Westland Cobra AH.1

Westland Cobra AH.1

Italeri, 1/72

654 Sqn, Army Air Corps
Southern Iraq, February 1991

Britain ordered 22 license-produced Westland/Bell AH-1W Super Cobras to replace the Westland Lynx in the anti-tank role. British modifications included upgraded avionics, engines and integrated exhaust suppressors. Entering service in 1988, a squadron of 9 Cobra AH.1s were deployed to the Persian Gulf in 1990/1 for Operation Granby where they were tasked, alongside Lynx AH.7s, with anti-tank/combat aviation support, armed escort and forward recconaisance for 1st (British) Armoured Division.

The Cobras performed beyond expectations, maintaining a 96% serviceability rate and destroying as total of 57 enemy armoured vehicles. In 1992 a further 40 aircraft were ordered, including 16 for the Royal Marines.

This model was built from the Italeri 1/72 AH-1W kit, I rescribed the airframe (my first attempt, and somewhat Matchbox-like) with a pin. The rear of the engine pods/exhaust area supplied in the kit resembles an AH-1T and not an AH-1W, to save myself extensive re-building of this area I modified this area with a strip of plastic card in an attempt to depict the cold air inlets for exhaust suppressors specific to British aircraft.

I scratch built a pair of sand filters, which were shaped from plastic card with the holes drilled out with pin vise. Wire cutters were added from plastic card along with various British-looking aerials around the airframe.

The British Operation Granby colours of Desert Pink & Light Stone were mixed by eye (no BS or FS numbers here) hand painted as my compressor packed up while attempting to airbrush the model. Dark green and grey paint chips were liberally added along with a brown wash in the panel lines.

The white stripes around the tail boom/nose are scrap decal, the 'ZF-' serial from a Tornado F.3 'ZE-' one. The low viz roundels and black lettering come from Modeldecal.

Page created January 27, 2003