Search the Community

Italeri is to reissue with new parts its 1/48th Eurocopter HAP Tigre kit as German Eurocopter PAH-2 Tiger - ref. 2821 Source: https://www.italeri.com/uploads/news/0hFsarN8VqpofmHNCQiD0phaHkvlSZQY30JTdrFK.pdf V.P.

Airbus H145 ADAC Luftrettung (04969) 1:32 Carrera Revell The H145 has a convoluted development process that started with a collaboration between MBB and Kawasaki, who merged into Eurocopter under the Airbus banner, undergoing a few changes in designation during the process, the most well-known of which is the EC145. The MBB R117 rear section was combined with the EC135 forward fuselage and avionics to create a twin-engined helicopter with two crew and a maximum passenger load of nine. It wasn’t a simple cut-and-shut of course, with substantial redesign of parts, which led to a capable aircraft with better range and load-carrying capability than either of its predecessors. It first flew in 1999, and has gone on to be used by several European nations in civil and military roles as well as customers even further afield, with the T2 variant introduced in 2011 with new engines, avionics, a shrouded tail rotor and other aspects improving its performance further. Another variant is in development at time of writing, further expanding the type’s capabilities, and using a new highly advanced rotor to improve its carrying capacity, an upgrade that once in-service can be retro-fitted to existing airframes, offering similar benefits. ADAC is the German equivalent of the British AA or American Triple A, and stands for Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club that translates to General German Automobile Club, and like the AA, their signature colour is yellow. Those facts might seem to be irrelevant to a helicopter, but they also run a fleet of air rescue helicopters for its members via a subsidiary ADAC Luftrettung, which translates to Air Rescue, as you’d imagine. The aircraft are located strategically throughout Germany so that any medical emergency case can be reached in 15 minutes, getting the casualty to medical care within the Golden Hour, vastly increasing their chances of survival when compared to traditional ground-based ambulances that are slower and subject to the vagaries of traffic jams, poor roads or even a total lack of infrastructure where the casualty may be. Another operator of the H145 is Rega, the privately-run non-profit Swiss Air Rescue organisation, and their colours are red and white, the same as their national flag, which is a big plus. The Kit This is a new boxing of a kit that was originally released in 2005, but has been upgraded with new parts, which is borne out by the differing copyright dates on some of the sprues, one sprue dated 2017 and containing parts for the newer T2 shrouded tail rotor that wasn’t present on the original design. The kit arrives in a deep end-opening box, with a photo of the ADAC airframe on the front, and a Rega aircraft inset in the bottom left. At this scale the part count is high, weighing in at 275 parts to detail the model, although many those parts will remain on the sprues and are blacked out on the sprue diagrams at the front of the instruction booklet. There are thirteen sprues of grey styrene, three of clear parts, a large decal sheet and the instruction booklet that is printed in colour, with painting and decaling profiles on the rear pages. Detail is good, although some of the parts have shiny surfaces that hark back to its origins. There are no flash or mould defects visible, but as with any model, clean-up and test-fitting should result in a creditable replica of this modern rescue helicopter. Construction begins with the floor, which has four holes filled near the rear before the details are added, starting with a shallow bulkhead under the front. Flipping the floor back over, the twin sets of pedals are attached to the front, slotting into the bulkhead, with a scrap diagram showing how they should locate from the side. The collective and cyclic sticks are fitted in duplicate, with a rotor-brake on the right side, the use for which I found out from asking a pilot at the recent RAF Valley families’ day. The RAF also operate the EC145 (as they called it) in the air-sea rescue training role. The centre console has a choice of two instrument inserts and decals for the two operators, mounting on top of a two-part base, which has a separate fire extinguisher added to the rear on the left side. The main panel is mounted on top of the console in a two-part binnacle, again with a choice of two panels and decals, one for each operator. An additional two-part coaming is added to the sides of the binnacle, then the crew seats are built from front and rear portions, plus headrest and two cantilever legs, mounting on rails behind the instruments. An equipment package is built up from eight parts and is fitted in the space behind the left pilot’s seat, and looking like a sci-fi coffee machine. A small instrument panel is mounted on a bracket at an angle at the base of the package, adding a passenger seat to the side, facing the rear, and two down the port mounting rail, facing forward. Like the pilot seats, they are made from front and rear L-shaped parts, with two supports that mate to a square base, and all seats have crew belts moulded-in, plus decal seatbelts and material pattern decals. Two packs of medical equipment are built from two and three parts each, one having three pressurised bottles projecting from the top for medical use, applying dial decals to them. These are installed behind the rearmost of the two seats on the port side, the starboard side of the cabin taken up by a stretcher on a drop-down wheeled frame that is made up from five parts, and mounted on a two-part base that has a diagonal rear panel to prevent the stretcher from moving during flight. Like many helicopter models, there is an inner skin to the model, which will be seen through the extensive glazing of the cockpit. The two sections behind the side doors have grab-handles and several decals applied before equipment racks are installed over them, then joining to the floor at the rear. The roof panel is painted and extensively decaled before it is joined to the top of the interior assembly, and set aside while the fuselage halves are prepared, initially by painting the interior a dark grey to prevent bare plastic from being seen. The two side and cockpit side windows are inserted from inside on both halves, and a door interior part is laminated into the cockpit area to add detail there, applying various decals to the surfaces once painted. The two fuselage halves are then brought together around the interior, adding a bulkhead to the top, cutting a 10mm x 8mm slot into the top centre of it before installation. The gap in the underside is filled with a large insert that has the legs for the skids, and a flush insert near the front where equipment is sited on other boxings. A portion of the engine cowling and ducts are moulded into the fuselage halves, painting the ducts during assembly, fitting a pair of circular parts to the front of them, which need a small section removing beforehand, as explained in the accompanying diagrams. The rotor head is built from upper and lower halves, and mounts onto a circular boss with a blade attitude actuator fitted between them, further mounting the assembly on a square base and attaching it via a pin that should leave the blades free to rotate. As an alternative, a cylindrical spacer is fixed underneath the square base, and a long rod is glued into the underside of the rotor head, leaving the two sub-assemblies separate for ease of painting of the model and rotors separately. Either choice can then be trapped between the two main engine cowling parts, adding a pair of stiffeners to two sets of lugs inside the cowling that should prevent the seam from coming apart due to handling, which is good to see. The stabilising fins are each made from top and bottom surfaces plus an end-cap with an indicator light moulded-in. The shrouded rotor is made from separate rotor and stator blades that are mated between a cap and pin, then inserted into the port boom half, fitting the bearing in the centre at the front of the shroud. The two halves are then mated, and after dealing with the seams, three inserts are fitted around the outside of the tail, and three more are placed in recesses below, which minimise the amount of seam-filling on the underside. Two clear lights are added to the rear and tip of the tail, then the stabilisers are slotted into recesses at the rear of the boom, mating the boom to the engine cowling, then fixing that in place on raised locating lugs on the fuselage. Although the model looks very much like a helicopter now, there is still much to do over the following pages, starting with the rest of the glazing, but a decal for the overhead console will need to be applied, taking care to fill the seam inside before you do. It’s a step that’s easily missed on the instructions, so could be discovered only later to your frustration. Glazing starts with the vision panels under the nose, followed by the large single frontal glazing, after which the tapered fairing for the tip of the engine cowling is plugged-in, and a prominent sensor is fixed to the space between the front glazing at the tip of the nose. The engine exhausts are painted and glued into the outlets in the rear of the cowling, then the two sliding side doors are made from two skins with a piece of clear glazing between them, and applying a gaggle of decals to the freshly painted interior. The doors can then be posed closed by inserting them into their cut-outs, or slid back ready for action as you like it. Fun with doors hasn’t finished yet, but which type of rear doors you fit will depend on which decal option you plan to depict. The ADAC doors have a window in each one next to the opening edge, adding a clapping plate behind the starboard half, and decaling both. The Rega doors have no windows and fewer decals, but have a blue and grey box on the port half, and all doors can be posed open or closed as you prefer. Both decal options have a standard set of sensors and antennae underneath the fuselage, then diverge depending on which decal option you’ve chosen again. The ADAC option has a foot bar half way up the legs, fitting the skids with a shaped plate applied over the length of the skid on both sides. Attachment braces for the plates and blade antennas between the legs finish off the ADAC legs, while the Rega skids have the foot bars, and a small fairing to the rear of the skids, plus two plates that fit to the angled portion of the skids, thickening and extending them slightly. Both decal options have a couple of custom sensors/antenna added under the nose, then five hand-holds are fitted around the engine cowling to assist access for maintenance, adding one windscreen wiper arm down the centre of the windscreen. The winch over the port side door is made in two sections, one consisting of three parts, the other with three more parts including the fairing around the winch mechanism, painting the winch block red for ADAC, and adding a yellow stripe to the Rega option. The first assembly is fitted into holes in the side of the port fuselage, adding a bracing strap between the two arms before inserting the winch assembly into position, and adding a pair of towel-antenna to the boom just behind it, plus three more whip-antenna under and over the boom, the Rega option adding a pair of yellow stripes to one of them. More individualised antennae are fitted to the roof above the cockpit, the Rega option including a wire-cutting fin, while ADAC forego this. Each of the four rotor blades has two circular drop-weights fixed to a clamp moulded near the base of the rotor, and are either fixed to the rotor head on the model or separately, depending on your earlier choice. The circular base is then linked to each blade by an actuator, with a scrap diagram showing the completed assembly, finishing the rotors with a shallow cap in the centre. Markings There are two decal options in the box, as already mentioned. One in service of ADAC in yellow, the other a Rega airframe in red and white. Both options are kept in good clean condition, so weathering should be minimal, but check your references if you’d like to make your model more like an in-service aircraft. From the box you can build one of the following: ADAC Luftrettung Rega Air Rescue Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. There are a lot of small decals applied to the interior as well as the exterior, and they will do a lot to improve the detail and realism of the model, so take your time and get them all on your model. Also, watch out for the overhead panel decal and ensure that you apply it before closing the canopy. Conclusion Having been up-close to a British EC145 recently, this aircraft is a sleek and modern helicopter, with plenty of detail moulded into the sprues. It should build into a creditable replica with some care and attention, and its bright scheme should stand out in your cabinet. Highly recommended. Carrera Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit or

Hi guys, well I fancied building the Russian helicopter gunship that was flown in the Rambo 2 movie, it was supposed to look like the Hind, the Puma was modified for the task. I picked up this 1/32 Revell kit as the basis for the build, lucky for me I got it off eBay for only £15 including delivery. It's a pretty rough kit, very basic and crude in some areas but not too bad in others, but it's more than adequate for this project. I will have to scratch build the wings and pylons but thankfully the weapons are available from Trumpeter.

Hello! Let me show you my little Dapuphin. This model is based on the anciant Matchbox-Revell 1/72 AS-365 Dauphin. The kit itself was a great challange as both de moulding and the details were realy poor. However the Revell boxart shows us a US Coast Guard chopper, we can not build it out of the box, and as no aftermarket detailing sets are available (as far as I know) I had to scratch a lot after photos. I see a lot os misstakes of me and its culd be done even better, but this is what I could. The finishing is a 1/1 mix of Revell 30 orange and Humbrol 60 red. I have hasiated a lot about the weathering, especially about the main rotor but I guess thats enough. So please wellcome it! See more at: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235007503-hh-65-uscg-revell-172/

Hello everyone, I started this one in a rush hoping to get it in the blitzbuild page but I didn't realize it was over. This is from an Italeri and my fifth Italeri at that. All previous Italeris have disappointed me one way or another and this kit is no different. Indeed it's the straw that broke the camel's neck. Not a single more Italeri for me, thank you. Seat was connected to the sprue in the most unnecessarily inconvenient way. The shape was also "bad". Ultra simplistic cockpit, and Italeri never bothers making gauge decals. It expect more precision from us by painting the gauges while it's kits lack precision. Gathering together all the pieces that will go the same color. I diligently painted in grey all parts to be painted in grey according to the manual. If they bothered indicating what goes in grey, why did they miss this out? To bother us, instead? That was pretty much it. What nonesense. Maybe I put the panel wrong . Maybe it was supposed to go a little back, but the detail lacking manual and all the rest of indications made it seem that the panel goes there, Was I right about the panel? I thnk so. But Italeri was wrong somewhere in the placement of the control stick. Had the same problem with another Italeri and hated it. Besides being wholly inaccurate because the Eurocopter Tiger does not have "just a whole" on the sides as you can see here, they could have bothered asking us to paint the inside in black so it wouldn't look this bad. Do something Italeri! I put that round thing confidently where it goes thanks to the indication on the plastic. Is this a ******* joke Italeri? Only the antennas had indications as to where they go. But just the indication. Nothing to help you secure them in place while the cement dries, nothing. The handles were all guess work, to be placed on smooth plastic. The horizontal stabilizer was really fun. Minimum indication and no creativity from the maker to make sure the modeler knows when he's doing it right. The little pin heads (whatever you call them)... too long for the holes the go into. After the first coat of paint. It's too bad that Italeri is so bad at this because I finding another maker that makes models like these is not easy. Hasegawa and Fujimi, the big and high quality made in Japan companies only seem to make mainstream jets and they hardly have a selection of helicopters. It is as if one has to do whatever the quality companies produce in order to have a pleasant time building the models.

Pics from Tony (sniperUK)

Seen on IPMS Philippines http://ipmsphilippines.com/test-shots/testshot-hobbyboss-35th-eurocopter-as365-dauphin/ 1/35 - 05106 - SA.365N Dauphin II - 05107 - HH-65C Dolphin - 05108 - AS.565 Panther - 05109 - Z-9WA Haitun V.P.

The UH-72 Lakota is a militarized version of the Eurocopter EC145. The helicopter was selected as the winner of the United States Army's Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) program in 2006 with a production contract for 345 aircraft to replace aging UH-1H/V and OH-58A/C helicopters in the U.S. Army and Army National Guard fleets. These helicopters are built in the US. Pics thanks to DL Munne. Photographed at Cecil Field, the UH-72 is replacing the OH-58A+ previously operated by the Florida National Guard. The unit has four aircraft. Two are slicks and two are MEP versions. MEP is able to mount a FLIR turret on the nose and a Nightsun on the pilots side.

Eurocopter SA365N Dauphin, F-WQAP, C/N.6001 at The Hekicopter Museum, Weston-Super-Mare. The aircraft in the Museum was donated by the French manufacturer Eurocopter. The helicopter, the first production SA365N, was modified by Eurocopter to test a fly-by-wire flight control system. Pictures are mine.

http://www.ipmsdeutschland.de/Ausstellungen/Nuernberg2013/Bilder_VH/Nuernberg_2013_VH_030.htm This certainly looks like a step up from the old kit! Although it's a shame that they haven't re-engineered the windscreen parts to make assembly easier - hopefully the fit at least will be better. Separate doors are a nice touch. Does anyone know if the Red Bull boxing is a reboxing of this new tool or the old tool. If my memory serves me, the Red Bull boxing is due for release before this one. thanks, Andrew

Eurocopter BK117 "Space Design" Revell 1:72 The Eurocopter BK117 is a twin engine medium lift utility helicopter. It is used for personnel transport, often in the VIP role; aerial lifting work; Police & Military uses; Air Ambulance and Search & Rescue. The BK117 was originally designed as a joint venture between Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm of Germany and Kawasaki of Japan. MBB was later bought by Daimler-Benz which then became a part of Eurocopter. Development costs were shared between the 2 partners with MBB developing the rotors (based on those used for the Bo 105, the tail boom, flight controls and hydraulic systems. Kawasaki developed the landing gear, airframe, and main transmission. The first prototype flew in 1979, with 443 helicopters being produced (331by MBB and 112 by Kawasaki). The successor of this aircraft is the EC-145 and indeed the last variant of the BK117 the C-2 is actually an EC-145. The Kit This kit was first issued by Revell back in 1992 in this scheme and its a welcome return to a good little kit. The most obvious change on the box, and a sign of the times is that the kit is now an "Eurocopter Officially Licensed Product". The kit comes in 2 sprues of blue plastic and one of clear. Thankfully as well Revell seem to have done away with those dreadful recycled paper instructions and the new ones are very clear. Construction starts with the main cabin, front and rear seats are added along with what looks like a comprehensive set of pilot controls. Decals are provided for the instrument panels. following completion of the interior the main fuselage is closed up adding what looks like to be an engine face part at the same time, also the instructions would have you add the main rotor par at this stage, however I suspect a lot of modellers will leave this to later on. The engine pads are then assembled and added to the main fuselage pod. The next steps in construction is to make the tailboom with the end plates and attach this to the fuselage pod. The main rotor head is now made up. This is a traditional two part hub which sandwiches the end of the rotors into it. Like a lot of 1/72 helicopters this does look a bit flimsy and will need superglue or similar to make it more sturdy. Following this the skids and clear parts are added to the model, the tail rotor attached and a few aerial added. Though I suspect some of these will be better left off until after paining and decaling has taken place. Canopy The canopy parts are well moulded and clear, they should pose no problems. Decals Decals are provided for one scheme only, what Revell calls the "Space Design" In the early days of the BK117 project, MBB contracted well-known designers of the day to create eye-catching designs which would highlight and publicise the BK117. In 1986the BK117's sales slogan was of a Space ship (ie roominess not actually space!) MBB contracted German born Luigi Colani to create this livery, "Colani's Spaceship," apparently to coincide with Halley's Comet which was visible that year. The helicopter wore this scheme from 1984 to 1986. The decals have been designed by Syhart of France and are printed in Italy. They look glossy and in register. There are large areas of clear film over the star design which will mean the modeller having to get a good paint finish and I suspect use of setting solutions to avoid any silvering. The scan unfortunately does not show the areas with the small white stars. Conclusion Overall recommended, and good to see this kit re-released by Revell. Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit

This is an EC-135 T2 operated by The Police Service of northern Ireland, good reg G-PSNI Pics from Tony (sniperUK)

East Anglian Air Ambulance G-OEMT, BK117C, pics by Angelo (HL-10)