Comanche Ah.1

[AeroplaneDriver]

Even though I've never been much of a rotorwing modeler (I built the "Falklands War" MPC (airfix) 1/72 Lynx and Sea King back around 1983 and that's about it I think), my helo stash has quietly grown over the past year or two.  The talk of a Rotorwing GB got me motivated to build a fling-wing model this week.  

It came down to a tossup between two 1/72 Italeri kits; a Bell 412 or a RAH-66.  Even though it looks an atrocious little kit I went with the Comanche.

So far the fit looks tenous at best and the panel lines make a Matchbox kit look delicate!  Scaled up to 1:1 this thing would be about as stealthy as a primary school!

But anyway, here is the beginings of the story....


****

By late 2002 Sikorsky were becoming very nervous about the future of their RAH-66 program for the US Army.  The planned purchase had already been cut from 1,300+ to 800, and then to 650.  Sikorsky had high hopes for the stealthy scout helicopter on the export market and was keen to see it succeed.

In hopes of making outright cancellation unpalatable to Congress Boeing--Sikorsky launched a campaign to attract foreign partners into the program.  

An obvious target was Great Britain.  The British Army had seen its expected fleet of attack helicopters shrink from 125 to 67 with the selection of the Apache.  Though the Comanche had been competing with the Apache in the UK selection process the larger, more heavily armed, and more expensive Apache had won out.  Now Sikorsky saw an opportunity to offer the British the same Comanche-Apache mix that would hopefully be operated by the US Army.

An intense sales effort, combined with a very, very attractive price and a licensing agreement that would allow Westland to assemble any and all Comanches sold in Europe led to a British order for 38 RAH-66s, to be known as Comanche AH-1 in UK service.

With an ongoing conflict in Afghanistan and war looming in Iraq the US was hesitant to cancel a program involving a close and needed ally.  The first production Comanche was delivered to the US Army in July 2007, with the first British machine being delivered to the Army Air Corps two months later.

Would the Comanche have been cancelled without the small British order?  Opinions vary, but one thing is for sure, by 2008 the Comanche was a solid success, with orders from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Spain, and Kuwait.

[AeroplaneDriver]

An hour and a half into this build....

Cockpit is done, though rather crudely in allover black.  I added armor side panels to the seats.

Main rotor is assembled and painted.  The blades fit so tightly onto the hub that only one of the five is actually glued on.  This will make it easier to move later on.

Most of the panel trenches have been filled with Squadron Green.

Since the RAH-66 is a bit of an ugly duckling with the gear down, I'm doing an inflight build with the stub wings attached so the gear and weapons bays have been closed up.  Amazingly the doors all fit quite nicely.

[AeroplaneDriver]

Most of the panel trenches filled, gear and weapons bays closed up:

[AeroplaneDriver]

Six hours in and construction is mostly complete.  A few more rounds of PSR then the wings go on and it'll be ready for paint (the rotor is not permanently attached at this point)

[AeroplaneDriver]

Ready for the base coat:

[Captain Canada]

C'mon.....those miniature Italian workers slaved away digging those panel trenches...and you just go and fill 'em in ?



Looking good so far, Nick !

 

[AeroplaneDriver]

Better living through Blu-Tack:



Camo on:



I didnt feel like breaking out the airbrush for such a quick scheme, so it is painted with rattlecans.  Since my LHS color selection is pretty limited, I went with what I could find.  The gray is Haze Gray and the green is SAC Bomber Green.  Not accurate colors for the intended user, but what the heck, it's a fictitious aircraft anyway, so color is just a minor quibble, right?

[Captain Canada]

No quibble at all !

 

[Shasper]

Looks pretty realistic to me. . .

Shas B)

[ysi_maniac]

Look pretty nice too