1/32 Revell AH-64A Apache

by Niels Peter Henning

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Revell launched this model kit in 1987.  About 10 years later, I got it as a birthday present.  It was a nice eyecatcher, throning on my tv (the place of honour for a model kit in my living-room).  But one day, it had a devastating crash, when I swept it from my tv. The end ...?

No!

Just some weeks ago, I had the opportunity to buy this model kit - really cheap!  And this time, I had better tools, more experience and loads of photos (e. g. on ARC ;-) ).

I found the interior quite ok - lots of details and easy to assemble.  But building up the airframe caused some trouble, because not all parts matched together like I expected. But in the end, I always found a solution for all problems - smoothing and sanding did most of the work.

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I didn't have the intention to build any special helicopter from a special unit.  So I did all the painting like suggested by Revell and I used the decals provided with the model kit. But I had to add or rarefy some details - like the cable-cutters (uh ... is this word correct? Here, my english fails), pitot-tubes, the chaingun and several details of the main- and the tail rotor (florist-wire and canulas were the perfect helpers here).

When taking photos of model kits, I normally prefer neutral backgrounds, but in this special case, I decided to take the photos in nature to give them the look of an ARC-walkaround.  I think, the drivers on the nearby highway were flabbergasted about the weird man creeping through the grass and taking photographs of a little helicopter ... lol.

I enjoyed building this model kit - it's really great (even the measures)!

Niels

Photos and text © by Niels Peter Henning