Airwolf! Building Stringfellow's ride. Aoshima 1/48

[kiseca]

This one is a childhood favourite. Airwolf is one of my favourite TV shows ever, and is my absolute favourite where the vehicle is a star. Prettier and far cooler than KITT, sleeker and more dangerous than Blue Thunder, way more interesting than Street Hawk. The Bell 222 is a good looking helicopter as standard but the Airwolf bodywork really complemented that basic shape, didn't jar with it at all, but added a healthy dose of muscle and aggression.

 

There are plenty of technical limitations that make Airwolf an impossibility, e.g. the extra weight of of carrying four jet engines hurting maneuverability.  The single rotor disk putting a natural speed limit on the helicopter that would make the extra two engines useless anyway. The weapons selection and amount of ammo. The whole thing is bulletproof. The shape is aerodynamic but not for supersonic travel, and the two extra engines with their simple intakes wouldn't be able to drive anything to supersonic speeds anyway. I don't care at all. The thing just looks so damn good!

 

For me, Airwolf is one of the prettiest real vehicles ever made. It's right up there in my books with the Spitfire, the Ferrari 288, The Ducati 916 and the Lotus 79. In JPS colours. Yes, it lacks authenticity compared to the rest of those but it doesn't matter to me. It's still the best looking helicopter I've ever seen.

 

And then in 1987 Airwolf toured the country I grew up in: South Africa. One Saturday morning I, as a teenager in a mining town called Boksburg, was sitting in my bedroom when I heard a helicopter approaching the house. I was used to JetRangers, police MBB105s and and the occasional army Puma nipping around but this sounded like no helicopter I'd ever heard before, with a deep, rich beat from its rotor blades and a complex, expensive thrum from its machinery. I went outside in time to see Airwolf gliding low and slow overhead, on approach to land at a show taking place just a block away. She was majestic. As soul stirring in the flesh as she was on TV. She didn't sound like Airwolf, of course, with the distinctive howl from the TV soundtrack being absent, but she didn't sound any worse for that. Her cultured, exotic beat carried the unmistakable message of power. I was awestruck.

 

So, I'm a fan of Airwolf! I'm aware of two kits in 1/48 scale and the Aoshima one is apparently the better one, so I was very happy to receive this one for Christmas, and now it's time to build it.

 

There are some big decisions to be made along the way. The cabin, particularly Dominic Santini's station, is well detailed but completely hidden away. I've seen at one person put a light in there to make it a bit more visible through the windscreen. This is an opportunity for me to have my first try into lighting on models. Gotta start somewhere!

 

Then there's the colour. The white belly is easy, but the almost-black-but-that-looks-blueish-grey-wait-is-that-a-hint-of-green? upper colour is the challenge. The real thing was painted in a Dupont colour called Phantom Grey Metallic. I've not yet found a model paints manufacturer who has replicated this colour. The kit calls for a mix of black and dark blue. On screen in sunlight there's a very dark grey hint like coal. Some have mentioned Anthracite, but that's too grey. I bought Vallejo Black Metallic and Anthracite, with the hope that a mix of these might come close. But it doesn't. I mixed those for parts of the Brabham I recently built, and the resulting colour is very pretty, but too light for Airwolf. The metallic black itself is too light. Maybe I could mix the metallic black with a gloss black to calm it down a bit.

 

The third challenge is a couple of details of the model I just don't like, and will put in a rare effort to rectify. The riveting on the rear fuselage is way too pronounced and really stands out on completed models, where the actual aircraft has a very smooth skin. So I'll want to tone down the rivets while preserving the panel lines. And the section just behind the doors, where the side extensions meet the helicopter's body have a large ridge on the model. On the real helicopter this area is almost smooth. I'll want to tone that down a lot and that will be rather harder to do without losing detail, but the severe ridge marking its front edge really does stand out on completed models that I've looked at, and breaks the sleek lines. So it must be done. I'll explain this with detailed images when I get to that stage of the build.

 

Other than that, it's just about finding my way around Aoshima's complicated and confusing instructions, something this model has in common with the same company's Brabham, and a headache I've recently gone through. However, experience should hopefully be a blessing this time around.

 

So, a long build up, let's get to the pictures.

 

The box art: 

 

Sprues: The kit comes with two complete bodies, one in black and one clear. I'm not really sure what they expect us to do with the unused one. The rear station is hidden as I said earlier, but the clear body won't help as the station has interior walls that will still hide the detail anyway. Unless one of the walls can be left out, but they do look structural. I'll play a bit more with that. I don't think I can build the helicopter without the rear station (thus display it separately or in the clear body alongside the otherwise fully built model) because it seems structural but I'll look at options. I'll say the body is quite big. This is going to be a decently sized model with a lot of presence.

 

 

 

Not many decals included and most of them are internal, which is understandable. Airwolf hardly had any external markings.

 

 

Chromed parts, unfortunately. They do look very plasticky. I believe I'll need to strip the chrome before I can paint these parts.

 

 

A display stand is included in the kit. The helicopter's display angle is adjustable.

 

 

An example of the instructions. I do find Aoshima's instructions more complicated and harder to read than average. Maybe it's just me..

You can see what I mean about the hidden rear station in step 16. Santini sits inside a box which sits inside the fuselage. The floor and roof of the box appear to support other parts, and the walls appear to keep the floor and roof in place.

 

 

Only one colour scheme available in the box, surprisingly 

 

 

My reference material. The percussive theme tune is playing in my head even now.

 

 

As usual I'll post updates as I work through it. Wish me luck!

 

 

 

Edited December 24, 2022 by kiseca

[kiseca]

Gosh, it was April when I kicked this one off!

 

Well, there's been some progress at least. Interior is all painted and decalled. It is also assembled apart from the port wall, back wall and ceiling.

 

 

The ceiling and top parts of the side panels are, according to the destructions, a 50/50 mix of white and yellow. The end result of that will pretry much be yellow, and would look way too bright and yellowy compared to what is shown on the TV series. There, it looks like a creamy white so I used Vallejo's aged white which I had lying around. I still think the result is a bit too creamy but it's not bad. The grey is Vallejo ocean grey, apart from the seats. I did those a couple of months earlier and I think they are aggressor grey.

 

The floor is black and the instrument shroud is a mix of black and grey.

 

 

The decals went on quite well - you can see I broke one on the side panel but other than that they settled well on very bumpy, detailed surfaces with some encouragement from Microsol.

 

Instrument panel is dull aluminium and the computer screen is translucent blue brushed over the ocean grey. I didn't know what it would look like but I am quite pleased with the completely accidental texture that resulted. Not that it matters. The computer screen will be completely invisible once the fuselage is closed up.

 

Speaking of which.... I wanted to light up the interior to see if I could make at least some of it visible once closed up. As standard it's a dark cave:

 

 

I've never done any lighting before so I wanted to purchase a kit that was ready to go. I saw a company called Small Scale Lights recommended, found them online and got in touch. They were very helpful. I described what I wanted to do, sent some pictures, and they made up a kit for me.

 

 

I know that with a bit of knowledge I could get the parts cheaper but I found the price more than reasonable for the service I got. As for the results, you can judge for yourself but I'm really happy. It's better than I was expecting. Can even see that decal I tore...

 

 

 

Other than that, the rotor is also complete and ready to go. I put it on at a bit of an angle so that it leans forward when the helicopter is horizontal - that's the stance I recall from the real thing - but in hindsight that was a mistake and I should have just set it level. I'll see how it looks assembled and decide whether or not to separate it. It might be worth doing anyway because it will make the body easier to paint. If I'd realised beforehand I could complete the rotor assembly after the fuselage is complete, I'd have done that! Anyway there's a tip for anyone else building this model. The base and shaft for the rotor needs to be complete before the fuselage halves are joined, because it sits in lugs inside the fuselage. However, the blades can be left off. It's worth waiting. In fact the shaft is also press fit into the base so that might also have been possible to leave for later.

 

Here's the rotor assembly. All Vallejo colours except the yellow is an AK acrylic paint.

 

 

Edited December 24, 2022 by kiseca

[Unfinished project]

This kit is on my wish list and I was thinking the same as you about adding some interior lighting as it would be a shame to hide all the detail. This looks so much better than the old AMT/Ertl kit from what seems like 100 years ago 

[bigbadbadge]

Awesome,  I love that theme tune and couldn't wait until Saturday lunch time for the next episode.

Great job on this so far and like the interior lighting idea too. 

Chris

[Shorty84]

Great work. I had the same kit in my hands some weeks ago at my LHS and thought it looked nice. Along with 'Iron Eagle' and 'Top Gun' this show for sure sparked my interest in aviation back then. Childhood memories...

 

Regarding colour I can only offer what I've read in various places as the best approximation. Either Model Master’s 'Anthracite Gray Metallic' or Testor's 'Enamel Graphite Gray Metallic' are mentioned as the next best match. Another suggestion was Tamiya X-10 mixed with a bit of Black.

 

Cheers

Markus

[woody37]

Brilliant modelling and nostalgia wrapped up in one build!

[Thom216]

Definitely a favorite from my youth! Your build is looking really good, and the lighting is a nice addition. Otherwise, poor Dominic stuck in the dark...

As the spare fuselage, I'd say raid the 'spares' box, or buy an attack helicopter kit and kit-bash them to build a concept for a full mil-grade Airwolf!

Edited September 14, 2022 by Thom216

[kiseca]

1 hour ago, Thom216 said:

Definitely a favorite from my youth! Your build is looking really good, and the lighting is a nice addition. Otherwise, poor Dominic stuck in the dark...

As the spare fuselage, I'd say raid the 'spares' box, or buy an attack helicopter kit and kit-bash them to build a concept for a full mil-grade Airwolf!

 

Yes that is a grand idea. I've also been shopping for half built Airwolfs with a similar idea in mind, but building a full on military variation from a different chopper is a brilliant idea. Can go full on camo or steam punk with it too. Maybe put a NOTAR or Fennestron rotor on the back, 4 blade rotor to match something I saw as a kid in a Bill Gunston book... or maybe add a pair of Alpha Jet wings... I might be getting overly ambitious now but I really like that idea!

 

I've also considered using the clear fuselage halves, leaving one wall off the compartment and then leaving a part of the fuselage clear so that Dom and his cave can be seen. It will make the light redundant though, and while I think the room will be stable enough with one wall missing, I'm not 100% sure.

Edited September 14, 2022 by kiseca

[neil5208]

Good work, there is one of these Aoshima Airwolf kits in my local model shop but it's over £50 so can't justify the price to the wife.

[Thom216]

6 hours ago, kiseca said:

 

Yes that is a grand idea. I've also been shopping for half built Airwolfs with a similar idea in mind, but building a full on military variation from a different chopper is a brilliant idea. Can go full on camo or steam punk with it too. Maybe put a NOTAR or Fennestron rotor on the back, 4 blade rotor to match something I saw as a kid in a Bill Gunston book... or maybe add a pair of Alpha Jet wings... I might be getting overly ambitious now but I really like that idea!

 

I've also considered using the clear fuselage halves, leaving one wall off the compartment and then leaving a part of the fuselage clear so that Dom and his cave can be seen. It will make the light redundant though, and while I think the room will be stable enough with one wall missing, I'm not 100% sure.

I was thinking NOTAR as well, and an aero shell over the hub.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

On 4/26/2022 at 7:17 PM, kiseca said:

The Bell 222 is a good looking helicopter as standard but the Airwolf bodywork really complemented that basic shape,

       Gidday, I loved this show when it came out too, many years ago. I know it's beauty-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder and all that but I think Airwolf was the best looking Helicopter ever. I agree with your technical appraisal of her, totally impossible. And I think you forgot to mention one - do 30mm cannon have telescopic barrels? 🤔 But also like you - I don't care, she was a great machine.

       My wife got me a kit in 1/72 scale which I built, and sadly long gone. I don't recall the brand but I still might have the instructions somewhere. This kit had the two extra engines and the bulked out side panels as additions that allowed you to build Airwolf or the original Bell 222, also with the wheel support extensions with the guns exposed or housed - I chose housed.

       If memory serves I thought the colour of the upper hull fuselage in the instructions was more dark chocolately brown that what appears on the box art of your kit, but I could be wrong. Anyway, enough of me rattling on, I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out.       Regards, Jeff.

[The Spadgent]

Excellent thread and subject. I’ve seen this kit around but never seen it built. The internals look great.

 I’ll tag along for this one.

 

 Johnny.

[GeejeeZ]

Magnificent work so far. Kudos for putting Dominic in the light!

I was always curious about the Aoshima kit. As a younger lad I built several 1/ 48 ERTL/ AMT/ Hobbycraft Bell 222. Very rude and clunky kit only vaguely resembling a 222 after a thorough sanding. The Aoshima looks a lot better.

 

Btw: beautiful story about you watching the real Airwolf. Your description on its sound and looks is awesome!!! Made me feel like I was there.

 

Edited October 4, 2022 by GeejeeZ
typo

[kiseca]

Time for an update! There's not actually a lot to show, but there has been a fair bit of background work getting done to prepare various parts of, so here's how things are going with The Lady.

 

Firstly, on my previous update I had mentioned I was still toying with the idea of using the transparent fuselage parts to give a view into Dom's station. Well, I had a closer look at the parts:

 

 

And that pretty much settled it. The transparent fuselage isn't clear enough to give a good view inside. I could probably polish it up, inside and out, to improve that, but it won't be easy particularly around all the angles, and the window I'd leave open will be quite small anyway so that it doesn't expose the undetailed parts of the interior. It's a lot of work and a good chance of not working out well so I'll stick with the interior light and the black fuselage halves.

 

With that decided, it was time to tackle that unsightly ridges at the forward edge of the custom panels applied to the Bell 222. Here's how the actual helicopter looked:

 

 

Notice that the point where the custom panel joins the fuselage just behind the door has a clear edge, it's not quite flush, but it is not far from being a smooth transition.

 

Here's the same area on the model:

 

 

That big step stands out like a sore thumb once painted. It's enough to break the illusion for me, that point when it stops being a little Airwolf and becomes a toy. That point where I can't look at the model, and imagine the real thing. I have to fix it if I want to enjoy my Airwolf model once it is finished.

 

This will involve a lot of sanding but there's a problem. Here's the inside of that same ridge:

 

 

Basically, there's a limit how far down I can take it before I break through. Still, if that happens, I felt I could reinforce that interior area with styrene so it should be salvageable.

 

This ridge by the way was another reason I decided not to use the transparent fuselage. I'd have to leave the ridge on one side, in an area that would be painted, because doing all this surgery while leaving the transparent, unpainted section next to it clear and polished enough to be presentable seemed like a big challenge.

 

Anyway, I got on with the sanding, and managed to get down to an acceptablly thin ridge, with curvature to match the fuselage, without breaking through. See port fuselage, sanded, vs starboard side untouched.

 

 

To me, that looks a lot more to my liking, however I feel that ridge left over will still stand out strongly once painted, so I blended the rest in with Perfect Putty.

 

The end result finishes too far forward, as that means the panel overlaps the door slightly where on Airwolf it doesn't, but I'm happy with the result. It's what I had in mind so now I just have to see how it turns out once primed. I'll make a decision then if I want to tidy it up any more or not.

 

Here is the completed modification. The two fake square windows just above the intakes had been half deleted by my work so I scribed those back in, and sanded that area down a bit to restore some of the recessed area:

 

 

Also visible above is that I've sanded the rivets down an awful lot in the hope they will be less prominent on the final model. The rivets are all present on the actual Airwolf and clearly visible in closeups, but from more of a distance, and possibly partly due to the resolution available on 1980s TV shows, the rivets pretty much vanish and the skin looks smooth. When I look at builds of this model, the rivets really stand out and it doesn't look quite right.

 

Anyway here's a top view to show the angle and join of that panel edge:

 

 

There's quite a lot that needs to be done on this model before the fuselage halves can be joined together. I still have to finish the crew compartment and get the LED securely mounted, then clear up any light leakage through the compartment joins. This compartment then needs to sit on a second floor, the external belly of the aircraft, which itself needs to be painted. Then the intakes, top and bottom, need to be prepped and painted. The insides of the fuselage need to be painted. Partly, again, to reduce LED light leakage, but also to paint the front cockpit interior. The cockpit glass needs to go in, the jet exhausts, the horizontal stabilizer thingy on the tailboom, and the tail rotor shaft parts need to be painted, assembled and installed.

 

And then there's these two little doors, one each side, that open up to reveal a chrome part that I guess is meant to be the flare launchers. These are clever little sections that can be closed and opened as desired.

 

Here they are closed

 

 

And this is what they look like when open.

 

 

It's a really nice idea. The problem is, the doors sit proud of the skin. On the real thing there are two doors in this area, but they are flush. If the ones on the model were flush, they'd be almost impossible to open and close. So, decision time. Do I keep the opening doors and detail, or do I reduce them so they can fit flush in the hole, and have them fixed in the closed position? I decided I wouldn't miss the extra detail so I've filed the doors down and fitted them in flush. I need to sort out the hinge gap still. I'll probably use filler for that area. It's too small and fiddly for my untalented fingers and equipment to prepare a little square of styrene to fit in there.

 

 

Other than that, I've made a start on the side pods and cannon, and the undercarriage is painted. The instructions call for them to be white. On the show, it looks more like the wheels are white, and the legs are light grey, so that's what I did. The grey is very light and under the table light they pretty much just wash out and look white, but they're a bit darker in reality than they look here.

 

 

I still want to put a wash on the wheels to bring out the detail a little, and take some of the shine off the tyres.

 

That's got the thread up to date now so I'll leave you with a parting shot of a bunch of parts dry fitted together to show something looking a bit like an Airwolf. Happily the kit allows one to swap out the landing gear pod detail. They can be displayed as seen below, with cannon deployed, or they can be detached and replaced with caps as though the cannon are in their stowed position.

 

I did think I'd prefer the stowed look but the extra width with the cannons actually sits really nicely on her. Not that it matters as I can swap them over as I please, which is nice!

 

Edited December 24, 2022 by kiseca

[bigbadbadge]

Looks like great progress to me, the last shot looks wonderful and  really brings back memories of the show.  I have been humming the excellent theme tune whilst reading your posts.

Great work 

Chris

[johndon]

Nice work so far, I'd agree that Airwolf is one of the most beautiful machines ever to take to the skies.

 

Always wanted to build one of these and I think my LHS may have one in stock...

[kiseca]

11 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Looks like great progress to me, the last shot looks wonderful and  really brings back memories of the show.  I have been humming the excellent theme tune whilst reading your posts.

Great work 

Chris

Thanks! I need to get this one finished as I'm starting to get bored of the theme tune playing over and over in my head 😄

[SprueMan]

Ohh, defo have the guns and the rocket pod out!

It was such an unreal thing to see the guns and the pod flip out from underneath, I loved it every single time.

 

BTW; the progress is great. I am tempted by the kit as well.

Edited October 6, 2022 by SprueMan

[The Spadgent]

Looking grand from where I’m sitting. 👌

[corsaircorp]

Nice attention to detail Sir !!

Congratulations !!

CC

[kiseca]

Two months later, I guess it's time for another update. Things haven't moved on as fast as I wanted but other things have just gotten in the way, as they do.

 

Anyhow, most of the progress has been on the helicopter's display stand base.

 

Firstly, to house the electrickery and make the on/off switch easy to access, I had to cut two holes in the base. The first, smaller hole, is on the top just behind the circular hole where the stand's arm will go. This hole allows the wiring to run down the arm and pass through the base to the switch and battery compartment that will occupy the empty space beneath. The smallest end of the wiring that will go through this hole is the LED. The other end of the wire has a larger connector on it. Unfortunately, if I make this hole just big enough for the LED to pass through, it would mean I'd have to pass the wiring through the hole before installing the LED into the crew compartment, i.e. before joining the fuselage halves. I'd then have the base dangling from the fuselage throughout the painting and finishing process. That seems like a bad idea so the hole is large enough for the plug to pass through.

 

The second hole, the larger, rectangular one in the side wall, is to allow access to the switch.

 

 

The top surface of the base had a texture on it to make it look better. That was going to be a problem for the paintjob I wanted so I sanded the texture off. That's why the top looks so scruffy.

 

I had considered engineering a switch extension so that the battery compartment could be completely concealed, but that seemed like it was going to take an awful lot of tools, materials and experience that I don't have to make it reliable. So I went for the simpler solution of making the hole large enough that the swich can be accessed directly.

 

 

As you can see this exposes a second unfortunate challenge with the lighting: the wiring comes out of the same face that the switch is on. I've bought a sleeve to cover the wiring and make it look more presentable when done, as there is no way I can conceal it and still have access to the switch (I want to be able to access the switch without having to hold the base and attached helicopter upside down.) I later on realised I could have put a second hole in the side wall to route the wiring back in, but I'm way too far down the process now so it will route in through the gap at the bottom, as shown in the picture.

 

With holes done, it was time to paint the base. First, a white primer. Tamiya Fine from a spray can.

 

With that on, I flatted it down with some wet-and-dry and masked up the sides in preparation for the second colour.

 

 

The second coat was to be Vallejo Flourescent Blue. It was here that disaster struck.

 

The first disaster was of my own making. The flourescent blue was spraying terribly. It was spitting and clogging and needed a higher pressure than anything else I've ever sprayed. The finish was uneven and had splotches on it. I tried upping the amount of airflow improver and adding some water but the resultant finish after 3 coats was terrible. Lots of little blobs of congealed colour and a very uneven spread of colour, with a wavy finish where the pigment seemed to group up and get washed together. The blobs meant the finish was lumpy so it would have to be sanded down at the very least when dry, and then redone.

 

It was then that I realised my goof: vallejo flourescent blue is from their Model Color range, not their Model Air range, and Model Color is not prethinned for airbrush. Doh.🤦‍♂️

 

It was also taking an awfully long time to cure. While waiting, I experimented on some surplus plastic with the blue, thinned with water, then with vallejo airbrush cleaner as I had seen recommended, and the results were better but I still could not reliably get the smooth, even finish I needed. So I ordered a can of Tamiya Brilliant Blue, waited for the blue in the base to cure so I could sand it down but 5 weeks later it was still tacky. I eventually removed it with cotton buds and water. Here you can see I have just started that process, amd can also see the blobbing and inconsistency of the finish.

 

 

I managed to get it back to the white primer without ruining that coat at least, so, ready to start moving forward again, and with the replacement blue having arrived, the slightly darker blue coat went on.

 

 

Part 2 will arrive shortly.

Edited December 24, 2022 by kiseca

[kiseca]

Now that the blue was sorted, if a slightly darker shade than I had really wanted (which is why I went for white primer. I wanted the blue to have a real glow to it), it was time for level 3.

 

Firstly, I needed a mask that would give me perfectly straight, parallel and perpendicular lines, but with gently softened edges similar to what one gets when using Blu-Tak worms to do camoflage masking.

 

After looking at length for suitable candidates I settled on this. I'm no gardener but I believe it is some kind of sieve thingy to go inside plant pots.

 

 

"Mask" applied...

 

 

...and ready to paint:

 

 

3 coats of Vallejo Black (definitely Model Air this time!) And it's time to check if it worked. Clearly I was keen to see how it came out because the mask was removed before the paint had even dried

 

 

The bright and dull effect running through the blue crosshatch is unintentional, but I pressed on.

 

Firstly, put some Tamiya tape over the Airwolf logo on the box and trace the outline on to the tape. Then put the tape on a material that is going to be stiff, give good sharp edges but stil be easy to cut. I had some hard black dense papery sheets laying about that seemed ideal.

 

 

Then, cut the letters out of the paper to leave a mask. Add a thin bit of tape to the F to secure the stripe that I broke when cutting.

 

 

Mask applied, red paint (Vallejo Model Air again) used. End result satisfactory.

 

 

Oh, whoops. Missed that bit of masking tape...

 

 

Black touched up, gloss varnish applied from a can, and the paintjob on the base is done. Happily, the darker bands of blue seem to have been brought out nicely by the varnish, and the overall effect looks, to me at least, arty rather than accidental.

 

 

 

 

Despite the darker blue, it still manages to glow, which is the effect I was after.

 

I might polish it down once the varnish has had a good few weeks to harden fully, but the finish is OK as is.

 

Here is the scene I was trying to reproduce, from the opening credits of the original Airwolf TV show:

 

 

 

[Darth Vader]

Base looks great, very 80s. I know because I was there

[kiseca]

1 minute ago, Darth Vader said:

Base looks great, very 80s. I know because I was there

 

Thank you, Lord Vader. 👾

[Mike]

I like the base Somewhere along the line I managed to pick one of these up.  I'm not sure, but you might be to blame