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Description

A friend had been asking over and over again when I was going to do a helicopter, which I had been planning on doing, but putting off because of the amount of lumps and bumps and little details that are everywhere. So a new year and a new challenge. I picked an “easy” helicopter to do which is the latest version of the famous Bell AH-1 cobra family the AH-1Z Viper, or “Zulu-Cobra” operated by the U.S. Marine Corps. I say “easy” but three weeks, and thousands of rivets later, lots of contouring, and detail work, I think it turned out pretty good.

This is the side profile with the usual external weapons compliment of 4 Hellfire Missiles and a LAU-61C/A rocket launcher that holds 19 Hydra-70 rockets per side. The marking are for AH-1Z #49, Navy Bureau Number 168049, of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, 39th Marine Aircraft Group, 369th Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron. They are current as of February 2020. Scale is the same as my P-51s.

The line drawing by Academy Models was very detailed, with few mistakes to correct. The downside was that there weren't any rotors or the stub wing for the weapons. Those came from the official Navy Operator's Manual general arrangement drawings, which weren't very detailed. The tail rotor hub detail was from Academy Models as well. I had planned on drawing the cockpit details, but decided to go with photo manipulation instead. The three barreled Gatling gun looked jagged, so after thinking about ways to fix it I tried copying the gun from the original line drawing, making it twice as large as this drawing, coloring it, then re-sizing it back down, which “softened” the lines. It looks much better than before, so this is a new technique that I will use for other things. Another fun thing was hand drawing the details behind the various “screens” from photos and then overlaying the screen. I think that worked out well.

Line art used: Fuselage, Tail rotor hub – Academy Models, Artist unknown

Main rotor, tail rotor, weapons stub wing – Navy AH-1Z operator's manual, Artist

unknown

Tail elevators drawn in by myself

Hellfire Missile – Rockwell International general arrangement drawing, artist unknown

LAU-61 rocket launcher – Academy Models, artist unknown

Description

A friend had been asking over and over again when I was going to do a helicopter, which I had been planning on doing, but putting off because of the amount of lumps and bumps and little details that are everywhere. So a new year and a new challenge. I picked an “easy” helicopter to do which is the latest version of the famous Bell AH-1 cobra family the AH-1Z Viper, or “Zulu-Cobra” operated by the U.S. Marine Corps. I say “easy” but three weeks, and thousands of rivets later, lots of contouring, and detail work, I think it turned out pretty good.

This is the side profile with the usual external weapons compliment of 4 Hellfire Missiles and a LAU-61C/A rocket launcher that holds 19 Hydra-70 rockets per side. The marking are for AH-1Z #49, Navy Bureau Number 168049, of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, 39th Marine Aircraft Group, 369th Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron. They are current as of February 2020. Scale is the same as my P-51s.

The line drawing by Academy Models was very detailed, with few mistakes to correct. The downside was that there weren't any rotors or the stub wing for the weapons. Those came from the official Navy Operator's Manual general arrangement drawings, which weren't very detailed. The tail rotor hub detail was from Academy Models as well. I had planned on drawing the cockpit details, but decided to go with photo manipulation instead. The three barreled Gatling gun looked jagged, so after thinking about ways to fix it I tried copying the gun from the original line drawing, making it twice as large as this drawing, coloring it, then re-sizing it back down, which “softened” the lines. It looks much better than before, so this is a new technique that I will use for other things. Another fun thing was hand drawing the details behind the various “screens” from photos and then overlaying the screen. I think that worked out well.

Line art used: Fuselage, Tail rotor hub – Academy Models, Artist unknown

Main rotor, tail rotor, weapons stub wing – Navy AH-1Z operator's manual, Artist

unknown

Tail elevators drawn in by myself

Hellfire Missile – Rockwell International general arrangement drawing, artist unknown

LAU-61 rocket launcher – Academy Models, artist unknown