Heavy Attack - US Army AH-64E Apache Guardian

[Dragon]

Just catching up on your build and fantastic work so far! Looking forward to following the rest of the build. 

[John1]

Thanks much Dragon!    Just have a few pics to show how the cockpit looks secured in half of the fuselage.   

 

 

 

 

Now that I've got the cockpit secured, I'll start cleaning up / adding some details of the pilot's and CP/G instrument panel sidewalls.   Goal is eventually to have things look like this:

 For starters, I need to clean up the gaps / seams on the sidewalls of the IP's, need to add the DO NOT GRAB decals (on the real thing they are decals so at least I don't have to worry about the crappy kit ones not looking painted on) and I may take a crack at replicating the CP/G's slide-out glareshield on the side of his IP.   You can see it in the pic above, it's a small-ish rectangular panel that is protruding out with the DO NOT GRAB marking on it.   The kit just has a solid surface.  I think it would add a nice bit of detail to replicate this.    

[Model_Monkey]

Looks good, John!  Enjoying the show.

[Uncarina]

You are nailing this John!

 

Cheers,  Tom

[John1]

Fuselage is sealed up!  Got some sanding to do but all in all, Takom did a nice job here.   Some of the gaps between the fuselage sections fall on actual panel lines, which makes life a bit easier.   While I was at it, I also scratch built the retractable glare shields on the CP/G's instrument panel.  On the Takom part, it's just solid plastic.   Here's the real thing (ignore the red markings over the M4, I grabbed this picture from another FB post discussing the M4 rack).  You can see how those shields can be pulled forward and also have they curve inwards a bit.   I opted not to have mine extended as much, figured that the CP/G would pull them out once he's seated.   Also note the 5 holes present in the aft frame of the pilot's cockpit.   I drilled those out with a .5mm pine vice. 

 

I also added the kit's DO NOT GRAB decals.   Since the real things are stick-on placards, these crappy decals don't look that out of place.  Also added a couple of other placards to the sides of the CP/G's instrument panel.   These came from my spares bin. 

 

 

 

I word of advice to those who are going with the 3D printed cockpit parts.  I would hold off mounting the side plate with the ELT radio and M4 rack until after the fuselage is assembled and sanded.   It just gets in the way of pretty much everything you are doing.   Speaking of M4's, I mounted the pilot's M4 / stowage rack at this time. 

 

Thanks for checking in guys, comments and critiques always welcome! 

 

 

 

 

 

[John1]

Small update, added some details to the internal canopy frame work.   The real thing is somewhat "busy".

 

 

The kit provides fine diameter wire for the defroster duct and some nearly useless PE parts for the vents.   I used one of these, I think I'll probably rip it out and replace with something scratchbuilt from plastic.   Here's my center canopy section so far.   Took quite a while to mask it.   Wish Takom had replicated the Meng kit and provided pre-cut masks!  I added some additional wiring, the rearview mirror and some other odds and ends. 

 

Also added a few more bits to the cockpit   These include the last two maps (one on the pilot's glareshield, the other stuffed next to the CP/G's seat.   The ubiquitous green log book was also added to this area.   I made this from a piece of folded PE with a thick section of PE inside, scribed on it's sides to replicate the pages.   Once that was done, I added a decal to it from the spares box to finish it off.  Also added a decal placard to the gunner's central targeting display and touched up the weathering a bit.  The wires protruding through the blast shield in front of the pilot are part of the defrosting ductwork   Once the central canopy section is installed, I'll (gently) push them up into place.   

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 14, 2023 by John1

[A-10LOADER]

Fantastic work.

Steve

[Uncarina]

The cockpit is looking the part John!

 

Cheers,  Tom

[John1]

Back from a week-long vacation (goodbye Bermuda, I'll miss you) and got a bit of modeling done today. Just puttering around on a couple of tasks. First off, I replicated the antiskid paint applied to the upper surface of the sponsons.  The real thing has some pretty pronounced paint applied.   On earlier Apaches, it was usually black, recent Echo's and ones coming out of the paintshop, seem to be CARC green.   I've seen pics of one Apache with black anti-skid on one side and CARC green on the other, so pretty much anything goes.    Here's a nice picture I found that shows the black version.   It's also a great reference for paint weathering and the typically "rough" installation of "ProSeal" water proofing compound that you see applied to some Apache's side windows.    This stuff is a two-part epoxy that is applied with a brush, a scraper or the crew-chief's finger! 

 

I used Mr Surfacer 1000, hand brushing a small area at a time and them stippling the paint with a cut off brush. Need to work in small sections because this paint dries quickly. I'm pretty happy with the effect.

 

 

Next up, I completed the assembly of the center and left side cockpit canopy panels. It took a fair amount of work. Maybe would have been easier if I glued those two sections together first and then attached to the fuselage? Don't pay any attention to the paint, I sprayed the finished area to check for any surface flaws and also to get a feel for how one of my mixed colors looks on the model. Sharp-eyed viewers will also note that I added a couple of water bottles to the pilot's glareshield. From RL Apache pilot's info, seems that was pretty common during long duration missions. Bottles were from Live Resin, I painted the caps and labels by hand. Have a bottle for the CP/G's cockpit, just haven't figured out where to place it.

 

 

 

 

 

That's it for now, thanks for checking in.  

[SimPlai]

You're doing a good job John.

-Simone P.

[John1]

10 hours ago, SimPlai said:

You're doing a good job John.

-Simone P.

Thanks very much Simone, I owe a great deal of this build to your fantastic parts and seemingly unlimited amount of reference material you have stashed away.   Much appreciated.   

[John1]

Plodding along, the sheer complexity of this model is pretty amazing.   I'm used to models with maybe a dozen parts added to the fuselage after the halves are glued together, in this case I would guess I'm looking at close to a hundred parts that need to be added.    I actually feel this project is closer to building a detailed armor kit vrs an aircraft.  

 

So at this point, I've got the side sponsons and landing gear added, along with most of the avionics access hatches and their tiny PE cooling intake screens.   Adding the sponsons and main landing gear was probably one of the most difficult sub-tasks of any model I've ever built.   The multipart MLG struts needs to be fitted through a small opening in the bottom of the sponsons and then glued to a couple of mounting brackets on the side of the fuselage, while you are holding the fuselage and sponson in place.   I found it to be next to impossible to do this (a third hand would have been nice) and of course the garbage instructions were of no use. Finally, I got some help on FB.   The trick is to glue the shock absorber strut separately to the fuselage side with slow acting glue.   Then insert the main landing gear leg through the sponson opening and try to glue that part onto it's mounting point on the fuselage.  Once done, glue the sponson in place and finally, connect the shock absorber leg to the landing gear strut.  Still a challenge but it was do-able.  

 

After that was done, I decided to make some progress on the painting.   All US Army Apaches are finished in an incredibly boring scheme of overall CARC ("Chemical Agent Resistant Coating") Green / Helo Drab.   This is essentially a dark greenish-grey color that in some light conditions, takes on somewhat of a more brownish tone.  Here's a nice shot that shows an Apache with a pretty new paintjob. 

 

After trying multiple paints and mixes, I've found that AK Real Color US Army Helo Drab seem to be a very nice match for fresh CARC Green.    I've started painting sections of the fuselage using AK's paint (which airbrushes amazingly well BTW) and a few hand-mixed different shades.   At this stage, I'm not really doing the final paintjob, I'm more just trying to get a feel for how the paint looks on the model.   Once I select a subject, I'll then try to replicate the actual weathering.   I will tell you that as tempting as it was to do something like this:

My subject is a relatively current Echo model Apache and either due to not being deployed as much or some change in the paint, most pictures of recent US Army Apaches show them to be in pretty decent condition.    If I ever decide to build a deployed D-model Apache, all bets are off when it comes to weathering.  

 

Anyway, that's my update for this weekend.  Here are a few pictures of my progress.

 

 

 

This picture does a better job of showing the difference in colors that I've achieved so far.   Again, this is nowhere close to the final paintjob. 

 

 

Note the more uniform green color in this shot, primarily due to the lighting I used. 

 

Anyway, that's it for now.   Have a great weekend folks. 

[Uncarina]

That is looking so good John! Taking a plain black interior and a green exterior paint scheme and bringing it to life is very difficult, but you are doing just that. Great attention to detail.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[John1]

Minor update - I've started work on the engine nacelles and the exhaust.   Thought long and hard about whether to show one of the engines (which are amazingly detailed), at this stage, I'm leaning against it.   

 

After taking some significant losses to IR guided SAM's early in the Iraq conflict, the US Army rapidly introduced a suite of defensive upgrades for deployed Apaches.  One notable feature were new exhausts that directed the gases upwards.     Here's a few pictures of the new system.

 

 

 

Here are a few pictures of my nacelle and the exhaust system.   I added the horizontal bar shown in the pictures above from scrap PE.    I also will add the bulkhead that the exhausts connect to.  The kit has this area wide open and a some of it will be visible when viewed from above.    

 

 

 

Also started to do some of the final weathering on this helo.    The upper section of many Apaches seems to fade to a chalky pale-ish green color.   Still very much a work in progress. 

 

 

That's it for now, thanks for looking. 

[John1]

Painting continues.   I touched on it above but when it comes to weathering, I've put a lot of thought into how far I'm going to take things.   When this kit was first announced, I was pretty excited because I always wanted to replicate some of the horrific weathering that you saw on combat-deployed Apaches.   Here's a nice example of how horrible some of these helos got:

 

However, I'm building a circa 2023 Apache, of the latest V6 vintage.   Many (but not all) are newly delivered from the factory and are pretty much immaculate.  Sorry, but I just can't paint mine overall brown (call it CARC Green, Helo Drab, whatever, but these newly painted Apaches appear to be dark brown IMO). 

 

So I'm trying for a more moderately weathered Apache.   There is some controversy on the Apache Modeler's FB page about weathering these models.   Some folks (including some RL Apache pilots / crew) say that most weathering of models is completely unrealistic because it's so extreme and no current vintage Apache would look so ratty.    However, I've found a selection of recent (2022-23) photos that show otherwise.  They don't look as bad as deployed Apaches from 10-15 years ago but they still look a bit "rough".

 

Note multiple areas touched up with fresh CARC Green, including many of the latches on the access panels.   

 

The picture below is a great illustration of some common weathering traits.  Note the chalky greenish paint on the engine nacelles and forward sides of the sponsons, also note that nearly every access panel latch has been touched up in fresh CARC paint.   Lastly, note also that the aft section of the fuselage seems to be in fresher paint.   I see these "features" on many current Apaches.

 

Note again, the fresh(er) paint on the aft part of the fuselage and the very heavy fading on the upper fuselage, 

 

Anyway, so here is where I'm at with my Apache.   Just a couple of notes, the engine nacelles are just pressed into place.  I find it's easier to keep them off while I am doing detail painting and adding all the small parts.   The area on the fuselage they mount to is perfect for holding the model with no fear of breaking parts off or scuffing the paint.   Also, the light in my modeling room tends to make the weathering look a bit more extreme (and more brownish) than it actually is.   That being said, I do plan on touching up some of the paint with fresh CARC Green before I'm done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So that's it for now.   Any and all comments / critiques are welcome! 

Edited September 10, 2023 by John1