Zulu Up! - 1/48 Kitty Hawk AH-1Z Viper - FINISHED 4/15

[doogsatx/]

Lost interest in the Lightning.

My Mirage 2000 was betrayed by not-fitting Eduard PE.

Third time's the charm, right?



I love the AH-1Z. While deep down I will always prefer the AH-1W, the Zulu to me is sort of an anti-F-35. Instead of trying to replace a bunch of still really capable aircraft with a ridiculously expensive boondoggle, the AH-1Z thoroughly modernizes a 50-year-old platform. Better engines, state-of-the-art avionics and electronics, larger pylons for more ordnance, a rotor system that's better in every conceivable way. The Z is faster, has better range and can engage targets from further away than the W ever could.

It also has 85% parts commonality with the UH-1Y Huey Venom (which KH also has on the way).

It's like this is how upgrading the force should be done.

Anyway...the kit looks incredibly complex, kind of. But it's spread across a shockingly small number of sprues. I think three total. Detail is good, but being honest it's not to the standard of Tamiya, Wingnut, or some of the most recent Trumpeter/Hobby Boss releases.

Last night was mostly getting the major cockpit elements together. There's not really all that much - but the Zulu's pit is pretty spartan anyway with those big MFDs dominating things.



The kit provides decals for a lot of the control surfaces, but I'll probably trust to paint instead for most of them. More to come - have to deal with some ejector pin marks in the armor panels flanking the pilot and gunner and creating some seat padding, then it'll be on to priming and painting some things.

[TRM]

Very cool Doogs!! Count me in!! Love the looks of that office!!

[deafpanzer]

FREAKING awesome! I enjoy rotary builds myself so you definitely have my attention. Wondering if they have PE sets for this kit already or not?

[wbill76]

Hope you get a break on this one Doogs...looks like it's off to a good start with the interior.

[WigWag Workshop]

Oh Yeah!!! This is going to be EPIC!!! I am along for the fight.

-Steven

[doogsatx/]

Jan 28, 2015 12:44:18 GMT -5 deafpanzer said:

FREAKING awesome! I enjoy rotary builds myself so you definitely have my attention. Wondering if they have PE sets for this kit already or not?

There's NOTHING for this kit. But that's par for the course. The AH-1 gets no love in aftermarket land. Hopefully this kit will merit at least some masks from Eduard or something, but they drag their feet like crazy on Kitty Hawk stuff.

I will, however, be using one piece of aftermarket...

[wing_nut]

I saw the gun barrels and got a little flush. Gonna had t start thinking about an egg beater one of these days. Never thought I do a ship and got 2 now so it's in the realm of possibilities. U'll be checking in here./

[deafpanzer]

Oh yeah! You can't go wrong with the AM gun barrels!

[doogsatx/]

Got some primer thrown at the cockpit bits last night. This one's going to be a bit tricky, since much of the cockpit is black, but made up of different materials so they are "different" blacks. I'll be tackling it with a few different blacks and a few with some drops of brown or green or whatnot to give some very slight distinction.

[dupes]

I so so wish they would do this in 1/35.

That and an AH-64 while they're at it!

[doogsatx/]

Feb 5, 2015 11:02:36 GMT -5 dupes said:

I so so wish they would do this in 1/35.

That and an AH-64 while they're at it!

I'm happy enough with it in 1/48 - four-blade rotors take up a hell of a lot of space! Now if they did one with the blade-fold...

[doogsatx/]

Started getting into cockpit paint work last night. Kitty Hawk calls for the entire tub to be Dark Gull Gray, but every reference pic I have shows predominantly black, save for the cockpit floor (and I'm guessing the aft bulkhead). Bit of masking and some Gunze 317 and blam:



From there I got started on the "shades of black" work. Tamiya XF-1 for the seat "cushions". Vallejo Game Color black for the electronics rack on the rear bulkhead and around the armor panels. XF-1 + XF-22 RLM Grey for the armor panel surfaces. I'm planning on bringing in some Liquitex acrylic ink as well, and a few other options, before moving into the drybrushing and detail work.

[JimD]

I'm really hoping this one plays out well...unlike some of the other Kitty Hawk builds I've seen get abandoned. I'd love to build this one myself, but I'm not sold on them considering some of the things I've heard....looks like it's going well so far though...

...and that barrel is a gorgeous.

[doogsatx/]

More black shading tonight - this time with Liquitex Acrylic Ink on the seat frames, instrument panels and control sticks. I also discovered much to my joy that literally everything in the cockpit - save the aft bulkhead, which is already glued down - can be installed after the fuselage is closed. That's going to make masking so much easier down the road!

[doogsatx/]

Feb 6, 2015 12:48:51 GMT -5 JimD said:

I'm really hoping this one plays out well...unlike some of the other Kitty Hawk builds I've seen get abandoned. I'd love to build this one myself, but I'm not sold on them considering some of the things I've heard....looks like it's going well so far though...

...and that barrel is a gorgeous.

Fit so far has been great - once the parts are cleaned up. There's a frustrating degree of "tiny flash" that needs to be cleaned up. And they've dropped their annoying PE instrument panels and side consoles as of a few kits ago - which was a major factor in why I bailed on the Jaguar a few years back.

So...hopefully this one makes it.

Though I will say - I glued together the stub wings and exhaust housing tonight, and with that tiny flash cleaned up, fit was absolutely perfect. If the rest of the kit keeps going together well, I'm certainly hopeful.

[coro69]

great inspiration with your black coloring variations... so it proves one more time, black is not black...

[deafpanzer]

Looking real good!

[doogsatx/]

Last night I encountered my first real point of frustration with this kit. The intakes.

The ejector pin marks are one thing, But the pins and mounting holes ruin basically any hope of a correct interior intake.

[doogsatx/]

Lots of progress! Intakes installed! Engine access doors installed! Exhaust housing and tail boom installed! Fuselage closed!



The fuselage goes together very well, absolutely zero problems. Same with the intakes (aside from those nasty internal nits mentioned above). The engine doors close up nicely, too, which is a relief.



The biggest issue, fit-wise, is definitely the exhaust housing. I found significant interference with the rear engine compartment bulkheads, so I ripped them out. After that, carefully applied pressure and solvent welding got everything properly situated.



There's a small bell hump on the tail that sits a bit lower than the spine. I need to verify that it should sit level with it, and then do some building up and sanding down. The rest of the tail boom was a great fit with the fuselage.

This assembly is wildly out of order with the Kitty Hawk manual, which has you add all kinds of bits before getting to the major airframe pieces. Yeah, screw that. The only allowances I made were for the PE mesh screens that went into hollow openings. Knowing my luck, I'd somehow end up dropping them inside after closing the fuselage, so they went in first.

More to come!

[deafpanzer]

Glad you won the battle against the intakes! Looking great... looking forward to more!

[JimD]

Well that's it, I am going to have to order one now. With the main assembly behind you it's certainly encouraging. The tail boom fit is what I though might end up causing problems. Good to see things are pretty straightforward.

Looks great.

[doogsatx/]

I'm still worried about the nose and glass, but if it's like the rest of the kit so far it'll be manageable.

[DennisM]

I love it. That looks awesome.

I really like your photos too. Clear, crisp and detailed.

Dennis

[madairbrush]

The details of this kit are awesome. I love this gatling gun!!

[wbill76]

It always amazes me at times on what criteria the kit makers use to determine the build order in kit instructions. It's been a long time since I actually followed one 100% as directed...

The Zulu does look very nice with all the major components assembled. I also hear you on the PE screen issue...been there and done that too!

[Wes]

Thats some great work Doogs.

Looking forward to the next update.

[doogsatx/]

Got a lot of cleanup done on the Zulu last night, and started messing around with the skids (I want to mount them early so I know how much weight we're talking about adding up front). It immediately became obvious that these will be the hardest part of the build.



The skid struts are separate parts, meaning there are eight points that need to be glued in place. And there is wobbliness, which will make alignment interesting.

Right now, I'm thinking about gluing the struts to the skids, THEN installing them into the chopper so I can fight the alignment fight from just four glue points (and using epoxy to give myself some working time). Unless anybody has a better idea!

[deafpanzer]

Now she is starting to look like a Cobra... I like it!

[JimD]

I think the method you describe is probably the best route. Looks like it' won't be too bad once things are welded down. It's coming along nicely.

[doogsatx/]

So I got the struts glued to the skids last night. Found that pre-positioning everything on the chopper was the best way - the struts have a pretty positive fit to the skids - or rather - they absolutely will not fit anywhere else except where they fit, so you don't have to worry that much about alignment. Touch-n-flow around the edges of them locked everything down nicely. Now I'll only have to worry about the fuselage connections when it comes to alignment.



Also decided maybe I should test fit the clear bits - and they fit very well indeed!





Other than that, starting to add lots of small bits to the fuselage. At this rate I should be looking at paint inside a week.