Flag Plot

Here's the Italeri AH-1T kit depicting an operation URGENT FURY & Lebanon peacekeeping veteran of HMM-261 embarked on the USS Guam (LPH-9) from late '83 to Nov.'84. The only issues I had with this kit was the canopy: it's undersized as you can see in the pics, & the decoy buckets above the stub-wings had serious sinkholes; filler & custom decals solved that. The decals are from the kit & Hi-Decal sheet, 72-014. A BIG shout-out to Paul B. for this decal sheet and Mike E for the custom made decoy decals.(You may remember the thread a while back) Notice the chaff bucket pic; I think they turned out well. Much better than the kit depiction. Thanks Mike...Paul! A BIG shout-out to Paul B. for this decal sheet and Mike E for the custom made decoy decals. Notice the chaff bucket pic; I think the custom decals turned out well. Much better than the kit depiction. Thanks Mike...Paul! RJ

Here's the Fujimi AH-1J kit depicting an early Seacobra of HMM-369 from the mid-'70s. It's a simple kit with raised panel lines that went together with no issues. The decals are from "Flying Papa's"- a Japanese cottage company. The decals were printed on a dot matrix printer, so I painted in the white & red on the Japanese character. I substituted SSI/Microscale decals from the stash on all the common markings. The kit contains the original style pylons on the stub-wings. This helo was one of the first to be fitted with canted pylons, so I robbed an Italeri AT-1T kit of its pylons. The Zuni rockets are from a Fujimi A-4 kit. RJ

  Here's the USMC edition of the Special Hobby AH-1G Cobra. The SH kit is a gem; it went together well & included a photo-etch fret with color instrument consoles. A few minor annoyances:  the canopy is made to display open but there's very little glue surface, and the main rotor just sits on top. There's no subassembly to allow the rotor to rotate.   Decals went on well with no issues.  RJ