Enclosed are photographs of my recently completed AH-1W.  The goal here was to try and replicate the dirty grimy look theses Marine helos get in service.  The kit went together very well – a bit of putty here and there but all in all very straight forward.

I wanted to represent a Cobra at rest and I thought it would be neat to try and do the RBF covers etc – so a little lead foil, dental floss and plasticard and voila – a Cobra ready to for a trip to do a bit of damage.

The dirty appearance came from pre-shading with flat black, normal painting followed by a wash with raw sienna and flat black and then some selective light dusting of flat black with the airbrush.  I haven’t quite got the hang of washes yet – still chasing my tail around with drips and watermarks – still from a reasonable distance, the effect is very good and I am happy with the way it turned out.  The exhaust staining was burnt sienna followed by aircraft interior black followed by flat black.

Graham

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