ItaleriAH-1W Super Cobra Model Kit

Parts are pretty good, instructions are decent.

I've built quite a few gunpla and wanted to try helicopters. I think this was a pretty good model kit. The amount of detail is nice. The instructions are ok and building it was pretty straightforward. It felt like some of the parts didn't mate very well leading to quite a few large gaps and seam lines. It could be me; I don't consider myself a serious or very good model maker. With my skill level, I think it came out ok; the gaps/fitting are pretty bad, but it still overall looks decent and I like it. I did minimal painting to the rotors, weapons, and canopy for just a little color separation. 1/72 TIE interceptor and 1/144 GM Ground Type for scale comparison.

Hobby

Good and decent kit

Great for a school project. My 14 year old received 100% on his Military history final exam grade thanks to this!

No decals here and some prices are so small they are breaking just trying to get them off the manufacturer frame.

Its an okay kit. I had low expectations on the quality based on the price.Its a very easy build. Just five stages of building. The color scheme is simple: Light gray, dark green, gun metal and flat black.The decals are relatively flimsy compared to revell and hasegawa so be careful because it will be easily torn.I don't regret buying this kit. Its a good way to kill time. However, if you have a high skill level, this is not a good one for you. Its not challenging.

This is an older kit, but aside from the raised panel lines it’s pretty well designed and executed. Very simplistic decal set, with no nose or tail numbers. You’ll have to make your own if you want them, because for some reason AH-1W decals are hard to find in this scale. The cockpit is very sparse, with no side control panels and not even any decals for the main control panels.Fit of parts is mostly okay, with a few exceptions. The cannon assembly is made to be able to rotate, but that leaves a big unrealistic gap between the fuselage and the turret. It’s a model, not a toy, so I cut off the inner peg and glued it in place and it looks much better. The hardest fit was in mating the two finished halves together. I went slow, starting by gluing the tail and working my way toward the nose over the course of a couple of days. I needed clamps not only to squeeze the two halves together horizontally, but also to keep things lined up vertically. Still ended up needing putty in a few places, but I’ve seen much worse. Rotors, wings, cockpit and skids all went together very nicely. It is a tail-sitter, so you’ll want to put plenty of weight in the nose before you glue it up. For some reason the instructions tell you to paint the seats red, though I can find no photo examples of red Super Cobra seats anywhere. Tan, gray, green… not red.So one star off for fit, and one star off for a combination of so-so paint instructions, sparse decals, and lack of cockpit detail. Still a pretty good all-around model. Worth 15 bucks or so.