Airwolf, Aoshima 1/48

[kiseca]

For those of a certain age, particularly those of us belonging to Generation X, Airwolf will need no introduction. For those unfamiliar with this helicopter, here is a breakdown.

This vehicle is a top secret military helicopter, active during the 1980s, armed with two 40mm cannon, four 30mm cannon and between 140 and 160 missiles depending on which TV episode you watch. Airwolf was possessed of abilities not seen before nor since on a rotary winged aircraft.

Top speed was given as "mach 1 plus". Actual performance analysis shows it crossing the full radius of a radar scope in around one second, demonstrating an actual top speed somewhere closer to mach 10. Airwolf is so fast, it can have you surrounded on its own. It is so fast it can play ping pong by itself. Airwolf can turn the lights off in its bedroom and be in its bed before the room gets dark.

If confronted by Airwolf, Blue Thunder would skulk off to pick another fight with a train. KITT would eject himself along with Michael. Maverick and Goose would feel the need to bug out. Obi-wan would be disturbed by its force.

 

I won't speculate on outcome of the irresistable force meets immovable object paradox that would occur should Airwolf and Chuck Norris ever meet.

 

Beyond that, as the internet itself has confirmed, if there is a fight, Airwolf always wins. The only way to beat Airwolf is if two other Airwolfs gang up on the first Airwolf.

 

The kit itself is from Aoshima and goes together really well. There are very few fitting issues, the only two I can recall being the cockpit top windows and the floor panel, both of which are minor. There are also some detail inaccuracies which can be fixed or ignored as desired. The overall shape is, to my eyes, pretty good. I find Aoshima's instructions to be quite complicated to read and their paint recommendations would put me in the right ballpark but rarely give me my final answer.  Those are small criticisms of one of the better kits I've come across. It has been a fun, satisfying kit to build.

 

The base isn't complete yet. Once the varnish on the aircraft has fully hardened and I can handle it without worrying about leaving prints, I can remove the base, tidy up the wiring and possibly paint the mounting shaft. At the same time I'll swap out the sidepod caps and display her with her guns deployed. However, the helicopter itself is ready to display and so without further ado, and using the name affectionately given her by her crew, I present The Lady.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Modifications include an interior light to illuminate Dominic's very well detailed but otherwise completely hidden station.

 

 

Other modifications are a small reshaping of the side panels to remove the ridge behind the doors, and I've opened up the top intakes. The kit as standard covers them with grilles.

 

Paints are all the Model Air and Metal Air ranges from Vallejo. The dark grey body colour is roughly a 5:7:3 mix of Black Metallic, Matt Black, and Anthracite Grey. The original aircraft used Phantom Grey Metallic from Dupont. The almost-white belly is a 1:1 mix of White and USAF Light Grey.

 

The Work In Progress thread can be found here:

 

A couple of things I would do different if I were to build it again: firstly, don't install the main rotor when the instructions say, but rather leave them off until painting is complete. The rotor really gets in the way. Secondly, I wouldn't bother tinting the roof and floor glass. In hindsight I think it would look fine as clear glass. Thirdly, I reduced the size of the rivets along the fuselage sides and tailboom as I thought they were too prominent and if left standard, make the finish look more like that on a WW1 tank than on a streamlined helicopter. I overdid that a bit and, once painted, the rivets are completely hidden. I don't mind as there is plenty of detail along the sides with all the surface edges and contours, but a lesson there for me should I wish to reduce the rivet size on a future build.

 

Oh, also I just realised I haven't added the pitot tubes and refuelling probe to the nose yet. Oops!

 

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and I look forward to your comments. Thanks for looking!

 

 

 

Edited April 13 by kiseca

[johndon]

She’s a lovely looking lady. 
 

John

[TEXANTOMCAT]

Superb work and fun write up very well done

[dhanners]

Really nice job! Loved that show, even with the improbability of a helicopter doing all that….

[kiseca]

22 minutes ago, dhanners said:

Really nice job! Loved that show, even with the improbability of a helicopter doing all that….

 

I loved the show too. I bought Season 1 - 3 DVDs (or rather, I added them to my christmas present list) under the excuse of research material for this build.. In fact the DVDs were really useful for that.

 

Anyway, the footage of Airwolf is still brilliant, and the flying is superb.

 

The plot, special effects and storywriting, however, have really aged terribly. I never thought I'd say this as there are so many iconic TV series from my impressionable youth that it will always feel like a golden age, but modern TV scripts and acting are miles better quality than they were in the 1980s.

[noelh]

But not nearly as much fun! The flying was superb in the series, although rather implausible. But I was very much an adult when it was aired first.

 

The Bell 222 was super sleek and perfect for Airwolf. I used to see one regularly, owned by a well known horse racing trainer. It certainly didn't sound like Airwolf with those two blade rotors. You could hear it coming from miles away. 

 

Great memories.

 

Sadly the original helicopter met a sad end as did Jan Michael Vincent.

 

[Unfinished project]

Looks fantastic all finished and glossed up and looks 100 times better than the old AMT/Ertl kit. This was on my wish list but I’m not sure after seeing the amount of work you had to put into The Lady to get her looking this good. Hats off to you for this amazing rendition of this beautiful helicopter. 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

8 hours ago, kiseca said:

Top speed was given as "mach 1 plus". Actual performance analysis shows it crossing the full radius of a radar scope in around one second, demonstrating an actual top speed somewhere closer to mach 10. Airwolf is so fast, it can have you surrounded on its own. It is so fast it can play ping pong by itself. Airwolf can turn the lights off in its bedroom and be in its bed before the room gets dark.

If confronted by Airwolf, Blue Thunder would skulk off to pick another fight with a train. KITT would eject himself along with Michael. Maverick and Goose would feel the need to bug out. Obi-wan would be disturbed by its force.

 

I won't speculate on outcome of the irresistable force meets immovable object paradox that would occur should Airwolf and Chuck Norris ever meet.

LOL 

 

Gidday, I remember the show, and while the capabilities of Airwolf were totally ridiculous I loved the flying and thought it was the most beautiful helicopter ever to take to the air. Plus I've just enjoyed your description of it's speed, very funny, particularly the bedroom light.  You've done a great model of it.

 

Regards, Jeff.

[SouthViper]

11 hours ago, kiseca said:

For those of a certain age, particularly those of us belonging to Generation X, Airwolf will need no introduction. For those unfamiliar with this helicopter, here is a breakdown.

This vehicle is a top secret military helicopter, active during the 1980s, armed with two 40mm cannon, four 30mm cannon and between 140 and 160 missiles depending on which TV episode you watch. Airwolf was possessed of abilities not seen before nor since on a rotary winged aircraft.

Top speed was given as "mach 1 plus". Actual performance analysis shows it crossing the full radius of a radar scope in around one second, demonstrating an actual top speed somewhere closer to mach 10. Airwolf is so fast, it can have you surrounded on its own. It is so fast it can play ping pong by itself. Airwolf can turn the lights off in its bedroom and be in its bed before the room gets dark.

If confronted by Airwolf, Blue Thunder would skulk off to pick another fight with a train. KITT would eject himself along with Michael. Maverick and Goose would feel the need to bug out. Obi-wan would be disturbed by its force.

 

I won't speculate on outcome of the irresistable force meets immovable object paradox that would occur should Airwolf and Chuck Norris ever meet.

 

Beyond that, as the internet itself has confirmed, if there is a fight, Airwolf always wins. The only way to beat Airwolf is if two other Airwolfs gang up on the first Airwolf.

 

The kit itself is from Aoshima and goes together really well. There are very few fitting issues, the only two I can recall being the cockpit top windows and the floor panel, both of which are minor. There are also some detail inaccuracies which can be fixed or ignored as desired. The overall shape is, to my eyes, pretty good. I find Aoshima's instructions to be quite complicated to read and their paint recommendations would put me in the right ballpark but rarely give me my final answer.  Those are small criticisms of one of the better kits I've come across. It has been a fun, satisfying kit to build.

 

The base isn't complete yet. Once the varnish on the aircraft has fully hardened and I can handle it without worrying about leaving prints, I can remove the base, tidy up the wiring and possibly paint the mounting shaft. At the same time I'll swap out the sidepod caps and display her with her guns deployed. However, the helicopter itself is ready to display and so without further ado, and using the name affectionately given her by her crew, I present The Lady.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Modifications include an interior light to illuminate Dominic's very well detailed but otherwise completely hidden station.

 

 

Other modifications are a small reshaping of the side panels to remove the ridge behind the doors, and I've opened up the top intakes. The kit as standard covers them with grilles.

 

Paints are all the Model Air and Metal Air ranges from Vallejo. The dark grey body colour is roughly a 5:7:3 mix of Black Metallic, Matt Black, and Anthracite Grey. The original aircraft used Phantom Grey Metallic from Dupont. The almost-white belly is a 1:1 mix of White and USAF Light Grey.

 

The Work In Progress thread can be found here:

 

A couple of things I would do different if I were to build it again: firstly, don't install the main rotor when the instructions say, but rather leave them off until painting is complete. The rotor really gets in the way. Secondly, I wouldn't bother tinting the roof and floor glass. In hindsight I think it would look fine as clear glass. Thirdly, I reduced the size of the rivets along the fuselage sides and tailboom as I thought they were too prominent and if left standard, make the finish look more like that on a WW1 tank than on a streamlined helicopter. I overdid that a bit and, once painted, the rivets are completely hidden. I don't mind as there is plenty of detail along the sides with all the surface edges and contours, but a lesson there for me should I wish to reduce the rivet size on a future build.

 

Oh, also I just realised I haven't added the pitot tubes and refuelling probe to the nose yet. Oops!

 

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and I look forward to your comments. Thanks for looking!

 

 

 

Very beautiful helo and very good model building. 

Oh! ... and very fine pictures at  angles  that make your model  even good looking machine 

.

SouthViper 

[kiseca]

13 hours ago, TEXANTOMCAT said:

Superb work and fun write up very well done

 

Thank you very much! The write up popped into my head many months ago so I wrote it down then before I forgot it. It's been waiting patiently ever since for me to finish the model itself..

 

8 hours ago, noelh said:

But not nearly as much fun! The flying was superb in the series, although rather implausible. But I was very much an adult when it was aired first.

 

The Bell 222 was super sleek and perfect for Airwolf. I used to see one regularly, owned by a well known horse racing trainer. It certainly didn't sound like Airwolf with those two blade rotors. You could hear it coming from miles away. 

 

Great memories.

 

Sadly the original helicopter met a sad end as did Jan Michael Vincent.

 

 

Yes that is true. TV in the 80s was a lot of fun!

 

I remember the distinctive sound very well. A 222, actually dressed up as Airwolf itself (I don't think it was the original helicopter, I think it was a replica) flew over my house one Saturday morning on a tour of South Africa. There's a little bit of footage of it available online when it visited, um, Port Elizabeth... I think.

 

8 hours ago, Unfinished project said:

Looks fantastic all finished and glossed up and looks 100 times better than the old AMT/Ertl kit. This was on my wish list but I’m not sure after seeing the amount of work you had to put into The Lady to get her looking this good. Hats off to you for this amazing rendition of this beautiful helicopter. 

 

Thank you for the kind words! I've seen the old AMT one and the proportions look miles out! There are a few OOB builds on the Aoshima kit online, I'd say it's worth looking at those to see if the bodywork changes I've made are really necessary for you. It is a good quality kit that goes together well and wasn't a chore to build. I made more work for myself but it was nearly all just personal choice.

 

5 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

LOL 

 

Gidday, I remember the show, and while the capabilities of Airwolf were totally ridiculous I loved the flying and thought it was the most beautiful helicopter ever to take to the air. Plus I've just enjoyed your description of it's speed, very funny, particularly the bedroom light.  You've done a great model of it.

 

Regards, Jeff.

 

Thank you very much. The capabilities were ridiculous at the time, but watching it now, it's even worse than I remember. But some of the stunts are spectacular. Not sure they'd even get away with trying them today, like hovering two feet in front of an actor or pulling up into a break from almost ground level. A couple of times I thought the pilot came within a few feet of ground striking the main rotor because he pulled so hard into a turn while so low.

 

Some of the flying is so low that if he'd have lowered the undercarriage he'd have gained altitude...

 

3 hours ago, SouthViper said:

Very beautiful helo and very good model building. 

Oh! ... and very fine pictures at  angles  that make your model  even good looking machine 

.

SouthViper 

 

Thank you. It is too big to photograph against my white paper background so I had to just take the photos with the garden in the background instead. I wanted sunlight on it to try capture the colour. The downside is that strong light also makes bits of the metalflake ping and all sorts of colours start coming out that aren't there to the naked eye. It also makes the metalflake look coarser than it does in the flesh. Vallejo have actually made quite a fine grain metallic paint.

 

On the other hand, indoor photos make it just look a soft black. I found it a tricky subject to capture on photos.

 

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

1 hour ago, kiseca said:

Some of the flying is so low that if he'd have lowered the undercarriage he'd have gained altitude...

[F-32]

That is AWESOME!

 

People say you can't hear a picture, but they are wrong, I could hear the whine of the Lady's engines and the beginning of the theme tune as soon as I saw your first picture.

[AlxBNE]

A beautiful build of an 80's icon.

The theme tune got stuck in my head as I was reading your write up so I had to look it up ..........

 

 

Having watched the intro again for the first time in many years I can see that your rendition of the lady is absolutely perfect.

 

[SouthViper]

50 minutes ago, AlxBNE said:

A beautiful build of an 80's icon.

The theme tune got stuck in my head as I was reading your write up so I had to look it up ..........

 

 

Having watched the intro again for the first time in many years I can see that your rendition of the lady is absolutely perfect.

 

Yes !!!

Ernest Borgnine , an Hollywood Icon !!!

 

SouthViper 

[Fred piket]

That does bring back memories.. Your description is absolutely accurate; it should have a trailer to carry all the missiles it can launch. The concept is brilliant and I don't understand why it wasn't build in a huge amount..

My wife's ringtone is the tune of airwolf, so I'm reminded every day...

Edited April 14 by Fred piket

[kiseca]

2 hours ago, F-32 said:

That is AWESOME!

 

People say you can't hear a picture, but they are wrong, I could hear the whine of the Lady's engines and the beginning of the theme tune as soon as I saw your first picture.

 

I know exactly what you mean

 

While building this I've involuntarily played that theme tune in my head more times than it was played on TV.

[kiseca]

 

23 minutes ago, Fred piket said:

That does bring back memories.. Your description is absolutely accurate; it should have a trailer to carry all the missiles it can launch. The concept is brilliant and I don't understand why it wasn't build in a huge amount..

My wife's ringtone is the tune of airwolf, so I'm reminded every day...

 

Yes, and a tanker to carry all the fuel it needs to keep its four engines fed!

 

There was actually one concept that could have resembled Airwolf. On the back of the X-29 with forward swept wing technology, there was a concept floating about called, I think, the X-wing. It was a streamlined helicopter with a 4 blade main rotor and pusher jets similar to Airwolf. At high speed the idea was that the rotor stops and locks in place to form an X shaped wing plan, two forward swept and two aft swept wings. One of Bill Gunston's books had an artist's interpretation and it's actually an aircraft I'd like to try scratch build one day. I'll try dig up the illustration.

Edited April 14 by kiseca

[kiseca]

10 minutes ago, kiseca said:

 

 

....

 

There was actually one concept that could have resembled Airwolf. On the back of the X-29 with forward swept wing technology, there was a concept floating about called, I think, the X-wing. It was a streamlined helicopter with a 4 blade main rotor and pusher jets similar to Airwolf. At high speed the idea was that the rotor stops and locks in place to form an X shaped wing plan, two forward swept and two aft swept wings. One of Bill Gunston's books had an artist's interpretation and it's actually an aircraft I'd like to try scratch build one day. I'll try dig up the illustration.

 

 

...and here it is. Sorry it's not flattened out but I didn't want to damage the book.

 

To me, almost certainly inspired by Airwolf in looks, and as far as I know this idea never got beyond the intellectual concept stage. It looks like a larger helicopter. Sikorsky also made, and flew, a helicopter with pusher jets and their ABC concept (basically contra rotating rotors like a Kamov).

 

I'd love to make a 3D model of this X-wing concept and then try print out some parts for a kit, though it might be a very complicated first effort

 

 

Edited April 14 by kiseca

[k5054nz]

A terrific model of an icon, and I absolutely loved the bio! Although the temptation must have been there to quote directly from file number A56-7W...!

[Tokyo Raider]

Brilliant post and model!