AH-1S Cobra
“IDF Against Terrorists”

Special Hobby, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Mark Davies

Specoal Hobby's 1/72 scale AH-1G Cobra is available online from Squadron.com

Armed helicopters came into widespread use in Vietnam in the early Sixties, but the limitations of armed utility types meant led to the development of a specialist attack helicopter.

Bell Helicopter developed the first specialist attack helicopter design using its already proven UH-1 Iroquois rotor, transmission and engine installed in a new slim two-man fuselage; this was their Model 209. Meanwhile the US Army was seeking a more sophisticated solution which led to the Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne.

Bell’s Model 209 first flew in September 1965. The urgent need for a specialist attack helicopter in Vietnam led the US Army to order production models of the 209 on an interim basis pending the AH-56 Cheyenne entering service. This never occurred as the AH-56 program was ultimately cancelled.

The production development of the Model 209 retained its slim fuselage with tandem cockpits, stub wings to carry weapons and the nose turret, but its retractable skid landing gear was replaced by a simpler fixed arrangement. Accepted into service as the AH-1G Cobra, it entered combat in Vietnam late in September 1967.

The AH-1 was the backbone of the United States Army's attack helicopter fleet, but has been replaced by the AH-64 Apache, although upgraded versions continue to fly with the militaries of several other nations. The twin engine version also remains in service with United States Marine Corps (USMC) and several other air arms.

The Israeli Air Force named its Cobras as the "Tzefa" (Hebrew for Viper). Since the mid-1970s Lebanon has been Israel's most active front; IAF Cobras had been fighting there for more than 20 years.

Cobra helicopters were also used widely by the Israeli Air Force in the 1982 Lebanon War to destroy Syrian armor and fortification. IAF Cobras destroyed dozens of Syrian ground vehicles. The Cobras were also used in major operations against Hezbollah in Operations "Accountability" and "Grapes of Wrath" in southern Lebanon.

Israel retired its fleet of some 33 AH-1 Cobras in late 2013 due to budget cuts. The attack helicopter role was taken up entirely by two squadrons of Israeli AH-64 Apache helicopters, and the fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles took over the role of patrolling combat zones. The Cobra fleet was older than the Apaches and responsible for some fatal crashes, and more expensive to maintain than UAVs and more vulnerable for pilots to MANPADS fired by guerrilla groups. In late 2014, Israel transferred some 16 Cobras to the Jordanian Air Force, adding to their existing fleet, for border security in response to threats posed by Islamic State militants or other insurgent groups.

Source: Wikipedia

Previous 1/72 Scale AH-1 Kits

The AH-1 Cobra has been quite well represented in the “One True Scale” over the years in a variety of versions from several brands. We have injected kits from Ace (probably a poor copy of another brand), AZ Model, Fujimi, Hasegawa, Hobby Boss (re-boxed by Doyusha), Italeri (re-boxed by Revell), Matchbox (re-boxed by AMT, Mastercraft, Mistercraft, & Plastyk), Monogram, and New Star (poor Monogram copy). There has also been a resin kit by Centaur and a vac-form by MAVI.

Special Hobby has added to the above with the AH-1S boxing reviewed here, plus four AH-1G boxings variously titled:

• SH72274 - Spanish & IDF Service,

• SH72076 - Over Vietnam with M-35 Gun System,

• SH72278 - Over The USA and Europe, and

• SH72280 - Marines.

Contents

The kit comes packed in a top-opening box with attractive art-work and a rather dramatic title. The main sprues are in a re-sealable bag, with the clear sprue, resin parts, and decals further enclosed in their own plastic bags. The instructions are an A5-sized booklet printed in colour on gloss paper with a brief aircraft history in Czech and English. There is also a promotional flyer for Mike Verier’s book ‘Cobra! The Attack Helicopter’, published by Pen & Sword.
 
The instructions include a parts map that identifies numerous surplus parts and use diagrammatic assembly stages.

The instructions are nicely produced and generally look clear enough to follow, but would benefit from using more pages with larger illustrations, as the entire assembly sequence is squeezed into just over two A5 pages! I suggest enlarging them and printing them on A4-sized sheets.

To be honest, I had trouble understanding the option indicated by a question-mark with the gun turret; the turret is designed to take both the mini-gun barrels and what I assume is a 40mm grenade launcher. On checking the colours & markings guide I noted the first option (Scheme A) does not have the mini-gun barrels drawn in place, so perhaps this is the option intended. One small is the instructions refer to the port tail surface as part number 29, which in fact is a weapons pylon; the correct part number on the sprues is 25.

Detail colour call-outs are indicated by letters keyed to a table of colours us Gunze Aqueous and Mr. Color paint-codes. Four-view colours and markings diagrams are also provided within the instructions. These are nicely done and printed in colour, with an FS595 code for the main colour, and colour names plus Gunze paint-range numbers for the rest.

The Kit

The sprue gates are fine enough, and the mouldings are very crisp and clean, with only a tiny hint of flash in one or two places; but this can be very easily dealt with. Special Hobby kits are supposed to be limited run kits; but aside from no locating pins, this one appears anything but, appearing far more long-run in nature. The clear sprue is crisp, with a very nice clear and acceptably thin canopy. The resin parts also appear flawless.

The airframe surface detail is very nicely done with the delicate recessed panel lines and rivets, with some raised panels where appropriate. The main rotor is also nicely done, with some quite subtle detail incorporated.

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Cockpit detail is good for the scale, being more than adequate for a closed canopy model, and acceptable for the open canopy option provided by the kit’s multi-piece canopy. Either way, I think most will wish to at least add seat harnesses. The instructions mention two detail enhancements sold separately; these being a coloured PE fret, and a pair of resin seats with PE harnesses (MPM part numbers 72030 & Q72209 respectively).

The base kit is designed to cover several variants and options covered by the other four boxings so far released. The kit includes two types of main rotor, tail rotor, gun-turret and landing skids, three fuselage tails, various weapons and numerous other details; so there are lot of surplus parts not used for the AH-1S (78 in fact!).

Weapons included a turreted mini-gun and grenade launcher, TOW missiles, and free-flight rocket pods. There are few other weapons left over for the spares box, which is never a bad thing.

Some nice touches include six tie-down rings (possibly best replaced with thinner wire items), and a set of ground-manoeuvring wheels and tow-frame.

Despite being tooled for multiple versions, which can lead to assembly problems, the build articles I have read suggest that the kit assembles very well, with excellent parts fit. Even so, care is needed with the multi-part canopy, and some moulded detail needs to be cut or filed away in a couple of places. There are also some quite fiddly and very small parts on the extensive clear sprue. Although not mentioned, adding some ballast under the cockpit would seem a good precaution against tail-sitting.

The Competition

I do not know enough about the AH-1 Cobra to rate it against its main competitors for overall accuracy, but for what it is worth I can share what I am aware of from judging other aspects of the available kits.

Firstly, the modern kits - I own the AZ Model kit, which is a metal-mould ‘HQ’ release that looks good in the box. I have read about the Hobby Boss/Doyusha release which, whilst not one of their simplified assembly kits, is still less detailed than some of its older competitors; but it apparently builds well. Both these recent releases are nicely executed, but Special Hobby’s appears to be a better detailed and more sophisticated kit then either of them.

Dating from almost 20 years ago are releases by Italeri/Revell and Hasegawa. I once owned the Italeri kit whose raised surface detail and execution in general seemed fine to me. My reading suggests that Hasegawa’s kit is well regarded for its accuracy and that it assembles easily; but I doubt if its detail levels are as good as Special Hobby’s are.

Fujimi’s late-1970’s kit has raised surface detail and is engineered for multiple versions; I have read some general criticisms regarding its accuracy and it looks a bit ‘clunky’ to me. I have also read that the much older late-1960’s Monogram release is still well thought of but truly dated (like many of their releases). I do not rate the early-1970’s Matchbox kit for reasons of the brand’s toy-like nature and compromised detail; and the same assessment obviously applies re-boxed toolings by AMT, Mastercraft, Mistercraft, & Plastyk.

Overall, and not to be too glib by stating “accuracy aside”, in terms of modernity plus surface and interior detail levels, I think that Special Hobby’s kit has a clear edge over its rivals. I invite those with a more authoritative knowledge of Cobras to give feedback on this speculation by commenting on HyperScale’s ‘Plane Speaking’ forum.

Colours and Markings

Three markings options are provided, although all are essentially the same other than the size of the national insignia, use of yellow recognition stripes, serial numbers and small unit badges.

The options are:

• No.326, Southern Cobra Sqn, Palmachim, Israel, July 1982, during the Peace for Galilee operation.

• No.315, 1st Attack Helicopter Sqn, Palmachim, Israel, 1982, during the Lebanon War.

• No.318, 1st Attack Helicopter Sqn, Tel Nof, Israel, December 1978 when flown in a demonstration and familiarization flight for the IDF’s chief of staff.

The decals by Aviprint appear to be excellent.

Special Hobby’s AH-1S is an excellent quality kit. It is modern with refined surface treatment and good detail levels in general; plus it is very reasonably priced in my opinion. It is easily assembled according to the build articles I have read.

Things would be improved if Special Hobby used larger illustrations in their instructions, which would mean only one more sheet of A4 paper to give an extra four pages. Despite their attractive appearance, the instructions could make options and some small parts placement a bit clearer. 

I do not know enough about the type to rate it against its main competitors for overall accuracy, but I would be surprised if does not rank highly with Cobra experts. I am certainly happy to highly recommend it based on what I have seen.

Thanks to MPM/Special Hobby for the review sample. 

Review Text & Blue Background Images Copyright © 2015 by Mark Davies
Page Created 7 September, 2015
Last updated 9 September, 2015

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