Bell AH-1W Super Cobra USMC 162541

1. Cockpit:
Wanted to try out the "scale effect"so I painted the cockpit base color black mixed with about 10% white. Thinking about removing the seatbelts and building new ones from scratch.

2. Still the Cockpit:
I removed the seatbelts from the seats by sanding them off. I will use PE seatbelts from a Huey I found in my stash. Also adding more details like wires and so on. Tried to "dry brush" the seats with a lighter tone of the base color for the seat cover. Wasn't really satisfied. Will have to paint them again. Always trying out new techniques as I just started model building after 20 years again. Made the armour plates from scratch. I also applied a mirror and a compass.

3. Fueselage:
Cockpit didn't fit well in the fuselage. There is a huge gap between the backwall and the fuselage. Had to built a new one from scratch. Attaching both fuselage halfes is a fitting nightmare aswell. Means a lot of sanding is required. Added additional details on the fuselage with aluminium tape.

4. Priming:
Primed the model with vallejo black primer. Having problems with my revell master class flexible airbrush.

5. Painting:
Started with the lighter beige color. Didn't mask of the the camo pattern. Sprayed the darker color "wet-in-wet" so there a no sharp borders.

6. Decals:
The decals have a good quality. The desert camo version only uses few of them. Mr. Mark setter and softer was used to apply them.

7. Weathering:
The weathering showed that priming the model made things really worse. I lost a lot of detail because the primer went way to thick on the model. This also caused the surface to be uneven. That's why the washes didn't go on very well.

8. Conclusion:
I had a lot of problems with the fitting and priming the model. But it turned out ok in the end. Not good but ok.