Despite being the first purpose-built attack helicopter, the initial version of Bell’s AH-1 Cobra has been nearly ignored by kit manufacturers until now. Special Hobby’s new kit relieves the suffering of the 1/72 scale community with a gem of a kit.
This appears to be a significant step up in quality for the Czech manufacturer, noted for its variety of short-run offerings. The parts are crisply molded with fine recessed details and flash-free tiny details. Even the well-detailed cockpit fits inside the fuselage without modification. Major parts feature alignment pins/holes, unlike many previous Special Hobby models.
Included in the kit are several options: choice of the early tail with the torque rotor on the left side; early or beefed-up landing skids; three turret configurations (the empty one is a resin add-in); rocket pods; minigun pods; and the M35 Vulcan 20mm cannon with fuselage ammunition saddles. A tow bar and wheels are also provided. Decals include markings for six Cobras: two in Vietnam service and four weapons trainers. The instrument panel decals look OK, but there’s an ad in the instructions for Eduard’s color photoetched-metal detail set and resin seats.
The fit of the parts is good — the fitting of the parts, however, not so much. Let me explain: Special Hobby’s gorgeous color instructions devote a page to the parts map, seven full pages of five-view paint/markings diagrams, but only two and a half pages to the 21-step assembly sequence. The small diagrams show the small parts even smaller than they are, making it difficult to determine how and where they attach. A few parts are impractically small; the tiny clear anticollision beacon is less than a millimeter long and maybe a half millimeter in diameter. I somehow managed to install it with my finest tweezers, but I had to hold my breath lest I blow the tiny orb onto my parts-eating carpet.
One of the options is a choice of main rotor masts and the accompanying mount for the top of the fuselage. The assemblies look different and the instructions offer a choice, but they don’t explain why you would want one or the other.
Another assembly problem was the five-part canopy. It can be assembled open or closed, but the mating surfaces are so thin that a fragile assembly is the only result. Same goes for the ultra-tiny positioning divots and pins on the stub-mounted weapons pylons.
I chose one of the colorful weapons trainers in olive drab with international orange markings. (Any time I paint a bright color, I apply a flat white undercoat, then the color.) I used Testor Model Master enamels all around. The decals went on perfectly.
Only 16 hours were needed to finish this little beauty. Clearer instructions would have helped, but it’s hard to fault the results. Special Hobby has already announced later, flat-window Cobra versions for future release.
Note: A version of this review appeared in the January 2015 FineScale Modeler.