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Revell 1/48 AH-1F Cobra Gunship

By John Lanning

When it comes to the world of attack helicopters, none has the history like that of the Cobra. Conceived as an armed escort for transport helicopters into hot enemy landing zones, the AH-1 has morphed into a truly legendary aircraft that is still in widespread use today. For those of us that built model helicopters in the 1980's, some (most) of us here in the US remember a company called Monogram that came out with a trio of 1/48 scale attack helicopters....the AH-64 Apache, the Mi-24 Hind, and the AH-1 Cobra. Well, the Hind made an appearance in a new box a little while back, and now the classic AH-1F has appeared in a Revell box as well, a part of Revell's plan to re-release Monogram classics from the past.

The Real Aircraft

The birth of the gunship helicopter actually originated with the French in Algeria during their 1954-1962 war to hold on to their jewel of Africa. After the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in Indochina and withdraw in 1954, an independence movement began a war to force the French to leave in Algeria. In order to fight rebels in the far-flung desert areas and cut off the flow of arms to the rebels, the French began using helicopters to drop off troops in fast raids. Eventually, some of these helicopters began carrying rocket pods and guns as troop support. These tactics proved very successful, even though the French were forced to leave in 1962. The US Army saw the success that the French had with the helicopter and began putting those tactics into widespread use and refining them in Vietnam. These Air Cavalry and Air Assault units were equipped with the legendary UH-1 Iroquois, or "Huey". Realizing that a dedicated aircraft was needed to support landing the troops due to heavy UH-1 losses, Bell Helicopters took their Iroquois helicopter, kept the drive train, turbine engine and rotor system and re-designed the fuselage. The result

was a very slim, heavily armed aircraft that was harder to hit, whose sole purpose was armed support of the landing zone. The new AH-1 Cobra, or "HueyCobra" became a success, not just with the US Army, but with the Marines as well. Eventually, a new anti-tank system known as the TOW missile was installed in modified versions on the Cobra as a force multiplier against Warsaw Pact armored formations in Europe. The Cobra has seen a lot of combat with the US, not just in Vietnam, but also in Grenada and during the 1991 Gulf War. The Cobra was also an export success, seeing service with Japan, Jordan, Bahrain, Spain, South Korea and combat with Israel, Pakistan and Iran. Even though it has been phased out of US Army National Guard service just recently, a brand new version known as the AH-1Z Venom is just entering service with the US Marine Corps.

The Kit

Anyone that built the original Monogram AH-1S Cobra will automatically recognize this kit, because it is the same one. The kit is the single-engined US Army version, also used by Pakistan, Israel, Japan, Jordan and Bahrain. One of the questions about this re-release is if it came with any new parts of modifications. The answer is no, it is the same kit left un-modified that was in their original release, and all re-releases since then. Even the Revell-Germany re-boxing from a couple of years ago has the exact same sprues, but with better decals. The kit comes with four sprues, three in light grey, and a clear sprue with the canopy and sensor windows. All of the sprues are bagged, the clear parts are in their own bag for protection. As with the original release, the kit has raised panel lines, raised detail in the cockpit and control panels, two pilot figures, a basic turbine engine and the Cobra's normal anti-tank loadout of 8 TOW missiles, two rocket pods, and 20mm three-barrel gatlin gun. The "disco-light" IR jammer is still moulded to the fuselage halves, just above the exhaust. The kit was cast in Poland, and the moulds are beginning to show their age. There is some flash that will need to be cleaned up. Proper construction should allow for moveable rotors, 20mm gun and nose mounted sensors.

The multi-lingual instructions are printed on a twelve page black and white booklet. The instructions include a parts listing and a paint guide. Unfortunately, FS colors are not given except for the exterior paint schemes, nor are reference numbers for any of the current paint lines such as Testors, Revell, Gunze or Mr Color.

The decals are the only thing that is new in the kit, and should be a massive improvement over the problematic Monogram decals from the original release. The markings are for three US Army AH-1F's:

67-15883, "Trigger and Boomer's Excellent Adventure" in overall sand during Operation Desert Storm in 1991
67-15643 (erroneously marked as 67-15883) "Sand Shark" of N Troop, 4th Squadron, 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment in overall sand during Operation Desert Storm in 1991
67-15771, "Jaws of Death" C Troop, 1st Air Cavalry in overall US Army helicopter green, currently on display in Troy, Alabama

The markings include stencils for the airframe and control panel decals.

Conclusion

Well, if you remember the original Monogram boxing, this is walk down memory lane. Other than the decals, don't expect anything different. It more than likely has the same problems from the original kit, that are easily overcome with some modeling skill. It is still a generally accurate kit with some good detail that those of us with just basic modeling skills can still build into a nice replica. Master modelers will work magic with this kit. It isn't up to today's Tamigawa supermodel standard, but it holds it own and is currently the only 1/48 scale kit of the single-engined Cobras available. It's also less than $20.00, which makes it affordable. Being a 1/72 scale modeler, I do remember building this kit when I was a kid, so it brings back memories. I plan to build this one, with some Two Bobs "AH-1S Foreign User Cobra" decals in the stash....let's say Jordanian?
I'm John Lanning and I approve of this kit.

Thanks to Revell for the review sample.