This is my 1/48
scale Italeri RAH-66 Comanche recon/attack chopper. The US Army cancelled the
project in February 2004. At the time, Boeing-Sikorsky already had two flying
prototypes of the helicopter, but it seems those aircraft are only airframe and
engine verification models. Neither one appear to have working Longbow radar,
PNVS/TADS, cannon, and other weaponry. I saw this aircraft on Discovery
Channel's Extreme Machines and knew I had to have a model of it. It didn't help
that I also love to play Comanche 4 and Hokum vs Comanche on my PC. Therefore,
most of the paint colors I used were based on the games.
The model is molded
in olive green styrene, in almost the right shade for the final product. Wire
mesh was included in the box for the turbine intakes.
Modeling started
with the cockpit as usual. The cockpit had plenty of raised buttons, which I
picked out using white, yellow, and red colored pencils. There is a part
depicting the turbine blades inside the engine nacelles; however, drybrushing
and weathering of that part is probably useless as the intakes have to be
covered with wire mesh (I did it anyway). I had a hard time trying to stick the
mesh onto the inside of the intake. I don't know if it's because the superglue I
used wasn't good enough.
The PNVS/TADS
windows were clear parts. Judging by photos from the Internet (and from the
games), I used dark yellow on them, not orange as suggested by the instructions.
The clear parts also did not fit well.
The canopy was
masked using Parafilm-M and I am still amazed how good a masking tool it is. The
filling was done using Tamiya putty and wiped down using Cutex acetone.
The inside of the
tail rotor had two major seams where the rotor assembly met the two halves of
the fuselage. It was not possible to remove those seams. I opted to model my
Comanche with weapons bays open, stub wings installed, full weapons load, and
gear up. The chopper is very ugly with gear down; it is much sexier
"airborne".
Click on
images below to see larger images
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The
main paint color was a mixture of Tamiya acrylics: olive drab, yellow, and
green.
The
main rotor mast was a strange pentagonal shape and not seen on the real
prototypes, as far as I know. The decals were too big and probably the wrong
scale. They were so big I couldn't fit two of the "rescue" arrows on
the model. The weapons bay hardpoints were all wrong. Panel lines were too wide
and too deep.
Hellfires
were painted black (as with Apache Hellfires). The Hellfire decals disappeared
in the black color because they were black too. Weathering was done using a
black sludge wash (paint plus water plus detergent) and a black Gundam
water-based marker.
Due to
the simple shape of the aircraft (and because the gear were modeled in the up
position), I was able to finish this project in less than two months: a quick
build for me.
Notwithstanding
the many problems with this model, I still like to look at it and it still
captures my imagination.
Happy modeling!
Jojo
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