Reviewed by Mick Evans

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Werner’s Wings has introduced a fine quality decal sheet depicting final schemes for US Army AH-1F Cobra attack helicopter, designed by William Beasley and produced by Floyd Werner. 

Floyd was a Cobra pilot with the US Army serving during operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. 

The decal sheet contains decal options for aircraft flown by Floyd Werner and his colleagues.  Included in the set is a compact disc containing many photographs of Cobras, from the collections of Floyd and his colleagues along with drawings for producing some of the paint masks required for one of the schemes.  A comprehensive photographic detailed walkaround is also included on the CD.

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The decals are produced in 1/72 and 1/48 scale. They are superbly printed with good colour saturation and excellent register.  The decals have been printed by Cartograf of Italy and as usual the carrier film is ultra thin. My experience with Cartograf decals that I have used in the past is that the decals have to be handled carefully but will snuggle down into the surface detail well.  The carrier film then almost totally disappears under a coat of clear.

A comprehensive set of data decals are also provided in this set so there is no need to refer to the kit decal sheets for any decals.  The instruction sheet is well designed and produced in colour and gives good detail for decal placement.

Markings are provided for the fourteen aircraft as follows:

• AH-1F Cobra 79-23221, “Vivacious Vonnie” flown by CW2 Floyd. S. Werner of C Troop, 1st Sqn, 7th Calvary Regiment, 1st Calvary Division during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1991.  The aircraft is finished in overall FS 34031 with a white shark mouth and eyes on the nose.

• AH-1F Cobra 79-23113, “Betsy” flown by CW2 Al Gnassi of C Troop, 1st Sqn, 7th Calvary Regiment, 1st Calvary Division during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1991.  The aircraft is finished in overall FS 34031 with a white shark mouth and eyes on the nose.

• AH-1F Cobra 67-15643, “Sand Shark” of 2nd Aviation Brigade, 2nd Armoured Calvary Regiment during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1991.  The aircraft is finished in overall FS 33711 with a black shark mouth and eyes on the nose.

• AH-1F Cobra 68-17082 “Wild Thing”, of 2nd Aviation Brigade, 2nd Armoured Calvary Regiment during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1991.  The aircraft is finished in overall FS 33711 with a black shark mouth and eyes on the nose.

• AH-1F Cobra 67-15497 “Jack Daniels Brand Old No7”, flown by Major Dewey Patton of 2nd Aviation Brigade, 2nd Armoured Calvary Regiment during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1991.  The aircraft is finished in overall FS 33711.

• AH-1F Cobra 79-23445, “IFOR” flown by CW2 Floyd. S. Werner of E Troop, 1st Sqn, 1st Calvary Regiment, 1st Calvary Division during the Bosnia operation in 1995-96.  The aircraft is finished in overall FS 34031.

• AH-1F Cobra 79-23245, flown by CW2 Floyd. S. Werner of E Troop, 1st Sqn, 1st Calvary Regiment, 1st Armoured Regiment during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1991.  The aircraft is finished in overall FS 34031 with a colour shark mouth and eyes on the nose.

• AH-1F Cobra 79-23213, “Venom” flown by CW2 Chuck Glass of C Troop, 1st Sqn, 7th Calvary Regiment, 1st Calvary Division during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1991.  The aircraft is finished in overall FS 34031 with a white cobra mouth and eyes on the nose along with the word venom.

• AH-1F Cobra 78-23213, of C Troop, 1st Sqn, 1st Calvary Regiment, 1st Calvary Division during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1991.  The aircraft is finished in overall FS 34031 this time with a white shark mouth, eyes, gills dorsal and tail fin.

• AH-1F Cobra 68-17079, of 1st Sqn, 1st Calvary Regiment, 1st Armoured Regiment in Germany post operation Desert Storm.  The aircraft is finished in overall FS 34031 with a colour shark mouth and eyes on the nose.

• AH-1F Cobra 68-15535 “The Road Warrior” of B Troop, 3rd Sqn, 17th Calvary Regiment, 10th Mountain Division in Somalia during January 1991.  The aircraft is finished in overall FS 34031 with a white shark mouth on the nose.

• AH-1F Cobra 79-23224, Flown by CW2 Thomas Ward of C Troop, 2/17 Calvary, 101st Airborne Division.  The aircraft is finished in overall FS 33711 with a white shark mouth and eyes on the nose.  This aircraft had a temporary camouflage scheme of brown made from sand mixed with water.

• JAH-1F Cobra 71-21012 of the Aviation Technical Test centre.  The aircraft is finished in overall camouflage scheme of FS 37030, FS30051 and FS 34094.

• AH-1F Cobra Serial Number unknown of 2nd Aviation Brigade, 2nd Armoured Calvary Regiment during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1991.  The aircraft is finished in overall FS 33711 with a black shark mouth and eyes on the nose.

Thanks to Werner's Wings for the review sample

Werner's Wings products are available online from their website

Text Copyright © 2010 by Mick Evans
Page Created 23 February, 2010
Last updated 14 April, 2010

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