Sea Cobra

by Anthony Papadis

Italeri's 1/48 scale Sea Cobra is available online from Squadron.com

This is Italeri's 1/72 scale AH-1S Sea Cobra, which I picked up in K-Mart for AUD$7 (around USD$3.50)!

The fit of the kit is okay, however the engine nacelle join was interesting. The Cobra had the rotor blades re-attached at a positiveve pitch angle as the blades were originally at zero pitch.

I also added the crew figures from the spares box, as well as the grab handles on the nacelle. The WAH-64D kit had all the grab handles, gun 'cage', wire cutters and main gear brake lines added. I also added the main rotor de-icer lines and forward countermeasures dispenser.

The Cobra was painted in Gunze acrylics and the Apache was finnished in ModelMaster enamels.

I spent about a week on this project and can recommend this model as cheap 'practice' models for a 1/48 model. The kit is nicely detailed and features a mixture or raised/engraved detail which, with a little work can be raised to something special, or built as a respectable model straight from the box.