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Hi All, Diving head first into my first large scale model. In this case, it's Academy's lovely 1/35th scale AH-1Z Viper attack helicopter (I'm a dye-in-the-wool 1/72nd guy. Just ask @Greg W). I love the AH-1 series of helicopters, and really dig this particular variant (as well as the OG Vietnam War era AH-1G). I've picked up just about everything made for this model, so let's see if I can make it work. The box art; The aftermarket goodies; First thing to accomplish, and the most involved aspect as far as integrating an aftermarket set was preparing the forward fuselage for the Legend Productions AH-1Z avionics and ammunition bays. I drilled holes around the perimeter of the molded in bay access doors, then used a craft saw to removed the doors. Various sanding sticks and files were used to removed the remnants of the doors up to the door panel lines and clean up the opening. Here's the bays loosely fitted into place. I will permanently glue them into place once the bays are painted and the forward fuselage is assembled. Thanks to @Greg W for helping me get these fitted into place. His knowledge on how to tackle installing resin sets of this type was greatly appreciated. Here's the tail boom with some photoetch screens and Flying Leathernecks FMV antenna fairing fitted in place; Thanks for looking!

This started out as a quick build but I couldn't help myself and started to add details. I added a couple of resin stretchers to the side litters along with some tissue blankets. The cockpit had some bits and pieces added and I refined some other kit parts. The stars and bars on the tail boom were added to make it look more like the choppers from the film/T.V. series. upload pictures imgupload image hosting 12mb pictures upload picture sharing free photo hosting Thanks for looking