Hi Markiii, yes the kit has quite a bit of resin and etch to make it into a Taiwanese bird which is what I’m going to do. New cowling, rear doors with cutouts to clear the weapons pylons, non hinged stabilisers and a new IR jammer mount with reflective stickers. Plus a lot of the various vents, hinge and small details in etch. The seat belts are for Academy’s AH-1Z but certainly look the same to me.
I was looking at your bird the other night Gino and read about the history on the link you posted. It made me think to watch a bit of Full Metal Jacket but noticed those on the film are turbine powered so may be repainted ex RAF Wessex. Theres a good write up about Bravo Nevember the only Chinook to survive the Atlantic Conveyor sinking during the Falkland’s War
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/37788/the-amazing-tale-of-bravo-november-the-british-chinook-helicopter-that-refused-to-die
Yup, it basically has the same parts as Werner’s Wings OH-58D Update Set has. You can also build it as a US version if you like. They were the same.
They were. The whole film was shot in England and the Brit military supplied the helos. The “Hue” scenes were shot in an old, abandoned gas factory near London. The tanks came from a Belgian collector, they are M41s, not M48s as were used in Vietnam by the USMC.
I knew it had been filmed here but wasn’t aware of the use of RAF aircraft. On an OH58D note I’ve just ordered this from the Czech Republic from Armycast. Looks like my plans may change to building my kit as a US or even Croatian aircraft because as far as I know M3 Browning’s weren’t on Taiwanese birds. Have to make a few changes to the instrument panel cover to depict the airbags.
Hey, do you have a link? I have been looking for that set and thought it was OOP.
Even checked their website.
Oh, never mind . Just checked their site again and it is listed again as ‘new’. Going to order right now👍
Hi Markiii, I know what you mean I’ve been trawling for ages looking for this upgrade and then thought to check their web page again. I’m sure this wasn’t on there last month.
I had looked a few months ago and it wasn’t. In their store, so I just gave up.
Glad I saw your post, I just ordered two sets.
Thanks
Nice work so far, is the dog house from the kit?
You are further along than I am on mine.
Yes, the doghouse is in the kit. It’s a reboxing of the Academy/MRC kit with extras. Amazing how the figures ahow how small the aircraft are in real life Oliver.
Some great builds going on here, well done guys!
I have just about finished the cockpit, not my best work but I’m planning on closing up the canopy anyway and it passes muster from a distance!
Painted black, then wear marks with rubber black which looks much more pronounced in pics than in real life. Was going for rubbed marks rather than chips, if you know what I mean. Used the same rubber black for the seat fabric and added some texture with brush before it dried, AK 3rd gen acrylic stuff. Added the eduard screens and seatbelts and picked out the details. Didn’t use white as I felt it was too stark so mixed up a light grey for that. Also did a very light wash with abteilung starship filth oil paint to lighten up the black slightly.
Got a little bit of touching up to do then time to close up the fuselage.
Cheers,Jim.
I have detailed up the sensor ball with some greebles and painted it to try to match the original slightly. It’s a shame the kit has nothing but a hollow space…
Cheers, Jim.
The real thing
!
Fun with greebles
!
Paint on
!
Cover on
!
Looks great Jim. 
a great bit of scratch building there well done indeed.
Thanks Ryan and David. @Tank_1812 @Klaus-Adler, it turned out nicer than I thought it would!
I have a quick question about the correct colours for the AH-1Z. The kit calls for light ghost grey for the main colour and dark ghost grey for the upper colour. However I have seen suggestions that medium grey fs35237 is the correct upper colour on cybermodeller and on a couple of builds I have seen. So what would be right?
Thanks again, Jim.
The current, standard 3-color Navy gray camo scheme is Medium Gray (FS35237) upper surfaces, Dark Ghost Gray (FS36320) main fuselage, and Light Gray (FS36495) for the underside.
USN Paint and Markings guide.
SH-60B/F, HH-60H, MH-60R/S
Aw man, three colours! Thanks Gino @HeavyArty, mate. I bought the light and dark ghost grey stupidly following the kit instructions. Will get a hold of the other colours. Will be using AK Real Colours for this one. Will do some spay outs and see how they look.
Thanks again, Jim.
EDIT: Sorry, guess the previous post was a little confusing, and doesn’t really apply.
As always, the USMC has to be different. Current USMC helicopters only use two colors, omitting the Light Gray (FS36495) on the underside. Also, they use Light Ghost Gray (FS36375) for the main fuselage, and the Medium Gray (FS35237) on the upper surfaces.
USMC Painting & Markings guides.
AH-1W/Z
UH-1N/Y
MH-53E
Ah cool, thanks for the correction Gino, as always your knowledge in invaluable and expansive and very much appreciated! Just the medium grey to buy then. When you think of all the work that goes into producing a kit with such great detail, why do the manufacturers manage to get the colours wrong so often!?
Thanks again @HeavyArty bud, Jim.
Gino, I’m looking at a AH-1T for this campaign. The kit comes with decals for HMM-261 or 263. Colors are nothing like the W/Z shown above. Any way to check if the kit instructions are even close? HMM-261 tri color Flat Black/Dark Ghost Gray and Field Green, HMM-263 is overall European Green.