Having built-up a small collection of helicopters this last year, I was anxious to see the new Apache from Hasegawa. My
first look at the kit was a few sprue shots shown on the Hyperscale website. They displayed a kit with a mix of raised rivet
heads and scribed lines. Just like the real aircraft. It took several months for the kit to hit the local shelves, and the
price was a bit of a shock, especially given the recent price wars.
The buildup is typical of a helicopter, and the kit required a minimal amount of sanding and test fitting. The initial steps
consist of putting the cockpit together. The whole inside of the Apache is flat black. Most of the dials are a light grey
and can be dry brushed. The CRT screens are transparent green. The fabric seatcovers have a dark grey/medium grey mix in
them, and it's somewhat difficult to reproduce. Drybrushing is about all you can do. The belts are a Khaki Green.
Use care when fitting the fuselage together, and slowly glue a couple inches at a time using Liquid Cement. The fuselage
halves can be put together almost perfectly to prevent the raised rivet heads from being sanded away. A minor amount of
putty will be required on the upper deck to fill in small warps in the plastic. Although the instructions do not show
locations for most of the small antenna's and fittings found on the sprues, they are carried on most D models. Photo
references will be handy to identify the parts and locations. The engines, landing gear and gun all build up easily
following the instructions, however the instructions for the rotor blades can be tricky and a little hard to understand. The
main rotor is best built by gluing the F19 parts to the blade assembly first. Glue G27 and G32 into place to get the proper
spacing. The knuckle formed by F14 and F24 can then be put into place. The 2 pegs on F14 will rest on the corresponding
notches at the "base" of the shaft G27.
About the only complaint I have about this kit, is the poor molding and fit of the canopy. A swirl mark is present in all
the forward windows. Dipping in Future did not make much of a difference. One could mix a slightly blue-green shade for the
canopies, but I didn't bother. As is typical with any Hasegawa kit, if something is shown open on the box, then don't try to
close it! A serious gap exists between the front and back panels when they are fit onto the kit - an obvious step that has
to be taken for painting right? I filled the gap with Krystal Kleer and rubbed away the excess.
Painting for this helicopter can be straightforward or radically complex. How far do you wish to go? A factory fresh bird
can be achieved by spraying Model Master US Army Helo Drab. Any missions on your chopper? Then you can do almost anything
for weathering. I mixed several lighter shades of green and Zinc Chromate Yellow, spraying them on panels that would see a
lot of wear and tear. A light dusting of Helo Drab and Olive drab helped to blend all the tones and resulted in a realistic
finish. A few touches of Zinc were used at heavy wear locations.
The decals for this kit are somewhat of a pain. They are extremely thin, and respond only to Polly Scale decal softener.
This is by far the most deadly decal set on the market! One touch is all it takes. I lost 2 decals on my bird, and had to
get ingenious with covering those locations.
I am satisfied with the overall results on this model. I didn't get too carried away with the detailing, as OOB gives a
pretty good result on it's own. There's room for the after market as the entire engine / drive shaft / electronic bay panels
can be opened. If anyone does a vacuformed canopy I would recommend using that instead.
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