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Reading the title I guess the "Play"-Button in the mind of some of yours has been pressed and this old song from the Doors will stick for the rest of the day. 't was a pleasure, you're welcome! For those of you who grew up with other musical preferences than strange sixties psychedelia, here's for you: I was quite a Doors (and Stones, Pretty Things, Velvet Underground...) Fan in my later youth, so it doesn't take much to ring this bell for me. So, some time ago when I walked past a model store I saw something that triggered this - went in, and Revell's reboxing of SH's AH-1G was mine. Here's the box art (if you don't know it yet) and by the scheme depicted you know why. Fun, though, I didn't like the scheme at all. In all the build models as well as the box art it seems that it looks - wrong. The yellow letterings are way to prominent, and it looks, I don't know, "comical". I thought about ordering decals for another scheme, but then I didn't want to stroll away from the Doors-thing. Again, when looking at pictures from the real thing, all the lettering are much more faded, at some spots almost blended into the weathered look of this bird. Another few impressions of the Revell-provided images of a build model, so I guess you know what I might mean by my doubts. So I guess that's the challenge here - not to make it blunt, straight model, but depict the Asian Sun burned, weathered Cobra which can be seen at the various pictures around. (Oh - and I just noticed this is my 1000th post! Cheers!! I think I might get promoted... 🎖️)

Has anyone built any of the new(ish) AZ 1/72nd Bell AH-1G Huey Cobra series of kits? A search of Google didn’t bring up any worthwhile comments – have I missed any reviews? Many thanks

AH-1G Cobra (Late Production) US Attack Helicopter ICM 1:32 (32061) Most modellers will instantly recognise the Bell AH-1 Cobra Attack Helicopter. The AH-1 was the first production Gunship or Attack Helicopter to see service. During the Vietnam war the US Army began to see the need for armed helicopter to escort its unarmed UH-1 Hueys into combat. In parallel to this Bell Helicopters had been investigating helicopter gunships as early as the late 1950s. In 1962 Bell displayed a mock up concept to the US Army. This Helicopter featured a 20mm gun pod, and a ball turret mounted grenade launcher. It was felt by the Army to be lightweight, under powered and not suitable. Following this the US Army launched and Advanced Aerial Fire Support System (AAFSS) competition. This competition gave rise to the Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne heavy attack helicopter. However this proved to be to advanced for its time and was eventually cancelled in 1972 after 10 years of development (some things don't change!). Despite the AAFSS programme Bell stuck with its idea of a smaller, lighter gunship and invested its own money developing the AH-1. They used all of the proven components they could from the UH-1 platform, adding these to a newly designed fuselage. When The US Army therefore asked for pans for an interim gunship for Vietnam Bell was in a fortunate position to be able to offer the 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 speed eight months and won the evaluation 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 1100 AH-1Gs between 1967 and 1973, and the Cobras would go on to fly over a million operational hours in Vietnam, approximately 300 were lost to combat and accidents during the war. The U.S. Marine Corps would use AH-1G Cobra in Vietnam for a short period before acquiring twin-engined AH-1J Cobras. 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 AH-1G could be fitted with the The M-35 Gun System, this 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. 950 rounds of ammunition were stored in boxes faired to the side of the aircraft. The system was primarily pilot controlled, but featured dual controls to be either pilot or gunner controlled. For this purpose the pilot was provided with a M73 sight. The Kit This is a brand new kit from ICM, and their first helicopter kit. The quality of the moulding is first rate from ICM with fine engraved panel lines and nice rivet detail on the tail boom and tail. While this boxing is the the early G you can see from the sprues that other versions will be along as there is the opposite handed tail, different landing skids, an upturned exhaust, different winglets and TOW missiles on the weapons sprures. The kit arrives on 5 main sprues of grey plastic and a clear sprue. As well as the main helicopter and armaments, the kit also comes with the ground handling attachments for the skids, something often missing from kits. While there is good detail on the kit and the option to open up the engine and gearbox area, this area is not massively detailed and will open itself up for the super detailer if they want. This boxing comes with an additional sprue for the M-35 Gun System. Work starts conventionally in the cockpit. The two five part armoured seats are built up and added into the main cockpit tub. Tail controls are added to the floor ,and for the pilots station a cyclic and collective columns go it. For the front seater the weapons control column is made up ad fitted in. Side controllers are also fitted for the gunner. Instrument panels and coamings go in for both stations with instruments being provided as decals. Now the cockpit is complete the visible parts of the engine/gear box and its compartment are built up. This is followed up by parts for the rotor controls. The tails are added onto the fuselage. Here there is quite a large part which overlaps to compete a good solid join. The tail rotor needs attaching to fuselage half before closing up if you want it to move. The engine / gear box parts are fitted into the right fuselage followed by the cockpit and cockpit rear bulkhead parts. The fuselage can now be closed up with additional cockpit armour panels being fitted at each side. At the rear of the engine housing the exhaust part goes in. At the front of the helo the nose goes on, being careful to choose the right parts for the decal option being modelled. The side applique armour panels can be fitted to the model if needed as these parts are marked as optional. Turning things over the large central fuselage insert goes on with additional parts at the nose. The chin turret is now fitted with either one or two miniguns depending on your decal option. A light goes behind the turret. The final exhaust ring goes on the back (if modelling option 3 then the anti IR upturned exhaust is fitted) and the tip of the tail is added. Next up we concentrate on the stub wings. The two wings are built up and the weapons pylons are fitted. These are fitted to the fuselage along with the rear stabilisers towards the tail. The landing skids can then be fitted. Next up the large clear canopy parts go on. A sight is fitted to the front of the central glazing section. The front and rear large side canopy parts are fitted, these can be open or closed as need by the modeller. The access panels can be fitted to each side of the open engine/gear box area; again these can be open or closed as required. We now move to the main rotor. Each of the two blades are split upper/lower, and they are joined together. The central rotor head is made from tow parts, these are upper and lower, these sandwich in the rotor blades. Once these are on the control arms to the swashplate are then added along with the central mounting shaft. The rotor this then mounted. To finish off armaments can be added to the pylons as needed. The kit provides Two M157 7 shot rocket pods, two M158 7 shot rocket pods, two M200 19 shot rocket pods; and two M18 minigun pods. If the modeller want to use them then two pairs of ground handling wheels can be made up and attached to the back of the skids, Towing bars then can be attached to the front of the skids. If fitting the M-35 Gun System then one of the pylons is left of the left stub wing as the gun fits directly to the inboard station here. The two large ammunition panniers fit to each side of the fuselage. A cross feed links the two sides at the front, and at the rear the feed to gun itself goes on. Decals The decal sheet is in house from ICM, the decals look thin, in register and have minimal carrier film. 3 Options are included; 68-17074 "The Gladiator", C Troop, 16th Cav, Can Tho, January 1972. 68-115031 "Pandora's Box", 238th AWC, Vietnam 1971. 68-15012" #1 Du Me Mi", F Troop, 4th Cav, Phu Bai, 1972. The first 2 carrying the M-35 Gun System. Now normally with ICM the decal and painting guides are quite clear, for some reason they are not for this kits, they are very dark and indistinct, a little bit of a let down. Conclusion This is another great looking kit from ICM which great tooling and possibilities for future variants on the sprues. Very Highly recommended. Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd. Review sample courtesy of

Guys, I seem to recall reading somewhere that a few AH-1Gs were painted (gloss?) black in Vietnam - can anyone provide confirmation or is old age catching up with me? PH

Hi guys, Well I've struggled with my mojo over the summer thanks in no small part to an SR-71 build thats stalled but I think its time to get back on the horse and I can think of no better way than with one of AZs lovely little Cobra kits. This time I have the Murder Inc boxing of the kit: I do like these AZ kits I have to say, I will be building this using Eduards lovely little etch set for this kit, you will also notice below there is a Pavla canopy in the image, not sure if I am going to use it yet as the standard one is actually looking in pretty good nick truth be told and I don't have that much time to get this build over the line. I was hoping to have got started on this yesterday but a combination of a cat induced lack of sleep and a PH crash in my marine tank meant I lost most of yesterday, I haven't really done much with etch before so this will be my first real go at it, so I spent what little time I did get going over the instruction sheet for that. I will start cutting sprue after work tonight though and hopefully be able to post some real progress! Cheers Mark

AH-1G Cobra "Over Vietnam with M-35 Gun System" 1:72 Special Hobby Most modellers will instantly recognise the Bell AH-1 Cobra Attack Helicopter. The AH-1 was the first production Gunship or Attack Helicopter to see service. During the Vietnam war the US Army began to see the need for armed helicopter to escort its unarmed UH-1 Hueys into combat. In parallel to this Bell Helicopters had been investigating helicopter gunships as early as the late 1950s. In 1962 Bell displayed a mock up concept to the US Army. This Helicopter featured a 20mm gun pod, and a ball turret mounted grenade launcher. It was felt by the Army to be lightweight, under powered and not suitable. Following this the US Army launched and Advanced Aerial Fire Support System (AAFSS) competition. This competition gave rise to the Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne heavy attack helicopter. However this proved to be to advanced for its time and was eventually cancelled in 1972 after 10 years of development (some things don't change!). Despite the AAFSS programme Bell stuck with its idea of a smaller, lighter gunship and invested its own money developing the AH-1. They used all of the proven components they could from the UH-1 platform, adding these to a newly designed fuselage. When The US Army therefore asked for pans for an interim gunship for Vietnam Bell was in a fortunate position to be able to offer the 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 speed eight months and won the evaluation 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 1100 AH-1Gs between 1967 and 1973, and the Cobras would go on to fly over a million operational hours in Vietnam, approximately 300 were lost to combat and accidents during the war. The U.S. Marine Corps would use AH-1G Cobra in Vietnam for a short period before acquiring 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. 950 rounds of ammunition were stored in boxes faired to the side of the aircraft. The system was primarily pilot controlled, but featured dual controls to 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 The kit arrives as two major sprues, and 3 smaller sprues if light grey plastic, with a single clear sprue. All of the parts are very well moulded with no flaws I can see or flash. There are parts for other Cobra models on the sprues so care needs to be taken to select the right parts. Construction does not start with the cockpit (shock I know!) but with adding some small parts and the exhaust nozzle to the left fuselage half. We then move reassuringly back to the cockpit! The rear bulkhead needs to be removed and replaced with the right one for this boxing. The multipart seats with their armour plating shields are made up and added to the cockpit tub, along with instrument panels and control columns. The instrument are represented by decals. Once the cockpit tub is made up it can be placed inside the fuselage halves and they can be closed up. If you wish the main rotor to rotate then the head is placed into the fuselage at this point. If the modeller does not wish for it to rotate then this step can be left until later on in the build. Following completion of the main fuselage the stub wings/weapons pylons are made up and added to the fuselage. The nose turret is also completed and added at this point as are what look to be armour panels at the side of the cockpits. Construction then moves to the tail section. A left and right handed tail are supplied on the sprues so make sure you select the correct one (right hand for this kit). The tail is constructed and the tail rotor added, along with the tailplanes. Intakes and exhaust details are also added at this stage. Next its time to arm up your Cobra if you so wish (it would be naked without armament tho !). The armament in the kit is two M18 7.62mm Minigun pods, two M261 2.75" Rocket Pods, two M158 2.75" rocket pods, and the 20mm M-35 Gun System. The modeller will need to consult their references to get the exact combination s for the Cobra they are modelling as I suspect not all of these were used at the same time. Once your cobra is "tooled up" the canopies can be added. These are multi-part and can be displayed open as needed. The landing skids are also added at this time. There are different skids for different decal option in this kit so please select the right ones. A nice touch in the box is the addition of ground handling wheels for the skids, and a vehicle tow bar. Great if you wish to add a little something to the model, or included it in a diorama. Canopy Rather than a one part canopy the canopy is a single part main centre piece with two parts for each side. This will allow the modeller to pose the canopies open if they wish. It will though make for a more difficult construction. The parts are quite thin, and very clear. Decals Decals are provided for four Cobras; 67-15536 "Thor's Hammer" A Troop, 7th Sqn, 1st CAV, Tra Vinh, 1968/72. 67-17068 "Cindy Ann" C Troop, 1st Sqn 9th CAV, Phunoc Vinh, 1970. 68-15031 "Pandora's Box" 2/20 Aerial Rocket Artillery, later 238th Aerial Weapons Company 1971. 68-17075 "The Gladiator" C/16 CAV, Can Tho 1972. Conclusion These new Cobras from MPM/Special Hobby are excellent kits of an important Helicopter type. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

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