1/48 Apache

[Pappy]

G'day people,

I started this kit on New Year's Day.

This is the 1/48 Academy AH-64A. I dragged this one out of the stash, having bought it cheaply about 4 years ago. My intention is to build a Hellenic (Greek) Army Apache. I was (pleasantly) surprised to discover that I had bought the Eduard PE set for the kit and stashed it inside the box. The kit fits quite well, and although the kit detail lacks the refinement of the Hasegawa kits, most of the detail is quite crips and the panel lines are engraved. Having said that, the kit can afford a few detail improvements, did I mention that the kit was cheap?

As usual, I began with the cockpit.

The console detail comprises nice and sharp raised details that really pop out with a drybrushing. Apache cockpits are not exactly colourful, being mostly black so as to be NVG compatible.

The seats themselves didn't feature any fabric texture and the seat belt detail was moulded onto the cushions, albeit a bit 'soft'. I chose to scrape off the cushions and fashion new Milliput items Once in place, the fabric texture was applied by gently pressing into the Milliput with some cheesecloth fabric.

The front cyclic control is shorter than the pilot's stick as is lives under the gunners sight hood. The kit supplies two sticks of the same height, so a new base was fashioned from fuse wire and the handle was cut off and grafted onto the new stick.

The collectives had a couple of nasty ejector stumps on their shafts. rather than trying to fart around cleaning these up, I cut off the shafts and replaced them with brass rod, which has no seams to clean up and is perfectly round, result!

The instrument panels are next. The instrument panel details are a little bland, and in any case I had a PE set to replace the panels. The rear panel was a problem child however. The overlay did not match the shape of the panel without some serious snipping and filing. It was made to behave in the end however.

The front panel is moulded in two halves, the panel itself and the gunners targeting sight, which is glued to the centre of the panel and includes the targeting control handles. The problem now was that this creates and awkward seam to fill in a very prominent location. I cut of the handles and placed them aside whilst I dealt with the seam, then re-attached them. Happily, the PE overlay for the front panel matched perfectly.

The fuselage halves were now prepared for some of the PE parts that would be added. I have a Verlinden detail set, and this is designed to fit the Italeri kit (which bears more than a passing resemblance to the Revell/Mono kit, so Idecided to add the aft avionics bay to add a little interest. The resin bay matched the fuselage profile almost perfectly, however the bay and its access door (Provided as a brass and resin assembly in the Verlinden detail set) is slightly wider than the Academy kit, so I opened the hole about .5mm wider on each side.

The bay was painted up, however the wiring and plumbing will be added after all the main paintwork has been completed.

The fuselage was now closed, trapping the tub and the seams dealt with.

The lower underfusleage piece had a chunk of plastic glued in place over the retractable landing light, so that a semi-circualr recess could be milled into it for the landing light.

Test fitting the tub into the cockpit revealed that the underfuselage panel sat low at the front, so several .005" shims were tried until all was level,

Cheers,

Pappy

[chaoslord]

great job so far friend.

keep in mind that the Greek Apaches of the first batch, are of the A+ variant and they have a very noticeable bump on each side

of the side ''skirts'' and also an extra antenna on top of the tail.

keep up the great work

first photo is mine and second courtesy of redstar.gr

[Pappy]

great job so far friend.

keep in mind that the Greek Apaches of the first batch, are of the A+ variant and they have a very noticeable bump on each side

of the side ''skirts'' and also an extra antenna on top of the tail.

keep up the great work

first photo is mine and second courtesy of redstar.gr

G'day Alex,

Don't worry, I knew about the antenna on the tail (the hole has already been drilled) and the side sponsons are only temoprarily fitted at this stage. The fuselage area around the main gear legs is visible through the openings that the u/c legs poke out of, so I masked off the relevant area and sprayed it yellow.

As were the sponson interiors. The corners sat a bit low with a resultant step where they met the underfuselage piece I resolved this by adding scrap plastic to the corners and shimming until they met flush.

The landing gear was worked on next. The main gear had some brake lines added as well as a new wire cutters and other details

The tail wheel was also not overlooked. I cut off the tail wheel locating pins and drilled out the axle stubs. The tail wheel centre was also drilled out and the wheel can now be inserted after all the painting as it will be retained by a brass pin. Some additional detail was also added to the tail wheel unit as well as rebuilding the shock strut using telescopic sections of hypodermic syringe tube.

The stub wings also had a pitot probe added to the outboard leading edges. The PE was also added to the wingtips.

The front cockpit glareshields were replaced. The left side was okay, but a bit thick. The right side however was talos too thick and would not fit well over the PE instrument panel face. I bent up some new ones from thin copper sheet using the kit items as a template.

cheers,

Pappy

[chaoslord]

awesome job! wish I could do that really can't wait to see it finished

[periklis_sale]

amazing work mate!!

[Pappy]

G'day folks,

A small update for today,

I cleaned up the main gear legs. These had a few ejector pin marks in some awkward spots and the detail was a less than crisp. I also took the opportunity to add the brake lines.

The tail wheel also had a little detail added

Next up, the nose sensors were assembled and the Eduard PE back plates were added

Still on the front of the kit, the gun was re-worked. I replaced the barrel with hypo syringe tube and the Eduard PE cooling jacket was added. Additional details like the spring and the hydraulic actuators were scratched up using copper and plastic rod and card.

The scratch built IHADSS sensors and new glare shields were painted and added

cheers,

Pappy

Edited January 8, 2010 by Pappy

[chaoslord]

awesomeness :D great progress there friend

[Pappy]

G'day Peri and Chaos,

Thanks for the encouragement.

A little more progress.

Test fitting the canopy revealed that it was fouling at the lower edge where the cockpit tub between the front and rear cockpit was touching. I filed out a section of the lower canopy and the fit is now very good

The canopy interior was now masked off, a very tedious task and the interior colour was sprayed,

The glass cockpit divider has now been added and the rear panel installed.

The tail rotor assembly has also received some attention, I added the rotor blade pitch change actuators as well as some de-icing lines

The missiles have been assembled and given a basic coat of NATO black

The missile launchers have been painted and their decals applied. I added the electrical umbilical lines for the lower pair of racks using some 20Amp fuse wire

cheers,

Pappy

[TonyT]

Stunning Pappy, simply Stunning

[Pappy]

G'day folks,

The cockpit had a few more bits added to it. I used some scrap lead foil and some 'REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT' decals to add the emergency canopy door jettison pins. I also added the power levers to both left consoles.

The main gear legs have been attached and I am waiting for the glue to set before adding the side sponsons.

The tail wheel also had some copper and Eduard PE bits added. The tail wheel wire strike protector part was drilled and a section of pre-bent fuse wire was added.

The AGM-114CATM (inert) Hellfires have been finished and added to their racks.

I have been playing around with the nose sensors. Instead of painting the clear portion of the PNVS sensor black like everyone else, I decided to use some bare metal foil, I like it!

The left chin sensor window ie the TADS window was coated with a di-chromatic film. I had some left over from a Tamiya Yamaha R1 bike kit. The stuff is transparent but has the iridescent blue/red/green 'blooming' effect that hi-grade optical glass is treated with. The colour changes as you move your viewing angle

It's pretty trippy!

Lastly, the tail rotor assembly has been sprayed. I am not sure what colour the hub area is supposed to be. The fuselage is painted CARC (US Helo Drab) but the tonal differences between this and black are hard to spot in pics so I am just leaving it all black for the mo..

cheers,

Pappy

Score 1 2 3 4 5 (5=Excellent)

[chaoslord]

6

[Pappy]

G'day all,

Only a small update today.

I have added some detail to the pod like structures in front of the engine inlets. Academy have moulded the intake of these parts but flashed over the hole. I opened the holes up and built a representation of the internal details. I wasn't able to get nice clear pics of the details inside, so I decided that instead of 100% accuracy I would go for something that looks 'busy' to give an impression that there is something inside.

cheers,

Pappy

[Pappy]

G'day people,

A little more progress.

The area behind the nose sensors is actually stuffed with avionics and other gizmology. Instead of replicating everything, I wanted to add some shapes and give the impression that there is something there. I used bits of plastic card and fine wire.

This is how I started,

This is what I ended up with,

AS already pointed out by "Chaos", the Forward Electronics Bay (FEB) doors on the side sponsors need to be bulged. The kit doors are very slightly bulged, but not enough. I began by sanding the area flat. I then transferred the outline of the FEB shape to .015" plastic sheet. I sanded a rounded profile from top to bottom, and then used a file to apply the flattened areas fore and aft. Once the shapes were done, they were attached to each side sponson.

Some more of the Eduard PE has been added to the fuselage

cheers,

Pappy

[Skii]

Absolutely incredible work, the cockpit, seats, avionics, and that TADS sight is beyond belief!

Wow !!!

[Siggi]

Superb craftsmanship.

[chaoslord]

amazing level of attention to detail! respect!

[Pappy]

G'day fellas,

Thanks very much for the encouragement. I am currently in the doldrums doing some seam filling. The engine nacelle and wheel sponsons need a little work. I'll post some more pics when I have something worthwhile,

cheers,

Pappy

[tom271282]

Super, super work. I love the optical paint stuff on that lens, really looks the biz!

[Pappy]

Super, super work. I love the optical paint stuff on that lens, really looks the biz!

G'day Tom,

Thanks very much.

I have made a little more headway.

I really don't like the kit supplied vinyl tyres and plastic hub detail. The tyres have a lot of flash on them which is difficult to remove and the hubs just look wrong.

I made a cast of the Italeri wheels which are better, not perfect, but better. I also added a flat spot to simulate weight as well as the tyre inflation valve.

I have also been adding all the grab handles to the fuselage. I don't know about you, but I really hate cleaning up these parts. Apart from being overscale, the seams are difficult to clean up without either breaking the part or missing part of a mould seam. Instead I simply replace the handles with fuse wire bent to shape using the kit part as a guide.

Some more Eduard PE parts have been added

The bulged avionics bay doors have now been cleaned up. I also added a small mesh grille to the left door.

I also noticed in my reference pics that a small slot exists just forward and left of the main rotor opening. I drilled two holes and joined these two up to form a slot, finishing off with a file.

One thing that was bothering me about the engines was the way that the nacelle inner surface forward of the exhaust diffuser just 'butted' up to the upper fuselage area.

In reality, this area needs to blend into the fuselage. I used two scrap pieces of resin and some putty to let the engine nacelle blend into the fusleage.

thanks for looking,

Pappy

Edited January 25, 2010 by Pappy

[Mike]

Quite a big (and impressive) update Pappy... glad we got your password woes sorted

[Pappy]

Quite a big (and impressive) update Pappy... glad we got your password woes sorted

Thanks again Mike!

cheers,

Pappy

[Skii]

I'm really enjoying this build, thanks for the updates

[Pappy]

I'm really enjoying this build, thanks for the updates

You are quite welcome!

I like the way your Flanker is shaping up too,

cheers,

Pappy

[Pappy]

G'day people,

A small update.

I have been busy rescribing details and adding bits and pieces to the fuselage.

I began by filling and re-scribing the rotor catwalk access doors. I also added the two diagonal hinges to the rearmost panel. Whilst I was working this area I also added some scrap plastic to represent the latches as well as making new rails to replace the overscale kit items. I still need to add some more detail in this area, mainly to the inner faces of the engine diffusers as these have some sort of heat shield or baffle assembly on their inner faces

There are two plates behind the cockpit that Academy have represented as recessed (engraved) panels. In reality, these plates should sit proud of the surface. They look like some sort of doubler or strengthening plate. I used some plastic card to make them whilst also adding some more grab handles from copper wire.

More of the Eduard PE details have made their way onto the plastic now, including the underside. These include small panel latches, hinges for the engine nacelles and what look like antenna panels for the fuselage underside.

Still plenty of details still to be added, including the canopy interior and doors, but the stub wings are now on and the beast is beginning to take shape. I will add some of the more delicate stuff either at the end or just prior to the paint stage.

I have also started prepping the "Werner's Wings" M-261 rocket pods. These are nice and easier to use than integrating the Eduard PE with the kit items. My examples had lots of pin holes near the cast plug however and it has taken a little effort to fill and sand the bubbles until they arrived at this point. I also drilled out the front holes as I felt they looked a litlle shallow. They should look under some paint though,

cheers,

Pappy

Edited January 30, 2010 by Pappy

[Troffa]

Great attention to detail, and an all round brilliant build!

Troffa