This year has started off with a big project. I am building the USMC AH-1Z "Shark Mouth" in 1/35th scale from Academy models.
I thought this would be a pretty straight forward build, the offering from Academy is nicely detailed. However after taking a couple of weeks to research the project I soon discovered how much more involved it would be.
In particular the cockpit, the model has a few basic details like the seats, monitors and joysticks but if you look at real pictures of the cockpit you see how much is crammed into that space! I'm talking about control panels, electrical boxes, cables, brackets, wiring, and tubing. It would be hard to move around in there I would imagine!. I did get some upgrade kits to help out a little, but most of it would have to be scratch built.
I started with the seats. The real thing has textured padded covers on the seats, I recreated this using Tamiya's epoxy putty. Adding small amounts of it I spread it out with a toothpick to cover the surface. I then used a photo etched grill stuck to a toothpick to stamp the pattern on to the seats. I also added some padded 'wings' to the sides.
I applied the same technique to one of the side panels that also has padding on it.
Most notably missing around the pilots seat were control panels, electrical boxes and hoses. I have scratch built boxes to the left and right of the seat, added electrical boxes on the shelf above the seat and a new bracket for the mission grip. The one with the kit was solid plastic, it should be a bent piece of sheet metal.
The corrugated tubing that goes up and down behind the seat was a tricky challenge. I tried using a thick piece of wire, then covered it in putty so I could calve in the groves and creases. This did not work...Instead I have gone all putty, rolling it out into cylinders and bending into shape, I will make up the tubes in sections. To get the groves I made some small tool with raised lines so I can put the putty in the middle of them and roll it to create the groves. Green Stuff World have a similar tool, but I haven't been able to get my hands on one.
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