Ad here is my last cobra, the 1/32 hueycobra from revell
Backround: As the first dedicated attack helicopter the Bell Ah-1G Hueycobra is an important aircraft of aviation history. In the Vietnam war it became essential to protect the vital utility helicopters like the UH 1 Huey. The airplanes of that time were almost all jets like the F 4 Phantom which were too fast to protect the slower helicopters. Even the A1 Skyraider prop driven aircraft was too fast for this task. So it came that a competition foor a light attack helicopter was announced to provide the air force with a helicopter escort and a ground support aircraft. Tghe winner of this competition was the AH 56 Cheyenne while bell model 209 was rejected. But the Cheyenne proofed to be technically unrreliable and never entered production. Initially as a gapfiller, Bells model 209 was chosen to enter production. Soon the now named Cobra light attack helicopter became one of the most value aircraft of the war and it was feared and respected by the enemy. As normally all helicopters of the us army are named after indian tribes the cobra was a quite unique case. To follow the tradition the cobra was renamed HueyCobra in its first variant, the model G. Beeing developed fom the uh1 Iroquois light utility helicoter the cobra had much in common with its cousin, using the same prop and engine. However, the cobra looked completely differnt from the Huey(Iroquois, the Huey was quite squat while the cobra with its extremely sleek and thin appearence looked like a sky shark. It was faster than the huey, reaching 227 km/h. The 2 seat attack helicopter had either 2 miniguns in a chin turret or 2 40mm grenade launchers, optional, a greande launcher and a minigun could be installed. Additionally to that the HueyCobra could carry 70mm Hydra unguided rockets in rocket pods under its stub wings. The HueyCobra could deliver a devastating attakc onto ground forces, and quickly became a feared weapon of war. HueCobras continued to saw service after vietnam and were modernised multiple times, from the Ah1G hueyCobra to the ah1s to the ah1 f and then to the ah1w super cobra which was then developed into the latest variant the Ah1zViper or zulu cobra which was introduced into the army in 2010.
The model Kit: This kit is in 1/32 and is my biggest cobra and my biggest helicopter I´ve built so far and boy, was it an experience! The kit is very old, the manual was printed in 1991!,so this kit is older than meIt isnt in production anymore and I got quite lucky to fin it in a toy store in the city where I go to school. I dont know how it landed there but I spend 20€ on it .
Detail: Oh my god, the detail is not very good, while the engine looks nice and the rotor too, the cockpit is a desaster! the control surfaces actually look very nice but the seats are a joke!. They look very unrealistic and compared to my ah1f cobra, they seem to come from another world!The rest is ok, the rocket pods look nice but the guns could have been better
***
Fitting: Oh boy, now we come to an absolute disaster: The fitting is horrible, the biggest issue are the fuselage halfs which dont want to fit, they just refused to fit, I had to use lots of instant glue to avoid gaps(I have no filler). The wings fitted well but then comes that ting at the nose which also doesnt wanted to fit. And then came the canopy: Omg, I´ve never had such a bad fitting canopy, it almost seemed as if it belonged to another model ki!, the gaps were really ig and I had to press te fulegae halps very hard together and had to hold them in such a position for over half an hour to make the canopy fit so it looks acceptable(in the end the gaps are still visible,but hey, i cant change it). The cockpit also had problems with fitting into the fuselage halfs.
I ´ve never had such a bad fitting in a model kit, and that one hell of an accomplishment! It even tops the bf 109 e4 from revell in bad fitting.
I´ve often heard that revell is bashed for bad fitting in some kits. Until now I couldnt understand that, because the majority of the kits I´ve built from revell mostly had a good fitting and espeacially the new ones like the he 219 in 1:32 have a fitting that is comparable to tamyia and hasegawa!,so I couldnt understand why some complained about the fitting-now I know, its kits like this that gave revell that reputation
*
Functions: This kit offers excellent functions: the prop spins beautiful around, as does the back prop, the gun turret is movable and the minigun and the 40mm grenade launcher can be lifted up and down. As an additonal function, the engine cowling can be removed so you can see the lycoming engine.
*****
Decals. All in all quite nice but there is one big problem: The shark mouth, the most important decal of this kit is not very good. All the white parts of the decals arent good, probably because of their age. The olive green painting of the cobra shines therough the white teeth of the shark mouth . The only solution I had what to paint the teeth over with white colour. The rest of the decals are nicely done
****
extrapoitnts. well its not a very good kit , it certainly has some flaws but its an old kit and Do like the outcoming, soI give
***
Fazit: Well, with a horrible fitting, mediocre detail and decals that are ok, this kit is not the best thing revell has produced
Espeacially the fitting was so frustrating, I actually wanted to stop assembling the kit and just build another one as I felt it wouldnt matter as the result would look just awful with that gaps at the canopy . So do I regret buying this kit?-Hell no! Imean look at it, the result looks very appealing to the eye and the gaps at the canopy arent very big thanks to the filling ability of the revell glue. The Cobra is the most beautiful attakc helicopter and espeacially the HueyCobra looks very smooth, elegant and deadly and the kit represents that feeling very good. So despite all the flaws and the horrible fitting, I am glad that I have bought this kit. But would I recommend it?-Probably not, at least not for beginners. Except you are a hardcore cobra fan like I am, I woulndt buy this kit if you are not very expereinced because you will probably mess it up and that would be a money waste, there are other cobras from other producers that certainly are better. But I like my HueyCobra, I am very glad that I have it and my final rating, despited its flaws is
***





Note: This would be another contender for an angry model kit review if I ever get a video camera