AH-64A "Devils Dance"

Tim Vereecke
Hi David, were the deals on the hellfire missiles included in the kit?

Philip De Keyser
Hi Dave, you did a wonderfull job, it looks awesome, you added a lot of details to your little Apache, I love it, keep the pix comming, greetz Phil

stefan natus
Don't know about the need for corrections,what i do know is that he details are great.

Dave Fassett
Thank you all for the great comments and encouragement. Tim the decals for the Hellfire's and the M299 launchers where custom made by a good friend of mine. Each missile contains every stencil and data plate present on the real one. There are 11 decals per missile for a grand total of 88 plus the 14 between the two launchers.

Christian Lehmann
Wow, looks great so far.

Tim Vereecke
cool thx!

Dave Fassett
Here is a quick update on the last two evenings work. I finished installing the latches and their closing mechanisms to the forward avionic bay doors. Each latch consist of 3 parts with a total of 7 latches per door. Below you will find pictures of the doors. One is finished(left one)and only needs a cote of dullcoat, the other lacks the final painting of the latches and an oil wash. Again thank you all for the great comments and please let me know if y'all have any suggestions or corrections.

Luc B
nice work Dave, love the scratch building!

Dave Fassett
So tonight I am working on the tail rotor of my 1/72 Apache and noticed that the blades of the HobbyBoss AH-64A kit are backwards. I don't know if their other Apache boxing's are backwards but the "A" model is. So here is what I came up with for a correction. First off take a look at the photo of mine from the real deal, notice the blade roots and the direction of the 45 cut.
Now take a look at the photo of the Academy tail rotor (which is correct)on the left and the HobbyBoss tail rotor on the right. Notice the blade root of the HobbyBoss rotor and the 45 cut. I decided to fix this problem by cutting the blade at the indicated location (see photo). Next I drilled out the center of the two pieces with a #75 drill bit and CA in a piece of 28 gauge wire. Let this set, trim the wire, and attach the blade in the right direction, and your done.

Dave Fassett

Philip De Keyser
Love your job on those small things, great job so far, greetz Phil

Michel Huijghe
This is stunning. And in 1/72nd scale.

Dave Fassett
Ok, so here's where we stand. All the decals are on the main airframe, they have been faded, weathered, and sealed. The masking has been removed from the cockpit and engines. All that this build lacks is a lot of the small details to be added and the tail rotor and weapons pylons to be added. This brings me to the update. I have spent the last three days working on the tail rotor and it components.

The tail rotor for this build came from the HobbyBoss kit. It is far better than the Academy and Hasegawa offerings except that they molded the blades backwards. This is not a big deal and can be fixed easily,

So here is what I added/built: The upper and lower forks which connect to the blade hubs, Connection points on the hub for the forks, pitch control links, and drive links. To this point I have added a total of 36 pieces, not including the swashplate and the bell crank.

I am still working on the swashplate and bell crack, which should be done tomorrow. I will hopefully have paint on above pictured tail rotor tonight, this will allow me to start the detail painting tomorrow. Well that's it for tonight so again thank you all for the great comments and please let me know if y'all have any suggestions or corrections.

Dave Fassett

Dave Fassett
Thank you Michael, I am about a week and a half out from finishing if all goes well.

Luc B
nice work on the tail rotor section!

Steve Wilson
Such amazing detail for something so small, I admire your work Dave, I've done 1:43 cars and appreciate, very much, the difficulties you need to overcome...

Hornet18
hi Dave, awesome tail rotor!

Dave Fassett
First off I would like to thank you all for the compliments and encouragement, they are truly appreciated.

This update is on the finished tail rotor which I completed and attached it to the aircraft last night. I posted new pictures showing the finished swashplate, bell crank, and bell crank push rod. The final shot shows the completed tail rotor in place along with the rubber boot at the push rod to tail connection. In total I counted a total of 51 pieces in the new tail rotor. This build should be completed by the end of this week, if all goes well. All it lacks is the hinges on the pilot/co-pilot cockpit access doors, weapons pylons, RBF flags, and attaching all the little stuff. Well that's it for now, please let me know if y'all have any suggestions or corrections.

Bill Gilman
Exceptional work in the one true scale! More photos, we can't wait! 🙂

Brent Sauer
Amazing work sir!!!

Michel Huijghe
Stunning. 👍