6871 The rotors have black blades with yellow tips, with metallic shafts. I'll use the black primer for the black blades, so, I masked the parts accordingly: IMAG6872 IMAG6873 IMAG6875 The centres of the rotors and the shafts were painted with Alclad White Aluminium IMAG6876 IMAG6877 The guns were painted with Alclad Gunmetal and the exhaust parts with Alclad Burnt Iron. The exhaust part with the turbine face was, then, masked inside and out, except for the turbine face, which was painted with Alclad White Aluminium. Then, I used blu-tack to mask the turbine face, as shown in the following picture, because the turbine shaft would be painted with Alclad Aluminium: IMAG6884 After unmasking, here is the end result: IMAG6887 While waiting for the different metallic shades to dry, before moving to the next one, I decided to cut the vacform canopy. Here it is before cutting off the surrounding plastic: IMAG6878 It should be said that it is not very clear were the cuts should be made, because there's not a sharp separation between the canopy's frames and the surrounding material. As a result, I may have cut it too short or the canopy itself was moulded too short, because it didn't fit properly on the fuselage: there were some visible gaps, especially in front of the canopy: IMAG6879 IMAG6880 In contrast, the kit-supplied canopy fits almost perfectly: IMAG6881 IMAG6882 A side by side comparison of the two canopies shows that the vacform one seems to be a bit shorter than the kit's canopy in the frontal section: IMAG6883 I'll have to use the kit's canopy, then. Fortunately, it is very clear. Thanks for looking. Jaime

Thanks Ced! The links were really tiny indeed!

Hi again, Sorry for the lack of updates since mid-July. I've been working on this build but I haven't had the time to post updates. Continuing from where I left, I glued the parts through which the cannon and grenade launcher stick out of the gun turret: IMAG6850 I also removed the cannon and grenade launcher from the sprues and glued them to a toothpick, ready for painting: IMAG6851 Next, I glued together the tail rotor blades and shaft. The shaft does not fit tightly on the corresponding hole in the tail fin. So, I glued a piece of thin plastic sheet around the shaft's end: IMAG6852 I also glued the PE part to the blades: IMAG6854 There were also a few PE bits that had to be glued to the fuselage: IMAG6853 The wings and pod holders were glued together (the parts on the left were cleaned from flash before glueing): IMAG6857 The exhaust parts were also removed from the sprues and cleaned, in preparation for painting: IMAG6858 The next step was the installation of the links between the blades and the centre of the main rotor. These are build with PE parts and small sections of plastic rod, but I used pieces of copper wire instead of plastic rod. Here we can see the PE bits already bent to shape: IMAG6859 These bits were glued in place: IMAG6860 After a few tries, to find the correct length, I glued the pieces of copper wire in place, as shown in the following two pictures: IMAG6861 IMAG6862 To finish with the main rotor, I glued the shaft in place: IMAG6866 There is an antenna to install on the lower port side of the fuselage, but there are no locating pins or slots. To ensure a proper installation, I drilled holes on the mating surfaces of the fuselage and antenna and glued a piece of copper wire on the antenna: IMAG6864 The final PE bits to be installed on the exterior are the bits that go on the skids. To ensure a proper installation, I drilled holes on the skids before glueing the PE bits in place: IMAG6865 Finally, Alclad Black Primer and Microfiller was applied to all parts which will be black or need metallic paints: IMAG6867 Thanks for looking Jaime

Hi Mrs Stix! I've been working from home since mid-March due to COVID-19. First we were under State of Emergency till the end of April. After that things have been slowly returning to normal, but I will only return to office in September. I like working from home and it suits my day job perfectly but it can be quite exhausting. In the meanwhile I got my C2-level German Language certificate and managed to finish two models: an Ekranoplan A-90 and a B-1 Excalibur I'm now working on a AH-1G Cobra for the Helicopter GB, but progress has been slow and I still have to update the build thread with the latest work. I'm also enlisted in the BoB GB with a Do-17z but haven't resumed work on it yet... What's your next project? Jaime

Great job! The diorama turned out very good! Cheers Jaime

@CedB, @Davek72, @Greg Law Thank you for your interest! I'm now working on my entry to the Helicopters GB, a Vietnam War Marines AH-1G Cobra. I hope I'll be able to finish it by early August. Then I'll resume work on the Do 17. Cheers Jaime

Excellent progress, Dennis. Looking very good! Cheers Jaime

Hi Pat, Sorry for not providing the link right away. @CedB provided the updated link to the bender I have. It is expensive but I believe it's worth the price. The quality of the tool is very high and it's made of solid machined metal. Cheers Jaime

Thank you very much Pat! I'm using these tools for folding PE: IMAG2578 The PE parts are held by the "fingers" of the PE-holder and the shaving blade-like piece is used to fold the PE parts. Cheers Jaime

@Hockeyboy76 @desert falcon @CedB Thank you for your interest!

Hello, I've resumed working on this build. As I said elsewhere, while the build was stored away on the shelf of doom, I've bought Master's brass gun for Cobras. However this gun is for later versions and won't be used with this kit. Now I have a good excuse to buy Dream Model's AH-1Z Viper I also bought a vacform canopy for this specific kit: IMAG6829 To start with, I cleaned the moulding marks from the main rotor shaft and cut the plastic piece which served as head-up display: IMAG6831 The HUD will be replaced by piece C of this acetate sheet, where instrument panels are also shown: IMAG6832 The backs of the instrument panels were painted flat white. Some additional work was needed in the cockpit. The pedals are replaced by PE parts nº 27: IMAG6834 Here they are, glued in place: IMAG6835 PE part nº 11 is to be glued inside the canopy but must be bent to shape before installation: IMAG6836 Final shape, ready for painting: IMAG6837 A lever for the pilot station must be scratch built. The instructions suggest using stretched sprue but I used plasticard rods. The diameters suggested in the instructions seem to be out of scale (1,5 mm and 1,0 mm diameter). My first attempt used 1,0 mm and 0,66 mm but it also looked out of scale. So, I used 0,75 mm and 0,5 mm for my second attempt. The picture below shows the instructions and the two attempts glued to a toothpick, ready for painting: IMAG6844 The insides of the pod parts were painted black: IMAG6833 The paint was allowed to dry for a few days and, then, the pods parts were glued together: IMAG6845 Clean up of the seams and some filler will be needed. There is a PE part to apply to the bottom of the cannon turret: IMAG6842 The PE part was glued in place: IMAG6842 The openings on the bottom of the turret were made: IMAG6847 There are some grids to install on openings around the engine. I chose to use the PE parts that came with the kit, instead of the same parts from the Brengun fret, because the grids are actually perforated: IMAG6838 Here the grids are glued in place IMAG6839 That's all for now. Thanks for looking. Cheers Jaime

Count me in! I have Academy's P-38J in ETO markings and I've been slowly adding after market add-ons for a super-detailed build. Cheers Jaime

I'm relieved to know the B-2 is good. I hope they eventually launch a good B-1.