Apache AH-64A, Maly Modelarz, 1/25

[jaffro]

Greetings, people of flying thingies forum. All my years building paper models, this will be my first flying thingy.

Maly Apache, enlarged from 1/33 to 1/24. (Then I'm going to crash it, or something).



Having recently finished my M1070/M1000 build, it's time to start on something to put on the back. The M1070 HET is primarily used by the US Army to transport Abrams tanks and various other heavy vehicles into and out of war zones etc. I didn't want to go with something obvious, like an Abrams, I wanted something different. I'm actually going with a whole convoy of vehicles, but the M1070 and its load are the centerpiece, largely inspired by this picture I found of a plastic kit...



Cool idea, I thought, and I already had the Apache kit in my stash. It's actually the very first kit I ever purchased, way before I had the confidence to try anything like this.

So basically, the scenario is this: An Apache has gone down near a US army base in Iraq, during the first gulf war. It's not too badly damaged that it can't be repaired and it's not in an area that is going to put a "soft" target like the M1070 at risk while retrieving it so a small convoy will be despatched to bring it back.

I'm basically making all this up based on the fact that this model will be entered in model competitions (mostly going up against plastic) and I know how picky some of these judges can be so I'd like to cover all the "realistic" bases if possible. Having said that though, I just want a cool looking model but I'm open to suggestion.

I haven't decided exactly how to crash it yet, ie; what kind of damage it will have, but I have some ideas, based on a few pictures I've found. I'm also toying with the idea of just having it intact, in "transport" mode, as they seem to transport these almost fully assembled.



So for now, to start off, I've had the kit enlarged at a local print shop, printed in colour on 300gsm matte photo paper to preserve all the detail, but to match the truck (and cover all my usual mess) I will be painting the model, which is going to mean I have to replace printed detail (rivets, panels etc) with extra layers and decals. The rivets alone should be about as much fun as the 51 wheels on my last model. Here's a size comparison of the original parts page with an enlarged copy. (130%).



I'll be starting this while also returning to my Millennium Falcon build, hoping to finish both of them before a big show in June.

[modelperry]

Just in case:

Maly Apache

greg

[jaffro]

Thanks Greg, that'll come in handy.

[Mike1158]

Sounds like a fascinating project, I wish you luck with it, looking forward to the pictures.

[jaffro]

Well it's been a slow start to this one but I'm getting there slowly. Mainly because I'll be customising this a fair bit but haven't really decided on exactly where I'm going with it yet, so I decided to go ahead with the cockpit and take it from there.

Enlarging to 1/25 has given me some options to add extra detail so I've gone with some extra layers and used laser cut rivets and scrap card for buttons. I've gone with a combination of printed and painted parts here, utilising the Mig Ammo crystal paints... Red, Clear and green for the various buttons, screens and gauges.

I scratch built the control sticks as the kit parts were a bit too flat, I've added 3D foot wells and some rudder pedals to replace the printed on ones, they're a bit rough but will hardly be seen, I just wanted some depth. Nearly every button, switch, dial etc has been represented in 3D. I've also placed the front instrument panels on a bit of an angle as they didn't look right the way the kit has them placed.



I'm really happy with how this has turned out so far, it's not perfect and these crappy pictures don't do it justice, I'll try to get some better ones another time. I'm not sure how visible this will even be on the finished model as it will be a bit dirty after the desert landing/extraction.



Next up... I have no idea. As much as I'd love to replace every printed rivet with a real one, there's just so many of them, I would end up paying 5x the cost of the kit for laser cut rivets. I've purchased a riveting wheel, used for plastic modeling, and I'm going to experiment with that on the skins, hoping it's going to come up looking ok after painting. It's going to indent the rivets into the cardstock, basically scoring it where I don't want it to fold... should be interesting.

[YOAVHOZMI]

great work with the cockpit

YOAV

[Falco]

Is the cockpit of the real thing that roomy???

[jaffro]

Originally Posted by YOAVHOZMI

great work with the cockpit

YOAV

Thanks Yoav.

Originally Posted by Falco

Is the cockpit of the real thing that roomy???

Probably not, doesn't appear to be anyway. I've just built it as it comes in the kit, the real thing has a bit more "junk" around the seats and the instrument panels do appear to be a bit closer, it's hard to tell without a couple of 1/25 pilots in the seats.

[Kevin WS]

My take on how you model it, is don't smash it up too much if it's going in a competition - smashed up models I find are always hard to model convincingly in plastic, let alone in paper!.

[jaffro]

Yeah I don't plan on smashing it up too much, my theory is, if it was smashed up too badly in enemy territory, they'd more than likely just destroy what was left anyway. The basic scenario I'm going with is that it has come down lightly, close enough to a US base for them to attempt recovery.