MENG AH-64D Saraf Heavy Attack Helicopter (QS-005) 1:35 Special Edition

[Mike]

AH-64D Saraf Heavy Attack Helicopter (QS-005)

1:35 MENG via Creative Models Ltd

 

 

The AH-64 emerged as the successful entrant to the Advanced Attack Helicopter programme in the mid-1970s, as the potential replacement for the ageing AH-1 Cobra.  It first flew in 1975, and went into production in the early 80s, entering US Army service in early 1986, ironing out the many issues that plagued the early airframes, whilst it also demonstrated its phenomenal potential as an attack platform.  One such issue was the rotor blades, which were lasting less than 10% of their expected lifespan, and were  a difficult fix, taking several iterations before the problems were fully resolved, and the expected lifespan achieved.  The resolution of a laundry list of issues and the advance of technology led to an updated variant, which was cancelled in favour of a further improved airframe that became the AH-64C, differing from the -D only by the lack of Longbow radar that would be a major improvement to the type’s capabilities, allowing it to ‘see’ its enemies over terrain without exposing itself to enemy fire to any great extent.  During this period, Augusta Westland became involved in the project, and the Westland AH-64D with more powerful engines and folding rotor blades was a by-product, giving the British Army a powerful weapon that is highly regarded worldwide, the airframes built from kits that were upgraded with after market parts to the buyer’s specification.  Sound familiar?

 

Overseas exports have been robust due to the Apache’s reputation, having performed admirably during the Afghan and Iraq conflicts, where the British Army airframes were known as ‘the Mosquito’ by the Taliban, as the way it was used by the British as a weapons platform that hovered high above the combat zone almost out of hearing range, meant that its 30mm explosive tipped rounds or Hellfire missiles appeared to come out of the blue.  Israel ordered forty-eight AH-64Ds early on, and these are known as Saraf in their service, a fire-spitting serpent of some description.  They have been well-used since they entered service, and in-service upgrades have been made to incorporate the indigenous Spike Long-Range (LR) Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM), which can be launched in Fire and Forget, or Lock-on After Launch modes as the need arises, with a longer range than the excellent Hellfire that further enhances the type’s capability, guided by a fibre-optic cable that it pays out.  They can also now carry 70mm laser-guided missiles, making them smaller, more cost-effective, and with less collateral damage potential due to its small size and warhead.  The Apache/Saraf continues in Israeli service and development worldwide, with its service is unlikely to end very soon.

 

 

The Kit

This is a reboxing with new parts of the 2023 tooling from MENG, and is available in either standard boxing, or as a special edition with resin figures to crew the model once you have completed it.  The kit arrives in a large top-opening box in MENG’s usual satin-finish, and inside the box is extremely full, the Special Edition having a blue card band around one end of the box.  There are sixteen sprues, two fuselage halves and several loose parts in grey styrene, two sprues of clear parts, a Photo-Etch (PE) fret in thick-gauge brass, a small tree of black poly-caps, a decal sheet with a tiny extra sheet that you could quite easily miss/lose, a sheet of pre-cut kabuki-style masks that have been pre-weeded on a clear acetate background, the thick instruction booklet in landscape sub-A4 and printed in spot colour, an A2-sized painting and decaling guide that is folded in four, three pages of thick card detailing the Apache in Israeli service in four languages, only one of which I understand.  The first thing that hits you on opening bags is that the aircraft is large at this scale, over 41cm as it exits the box without its FLIR turret equipped nose cone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Construction begins with the twin cockpit, adding side consoles, flight controls and additional details to both crew positions, building up the armoured seats with frames, headrests and lumbar support, then adding bulkheads and instrument panels after applying decals as per the scrap diagram nearby.  Their mission-specific equipment differentiates the two positions, adding more decals, coamings, and sidewalls above the consoles that turn the cockpit into a tub.  The base plate for the rotor is a slender rectangular platform with a short turret moulded into the forward end, onto which a cylinder and cruciform assembly are fitted, adding four triangular supports to the sides, and a blade-adjustment mechanism on top of another cruciform plate.  The rotor shaft is built from two halves, and has a collet fitted around the top that has a pair of dog-bone actuators and a zig-zag adjuster threaded through the rear and attached at each end.  The fuselage halves are prepared next, remembering to remove the foam packaging support from one side, along with the flexible adhesive layer that holds it in position.  It shouldn’t leave a residue, but a wipe with some isopropyl alcohol (IPA) won’t do any harm.  Several holes are drilled out from within, fixing a two-part cylindrical assembly in the port tail root, plus a large rounded detail insert on both flanks of the fuselage, and another small two-part duct insert in the engine bulge on the starboard side.  The fuselage can now be closed around the cockpit and the rotor head assembly, creating a four-part bulbous insert to the top of the fin, filling the cut-out in the forward edge.  Turning the fuselage over, an insert is glued into the belly, and the two winglets are made from eight parts each and plugged into slots in the sides of the fuselage.  The two sponsons on the fuselage sides that house much of the avionics and fuel are each supplied as separate parts, and have avionics inserts near the front that can be left open, or covered by a hatch, adding extra parts in and above the bays, plus a rectangular cover with rounded corners at the rear of the sponsons.  The port sponson has a landing-gear piston inserted inside near the front, and a link hose at the rear, then additional details are glued to the mid-fuselage, a transmission tunnel to the top of the boom, and a ‘power bulge’ at the root of the boom.

 

This kit includes both engines, and they are each made from a plethora of parts, all of which have colour call-outs, which carries on throughout the build, creating the triple exhausts and their heat dispersal boxes that mount on the rear of the large circular manifold, mating them on the lower cowling, fixing ancillary assemblies and cowling panels around them, some of which have sensors and lenses installed.  The intake lip is a shallow torus, with a diffuser made from three parts and mounted in the centre.  The opposite engine is made in mirror image, and when complete, they are mounted on each side of the fuselage on five tabs to create a strong join, making the choice to close the top cowlings or posing them open.  Each option uses the same three parts to create the L-profiles cover as a base, and the open option adds a stay to hold the panel open at the correct angle.  The canopy is a large assembly, and is crystal clear, with pre-cut masks provided to help you keep it that way, with masks provided for inside and out for added realism.  The blast shield between the two crew members is also provided with a mask, and the rectangular hole in the centres are intended to be there, and are painted the same black as the surround.  The main canopy part has several detail parts and hoses fitted around the interior, plus a glare-shield with a ‘No Grab’ decal applied.  This fixed portion is glued in place, adding frames and personal weapons to the open side, then detailing the two doors with handles and masking on both sides, deciding whether to pose them open or closed, the open position adding support struts to the centre framework, and a PE strip down the rear.  Detailed painting guides are shown in scrap diagrams nearby, as are the positions of the final glare-shield and its decal.

 

Attention then turns to the area around the rotor head, placing an insert over the rotor, and adding sensors, which includes a faceted laser-deflection turret, and a small fairing that is partly under the main insert, and drilling out two 1mm holes in the circular base for the afore mentioned turret.  The nose of the Apache carries a host of equipment that is referred to in the instructions as ‘Nose Mounted Electro-Optical Equipment’.  The twin turrets have a pair of poly-caps at their hearts, and have faceted lenses on one side, mounting on a centre-section on which they rotate, which in turn rotates under a platform with its own poly-cap trapped inside, and that in turn slots into the nose fairing, with yet another turret pivoting on the top poly-cap, again with lenses that are clear parts.  The various turrets should be push-fitted in position, with no glue needed, even if you’re unlikely to ‘play’ with then later.  The fuselage is prepared by adding several panels around the nose joint, with a choice of cheek sensors on both sides, and windscreen wipers with twin arms on both front screen panels.  The nose assembly can then be glued in place on a T-shaped tab and corresponding hole in the fuselage, with scrap diagrams assisting with sensor placement.  The Saraf shares its gear with every other Apache, and these are single struts raked sharply to the rear, mating with the struts inserted inside the sponsons earlier in the build.  The wheels are in two parts each, and have a subtle weighting at the bottom, plus two masks per tyre, one per hub.  Wire fenders are made from two parts and glued to the legs on moulded-in flat-spots.

 

The M230 Bushmaster Chain Gun is one of the Apache/Saraf’s primary weapons, and it is the one that strikes the most terror into its enemies.  The breech and barrel are moulded in three parts, sitting in a frame that is then surrounded by a two-part protective cage underneath, with an actuator and the ammo feed fitted into the top.  The ammo feed has been separated into three sections that are glued side-by-side to obtain the correct shape and level of detail, trapping it between the support trunnions with a circular top where it rotates in the insert, held in position with a washer, being careful with the glue, then adding two cable bundles, before inserting it under the fuselage and adding small parts in front.  The tail wheel is comparatively complex compared to the main gear, fitting the two-part wheels (with masks) into a yoke, then trapping that between a five-part mount that slides into the rear of the tail after inserting the curved rear bulkhead.  The elevator is made from upper and lower halves, adding a pair of strakes to the trailing edge, then inserting it into the rear of the fin on two tabs, plus an actuator that retreats inside the boom.  The strakes are folded from PE parts, and one should be facing up while the other is angled downwards, as per the scrap diagrams nearby.  There is a choice of open or closed hatches on the bays in the fuselage sides, and a host of sensors, aerials and antennae are scattered around the boom and aft fuselage, plus more on the fin, and two PE strakes on the sloped area behind the rotor, either side of the exhausts.  Grab handles and foot holds are added to the forward fuselage, duplicating the sensor fit on both sides of the fuselage for the most part, and installing a large fairing under the root of the boom.

 

Apart from the rotors, the model is mostly complete, and the weapons are next to be made.  Four pylons are made up in pairs, separating the inboard and outboard assemblies, although they look very similar, and are each made from three parts.  The Spike-LR missiles are each loaded in a protective box that is made from four parts plus a clear lens at the business end, making up eight of these, and two six-part rectangular palettes that hold two missiles per side, and have a three-part shackle on the upper surface.  You can load these or use eight AGM-114 Hellfires instead, each one made from four parts plus either a solid nose, or a nose with a clear lens at your whim.  Their launcher is made from seven parts, and like the Spikes, four are mounted in pairs on each side of the two launchers, and each one has a three-part shackle on the top of the launcher.  The pylons are suspended under the winglets, adding an end-cap to each one, then you can install two-part fuel tanks with three-part shackles on the inner pylons, and a choice of the Spike or Hellfire carriers on the outboard pylons.  In addition, the starboard winglet has a five-part sensor turret hanging from the tip, locating it with the aid of a scrap diagram nearby.

 

The technical name for the Longbow radar is AN/APG-78, and it is a large flattened dome that sits above the rotor head.  The complex base and adaptor is made from eleven parts, and it is joined to the underside of the radome, which is made from three parts, imitating the diagonal panel line on the real radar.  It is set aside for a while during the building of the four-bladed rotor, starting by gluing the blades into the cruciform centre, then locking them in place with two parts under each blade root, and fitting an actuator ring underneath that is linked to each rotor by small parts to complete the assembly, save for four actuator struts that are added when the rotor is installed on the shaft without glue.  The Longbow radome slides over the top of the shaft, with the alternative consisting of two parts that caps off the rotor head if the radome is not being carried.  The tail rotor consists of two pairs of blades that are fixed to the head at a shallow angle to each other, fixing a crown on the inner face with actuator rods, and finishing it off with a four-part shaft that then plugs into the bulge near the top of the fin.  The last few parts are antennae fixed to the engine pods, and a long aerial on the tip of the fin.

 

 

Figures

The two crew figures that are included in the Special Edition that we’re reviewing are cast in resin, and the detail is stunning.  They are moulded with integrated legs and torso, with separate heads and arms to complete them.  They each have specialist helmets that are individual to the Apache/Saraf, partly due to the split optics that the crew must master, focusing one eye external to their helmets, the other on a view-screen close to their other eye.  They say it gives the crew headaches after a few hours, and I believe them.  The standard boxing doesn’t include the figures, but the difference in cost between the two boxings makes the figures excellent value.

 

 

 

 

Markings

There are two decal options included on the sheet, and both machines wear the same tritonal camouflage.  From the box you can build one Saraf that looks like this:

 

 

 

 

The profiles were large and absolutely covered with decal arrows as you can see, all of which will add tons of visual interest, but made them hard to reproduce here, so we have only provided one, as they are almost identical.

 

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.

 

 

Conclusion

We somehow missed out on the initial Apache boxing of this impressive model, so this is the first time we’ve seen the sprues.  The detail is superb, and the inclusion of the crew figures for the Special Edition is worth the extra unless you’re figure-phobic like I used to be.  It’s a massive model, and the finished article will be well worth the effort you put into building and painting it.

 

Very highly recommended.

 

Special Edition with Figures

 

Standard Boxing (minus Figures)

 

Review sample courtesy of