1/48 AH-64D Block II Apache - 12th CAB

[doogsatx/]

It's raining, it's pouring, and so the painting of the Tomcat has to take the backseat for a few days.

What a great excuse to spin up my Apache build.

The inspiration for this came pretty out of the blue, with a lovely photo spread of 12th CAB Apaches operating in Central and Eastern Europe. These are AH-64D Block II Apaches, all equipped with the distinctive upturned exhausts (which necessitated going with the Hasegawa AH-64E kit). The absolutely battered finishes is what drew me to these - though I'm not sure why a European unit would have such weary-looking choppers. My going theory is maybe they rotated back from some time in the Middle East. Whatever the case - a fun and challenging paint job awaits!

[deafpanzer]

Interesting why paint looks so weary as seen in the pictures!!! Count me in... I got me the first row! I hate sitting behind Todd's big head...

[doogsatx/]

Aftermarket for these things...doesn't exist. Not really. There's Eduard PE, which, eh. And there's an Aires cockpit, which honestly aside from the seats doesn't bring enough additional detail to be worth the pain of installing it.

So I'm stealing the seats. But man, some tires, some seats with better molded texture, etc would be very welcome.



The seatbelts are a pain. Reference pics I've got show the shoulder harnesses stored tight along the sides of the seat, so I've done that here using some 1mm Aizu tape. I suffered the PE for the lap belts though.



Primer! Black Badger stylerez or whatever it's called. I still prefer my Mr Surfacer 1500, but for areas where you have to get into all kinds of nooks and crannies, this stuff and its magic leveling abilities are fantastic.

[TRM]

It's always better sitting behind the deaf guy...he can't tell when I'm talking bad about him!

Count me in Doogs! Outstanding reference shots! Looking like you're in full blown build mode now!!! Bring it on!

[Leon]

Seat belts and primer look good Doogs!

[blkhwkmatt]

Agreed would be nice to have better seats, seems that would be an easy fix. Belts look much better than the kit for sure. I've seen them draped over the sides of the armor panels as well, to make it easier to get them over the pilots shoulders.

Also didn't realize that the Hasagawa E kit has the upturned exhausts, might have to look into that as well, but I already have the "D". How accurate of a representation of the "E" is the kit, if I recall correctly the eFABs on the "E" are bigger than on the "D" or at least a different shape. I'll have to ask my Apache experts to be sure though.

Great start, will be watching this one closely.

[Tojo72]

Zombie thread,Doogs started this one 6 1/2 years ago,he hasn't been around,I think he has his own web site plus he's all over Pintrest and Instagram,Twitter and the like.