Armed RAH-66

 

 

 

 

During this build I ignored half of the color instructions, since they did not match the original at all. For the main color I used Revell Aqua 65 "Bronze Green" + 08 "Black" + 91 "Iron" in ratios 50/40/10.
I like the result better than the color revell gave in the instructions, 46 "Nato-Olive". Way to yellow!
The small amount of metallic iron also added a slight sparkle and roughness, giving the the coarse look of the original paint. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately the two shells really didn´t fit well together. I used some model putty and filed here and there but there is no way to remove the seam line completely.
Especially on the nose optics there is a large difference in shape between both halfs so I filled it up best I could and used thicker paint that I tried to carefully smooth out to make it more like the mirro-flat surface of the real sensor glass. 

 

 

The rotor right before final asembly. Luckily no glue got between the rotor shaft and the mounting cylinder, so the rotor ended up spinning freely. 

 

Some of the decals seem to have some (age related?) issues. Even after using Set&Softener and adding matte varnish, some of the decals still have visible film and are brighter, almost as if peeling off, but they are firmly attached to the model... 

Had a little accident on the back of the helo. The matte varnish started to peel off because I went over it again when it was only half dry and took the decal with it. I managed to salvage it by carfully removing the peeled-off parts of the varnish film and reapplying another layer of varnish over the decal. Some small residue remained but it is not really visible when looking at it under normal conditons, so I´m happy with it. 

The canopy is not yet glued, I´m still looking for figures. AH-64 figures would work gear-wise but since the RAH-66 has a side-cyclic and the CPG does not have a TEDAC, the Apache figures are in incorrect poses.