RAH-66B Sea Comanche

[anthonyp]

I always thought that the RAH-66 would have been a great replacement for the AH-1W's in Marine service, had they continued development of the heavy ordinance version of the helo... plus there's that whole cancellation thing...

Anyhow, this is a 1/72 Italeri RAH-66 painted up like a Marine Attack Helo.  I was vascillating between making it a Marine or Navy helo, but the USMC won out.  I figure had the RAH-66 actually stuck to a more agressive schedule of development, it'd been in service in the mid-90's, about the time the concept of the AH-1Z was given the go ahead for construction.

[anthonyp]

Rear view

[retro_seventies]

i really REALLY like this....

so, where've you been hiding all this time then, eh?

[Gary]

It really sucks that this WIF didn't stand a chance to become real. It looks so good as a Marine bird and I bet they'd love her. Not that the Supercobra is bad, but wasn't this bird light years ahead of any of the Cobra varients?

[Hunter Gatherer]

D*mn that looks soooooo right  B)

IJ.

[NARSES2]

It also looks real !!! Terrific

[Jschmus]

I thought maybe you'd built the Sea Comanche from Choosers of the Slain.  That one trades the chin gun for a radome carrying an APG-66, hangs torpedoes in the internal bays and MAD gear from the stub wings.  I might do that one myself.  Good model, though.

[John Howling Mouse]

Fantastic!  So, what IS the best way to paint around glazing on a helo model?

[Madoc]

Anthony & all,

Actually, the idea of an Army chopper serving in the Navy has already been tried - and it worked _very_ well.

US Navy / Army Joint Operations in the Persian Gulf

Back in the late 80's when Saddam Hussein was running through as many of his own countrymen as he could during his war with Iran, the US needed to come up with a way to protect shipping in the Gulf.  The Iranians had taken to attacking ships and mining the waters.  The US cobbled together a Special Operations response which involved the use of US Navy SEALS to conduct boarding operations and such.

To conduct surveillance at night though, the Navy knew it needed something better than the standard LAMPS choppers it had.  It turned out that the US Army's AH-6C Cayuse was just the thing.  That chopper was smaller, quieter, and its crews had plenty of night flying experience.  So, in short order, the Navy was running ops in the Persian Gulf using US Army birds, piloted by US Army fliers, operating off of US Navy ships.

No, it's not as "sexy" as an AH-66 Comanche done up in Navy colors.  However, this odd couple (Army birds / Navy hulls) did actually take place.  It also turned out to have worked _real_ well too!

Madoc

[nev]

Fantastic!  So, what IS the best way to paint around glazing on a helo model?

Well the Comanche has big, flat simple shapes for its glazing so its dead easy to cut masking tape to size like i did for my Comanche.  Other choppers are not so easy...

[Captain Canada]

Beauty !

Attack helos just look right in those colours, and seem extra-cool when ship-board.

I've got two myself...a Kamov Alligator and a Sea Apache, that I call a Thundershark.

Cheers !

[anthonyp]

I thought maybe you'd built the Sea Comanche from Choosers of the Slain.  That one trades the chin gun for a radome carrying an APG-66, hangs torpedoes in the internal bays and MAD gear from the stub wings.  I might do that one myself.  Good model, though.

Actually, this was going to be a true Sea Commanche when I started it.  I wanted to hang torps in the internal bays, and Harpoons or Penguins on the wings, but the bays weren't long enough for the Mk. 50's I had leftover from an old Seahawk.  I even thought about putting AGM-65's in the internal bay and the wings, but again, they were too long for the bay.  I didn't want to think about how to make the bay longer (just lazy that way), so I dug up some Marine markings and made it a Sea Cobra replacement.

[Joe C-P]

I think the AH-56 would look really cool as a Navy attack/ASW bird - Mavericks and Hellfires to sink subs and small attack craft, plus a couple Sidewinders for self-defense.

[anthonyp]

I think the AH-56 would look really cool as a Navy attack/ASW bird - Mavericks and Hellfires to sink subs and small attack craft, plus a couple Sidewinders for self-defense.

Ancient thread rising from the depths...

Funny you mention that particular build.  I've got an Anigrand AH-56 that I'm in the middle of redoing right now.

See, ancient threads resurfacing is what happens when you have no life!!!   I serve as a warning to all younger members.

[Shasper]

Somehow I missed that memo Tovaritch Antoly . . . But the 'Che looks killa!