I am building this Fujimi 1/48 AH-1S for a GB, “Totally 80s”, and thought I would share it here since it is a whirly bird. I am going to be building it as an IDF TOW Cobra as used in Lebanon during the 1982 fighting. I opted for the older style rotor and the “toilet bowl” exhaust. Most photos I turned up of IDF Cobras show only two TOW launchers per wing so I cut mine down. I hollowed out the blast deflectors of the launchers and added a bulkhead to the front end of the engine doghouse and a tube to the rear end to close off the daylight that was showing through both ends. Here are a few pics so far. I am about to commence on painting the interior.
any tips on an early 80s IDF TOW Cobra are highly welcome.
I gotta agree. All my test fitting shows a well engineered kit, and I have corrected two biggest fit flaws that I have found simply and quickly. While it could use soem dressing up in a few areas, it is a nice kit overall. Now if they would only re issue it as a late model G…
They never did an accurate G only one that was more like the prototype, They also did an S with the “toilet bowl” exhaust and a J model. You could kit-bash a G from the S and the J but it still wasn’t 100% accurate. You may be able to now, think Cobra Company does a conversion for it. Also when I did it was back in the days before computers and before books really came out with photos of them
Thats where I saw the Cobra with the “toilet bowl” exhaust (although the one there had the later style main rotor).
So here are the latest progress pics. Cockpit painted and decaled. I used some Pro Modeller USAAF decals for instrument gauges and seatbelts. I installed the cockpit and gun turret,glued fuselage halves together, installed the engine doghouse and sanded the seams smooth up to this point.
After I took the pics, I puttied up the few areas needing that. tomorrow I will sand them and touch up areas of the cockpit still needing some- primarily the pilot’s instrument panel hood. After that it will be a quick bit of attaching stub wings, small bits, etc, and then she will be ready for the base color.
Very smooth sailing today. Sanded down the filler on the few fuselages seam areas that needed that done, then rescribed the panel lines lost in the seam area. All small bits (skids, stabilizers, stub wings/pylons, antennas, tail stinger, etc) attached. All that needs doing now is some final sanding to clean up attachments, touch up painting in the cockpit, dipping the canopy in future, masking, and attaching the canopy for final painting.
I took a pic with everything in place except weapons, “toilet” exhaust, and tail rotor just to show how it will look, along with a couple more shots of the overall look and some more close ups of the cockpit to get a look at the pilot and gunners IPs.
Oh yes, looking in my Squadron Cobra Walk around book labels this particular variant as an AH-1E not an AH-1S Step II… is this correct? or is there a difference between a Step II and a 1E?
As Grandad says, you are building a AH-1S Step II\AH-1E\AH-1S (ECAS). ECAS stands for Enhanced Cobra Armament System and denotes the addition of the M-197 20mm cannon. Go here for more on US Army Cobra variants, including photos of each type: http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=172509
Thanks for the clarification guys! I know how the Army likes to redesignate things from firsthand experience…[:-^]
Just wondering, but would the 2.75" rocket pods on an IDF Cobra circa 1982 be in the IDF brown, OD 34087, or Helo Drab 34031? I have seen no photos to really fall back upon.
edit- Ray, that is a fantastic page- great stuff!!!
OK, after getting several GB projects out of the way, I now have the base color brown on. I am using Sky Decals markings and they recommend Humbrol Wood as a good match for the IDF Brown used in the 1982 Lebanon war.
Here are the decals applied- Southern Cobra Squadron, circa 1982. I am still debating as to whether or not apply the yellow ID “V” that were applied partway in to the campaign. The markings are pretty low key overall, especially without the “V”.
So did I…So I pulled it off the sidelines last weekend and began the detail work to finish her up. As of this evening, nearly one year after Whiskey’s post, it is DONE!!!
One Fujimi AH-1S Step II, AKA AH-1E in IDF markings for Southern Cobra Squadron during operation Peace for Galilee in June 1982 (anybody remember that war?) I had to go with SWAGs on some things as I was not able to dig up painting info on some detail areas.
comments and critiques welcome… I hope you enjoy[blndfld]
