Nine weeks and the “Viper” has been completed! All of the panels and canopy doors have been installed. I used 30 gauge wire for the supports on the panels. On the canopy doors I used black sleeved wire and stripped half of it so it look like the compression supports. I did a little more weathering on the inside and outside of the panels. The next thing I did was to remount the weapons. The kit instructions have you mount two rocket launchers and the Hellfire’s under the wing. The problem is the “Z” only has three hard points instead of four. A fellow modeler pointed this out and the client also noted it as well.
For the main rotor I trimmed off the plastic links and replaced them with black 28 gauge wire. This allows the rotor to be removed and installed easily. This is for shipping reasons. With the main rotor finished this also finished this build.
The kit itself was a decent build with only some minor issues as noted during the build. The fit was very good. The instructions were in a good assembly order but had some parts not shown like the canopy handles. The paint schemes use the incorrect colors as well. It does build into a nice looking helicopter.
I will be packing this up today once the brass nameplate arrives and then ship it out. The client already has the display case for it. Thank you for following along. Happy modeling!
You can see all the photos and details from start to finish in my build log at: https://davidsscalemodels.com/build-log/1-48-ah-1z-viper/
8 attached images. Click to enlarge.
