What a beautiful build Jim. Un…frickin’ believable man!! Paint and weathering are just off the charts.
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Wonderful! Especially liked the care and accuracy of the optical unit. That was above and beyond! Beautiful work on the panel accents too.
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That is absolutely incredible.
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Stunning build Jim. Great paint job and the attention to detail is first rate.
tim 
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Many thanks @HeavyArty @Johnnych01 @kornbeef @mustang1989 @Builder2010 @Chris_Bryan @litespeed
You’re all too kind! And thanks for the appreciation of the optic upgrade. It is baffling why the kit has solid plastic option or clear, but absolutely no detail inside the ball. I’m very glad that it passes muster!
Main rotor has detail painting done, lots of fiddly masking as black on bottom and light ghost grey on top, and the gloss coat drying ready for decals. Once I have that finished will put it all together and try to do some decent shots with a neutral background.
Thanks again everyone, it’s great to have company through this, a build I have enjoyed thoroughly.
Cheers, Jim.
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I am calling the AH-1Z complete. The final part was the orange light on top. As I stated in the helicopter campaign thread I had to replace the rotor pitch actuator rods with 30amp fuse wire, as the plastic parts kept breaking during handling. Rotors are light ghost grey with same weathering as the fuselage, and black on the under sides, and allclad steel on the leading edges.
Only issues with kit was the canopy needing careful gluing due to slight warp, hellfire connection points not very positive, and the rotor rods as mentioned. Then there is the empty sensor ball, but I enjoyed making that up. And I would have liked the option for folding rotors in the kit. Other than that I would say it is a great kit and highly recommend it.
I used the eduard seat harnesses, non included in the kit, and the eduard screens in the cockpit, along with the DEF models 20mm cannon, all worthwhile additions I think.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this one, I certainly did!
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Jim, that’s possibly the nicest helicopter I have seen made… The finished paint is standout and the shark mouth and the optic ball sensor take it up a level or three… Fantastic work.
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Certainly have enjoyed your build Jim and the results look stunning. The work on the optic ball sensor turret was inspired. Thanks for letting us follow your journey.
tim 
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Great job. It came out looking very nice.
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Absolutely beautiful job Jim! Incredible really; definitely one of the best I’ve ever seen
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Really really nicely finished, I’ve really enjoyed watching it come together.
Keith
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dude if you photoshopped that model into a realistic background I’d swear it was a real viper.
that is some amazing work you’ve done there!
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Wow! This is a amazing build!
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Great job Jim, it’s a very nice looking Cobra.
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Beautiful!
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Congratulations, this must have been a lot of work, and it certainly paid of!!!
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As aircraft modellers, we should have more attention for diorama’s, it really brings a model to live.
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Thanks to everyone very, very much for such nice comments. It was indeed a lot of work, much more than I anticipated, but extremely fulfilling. It turned out to be one of those builds that almost everything you try out goes well. The all grey finish worried me at the beginning, but a couple of simple techniques and it was just as I imagined it before starting. Once again I learned a lot, and moved out of my comfort zone several times, therefore increasing said zone!
I like the idea of a diorama for this but I’ve never done one. I’m buying an acrylic case for it and am thinking of replicating a concrete airfield landing zone on the base, I think an aircraft carrier surface would be beyond me.
I meant to take a pic with one of my Challenger 2 tanks for an interesting scale comparison, might set that up at some point…
Thanks again everyone, I’m glad you enjoyed the big grey sharks progress as much as I did. I can’t believe I didn’t notice the sharks eyes until I attached the little black optical sensors at the end of the build, what a ploncker!
Cheers, Jim.
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Ok… That makes 2 of us lol…and I wouldn’t of noticed unless you mentioned it…
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Oh goodness . That is absolute styrene porn of the highest quality.
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