Academy 1/35 USMC AH-1Z "Shark Mouth"

[jmurphy18]

Lovely work Alex! Very nicely done here!!
I so do understand Patience..... Remember the 2 vultures on the tree?? Patience hell I want to kill something . That could be me sometimes LOL. HAGD!!

[alextheblue]

Great save on the paintwork Alex - that's looking superb

Cheers Neil!

After a couple of beers I'm feeling more bullet proof and impervious to comment about failing eye sight and instructions rise to the fore. However I'm too much of a gentleman to bring it to light.....

Ps....it's snow blindness grey so hard to see ....don't worry we all do it. missing something obvious while trying to press on.

Very kind of you to describe it as "snow blindness" digger. In my case it is just sheer stupidity!

Lovely work Alex! Very nicely done here!!
I so do understand Patience..... Remember the 2 vultures on the tree?? Patience hell I want to kill something . That could be me sometimes LOL. HAGD!!

Cheers jmurphy! You know what they say - when patience was being handed out, I couldn't be bothered to wait for my share!!

[alextheblue]

Update Nine

I'm trying to press on with the decals, but they are proving to be a nightmare!!

According to the box, they are supposed to be cartograf........



Gotta say, they are not like any cartograf decals I have used before. They crinkle and fold onto themselves as soon as you slide them off of the backing paper. The sharks teeth that surround the gun turret gnarled themselves into a little ball as I was trying to slide them into place. Arrrghhhhh!!!!!

I managed to peel them apart with the tip of my craft knife and some really fine tweezers, but big sections of the decal was a right off. I have ended up painting most of the teeth in by hand - so please don't go looking too close!! Very disappointing as I built Academy's "Sundowners" Phantom not too long ago, and those decals went down a treat. To cut a long story short, there's going to be a lot of the stencils that won't make it onto this models and do you know what - I couldn't give a flying fig! The colour of the stencils is so close to the base colour, you can barely see them anyway.

Bit of masking to be done.





And voila, the underside is done.



And here is where I'm at.









To be honest, I'm not sure if I'm going to finish it in time. There's not a whole heap to do, but it's a lot of the fiddly stuff that can take a bit of time. Luckily, all of the ordnance is done and fix to attach, but I still have to finish the decals on side, chuck a wash on and then touch up the bits that need a bit of final attention. It's going to be touch and go, bur I'll give it my best shot.

Thanks for taking a look and stay safe everyone.

[RangerNeil]

Looks good enough to forgo the wash and declare the build finished - enough for whats required here??

[Stokesy44]

Looks superb, beautiful paint and weathering. Cracking job all round

[CygnusX1]

How have I managed to miss this thread?
What an amazing build. Some superb work there, and it looks amazing.

[digger303]

Another marvelous attack chopper looking the business

[Kevthemodeller]

Looking really good there Alex, I have to admire all the work you put in to the rotor masking

[Tomcat64]

That's absolutely superb work Alex

Don't worry about the deadline at all - I'm intending to leave the SIG open for a while longer given the current circumstances we're all facing so no rush.

[jmurphy18]

Awesome work here Alex! Nice job on the decals!! The final results is well worth the effort

[alextheblue]

Thanks for all the kind comments chaps, very much appreciated as always. Apologies for not replying individually, but time got away with me on this one and I am ashamed to say that I didn't get finished on time. I hate not finishing SiGs and GBs on time, but sometimes you just have to admit that you can't cheat old father time.

Well. Is it finished?? Not really - bits missing, decals and stencils incomplete and weathering not finished, but sometimes you've just got to say - to hell with it, that's enough!!!

The kit itself is really good. Very nicely engineered and it went together beautifully. I can't comment on the accuracy etc., as I know diddly-squat about choppers, but from reference pics I was working from, it looked very good. For me though, whirly-birds just ain't my thing. I've always built armour, but last year I started building aircraft and thoroughly enjoyed it. Mainly WW2 planes, but I've done a couple of more modern fighters - enjoyed them all. Tried my hand at a car kit and hated it so much, I binned it half way through (to date, that is the only kit that I haven't put by, "to finish later"). Never fancied a bike kit, which is odd as I have ridden bikes since I was 9 and have built more real ones than you can shake a stick at.

But, you've got to try these things. How are you going to know what you do and don't like until you give them a go.

I won't post anything on the reveal section as I've missed the deadline, but here is my feeble effort at a modern attack chopper. Please don't look too close!!!















And now I can get back to my first modelling love!!!!



Thanks again for all the very kind comments and to everyone who stopped by and took a look!

Keep well everyone and stay safe!!

[Hawkmoon]

Looks good to me and nice work

[Stokesy44]

Wow, what a stunner. Superb stuff

[Donkeywalloper]

So you had a few problems with it and its missing a decal here and there
Its an awesome build and completion, and truly a winner.
Back to the Armour and loving the work.
DW

[digger303]

You achieved a wonderful result are you sure your not really aircraft builder trying to escape armor.

[RangerNeil]

It looks excellent to me - we are our own worse critics most if not all the time. The deadline for the build has been extended so if you wanted to do the weathering you have time. Personally I would say it honestly looks good enough now to submit as a finished build.

[Kevthemodeller]

Very nice Alex you've captured the shading effect really well

[Tomcat64]

That looks superb Alex!

As RangerNeil mentioned I've extended the time for this SIG in the current circumstances so please feel free to add anything you want to, and definitely post something up in the reveal threads mate

[jmurphy18]

Looks great Alex! Very well done!!

[smokeriderdon]

You did a great job! Looks awesome!

[alextheblue]

Looks good to me and nice work

Cheers Hawk!

Wow, what a stunner. Superb stuff

Cheers Stokesy!

So you had a few problems with it and its missing a decal here and there
Its an awesome build and completion, and truly a winner.
Back to the Armour and loving the work.
DW

Thanks DW. As a fellow tread-head, you understand the draw to armour!!

You achieved a wonderful result are you sure your not really aircraft builder trying to escape armor.

Cheers digger! Escape armour! Never!! Well, not for too long anyway.

It looks excellent to me - we are our own worse critics most if not all the time. The deadline for the build has been extended so if you wanted to do the weathering you have time. Personally I would say it honestly looks good enough now to submit as a finished build.

Thanks RangerNeil! You're absolutely right; when it comes to our own work, we tend to only see the bits we're not happy with. And thanks, I'll get over to the reveal section and stick some pics up!!

Very nice Alex you've captured the shading effect really well

Cheers Kev!

That looks superb Alex!

As RangerNeil mentioned I've extended the time for this SIG in the current circumstances so please feel free to add anything you want to, and definitely post something up in the reveal threads mate

Cheers Tomcat! Just on my way to the reveal thred!

Looks great Alex! Very well done!!

Cheers jmurphy!

You did a great job! Looks awesome!

Cheers smokerideron!