The build - AH-1G Cobra

Back when all seemed to be cool. The cockpit was a nice and easy build. 

These seats turned to be OK. 

Getting there... 

Dryfitting into the fuselage. 

Problem: the main rotor would simply fall into the machine. To remedy that, I had to build a kind of mounting inside, from plastic pieces. 

My mistake: I should've grind all the plastic away before replacing it with the PE parts... 

After gluing the halves together, I realized that the front section now bends inwards. To be able to put the cockpit inside, I used a piece of toothpick. Also, weights used in fishing were put under the cockpit. 

After rescribing and reriveting, I tested with a layer of black. 

I decided to use yellow for pre-highlighting. 

Another angle. 

The salt applied... 

...and the tragedy. In itself, the tonal variation worked as intended, but the remnants I couldnt remove ruined the already problematic build. 

Nevertheless, I went on with the masking. 

The result is acceptable. The small section on the tail was later repainted with a more matching color. 

And the canopy. Positioning this middle part is a hit-or-miss thing, in this case, it was a miss. 

After decaling. They're pretty thick actually, so setter and softer are recommended. 

I managed to glue the side elements onto an unrealistic position. To be honest, at this point I just cba to correct it.... 

Also the handles on the "doors" are in a wrong way. Meh...