- This topic has 9 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 1 month ago by Jemima Fawr.
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13/02/2017 at 15:31 #57893Jemima FawrParticipant
I’ve recently been sticking some Team Yankee/Flames of War helicopters together and have to say that I’m very pleased with them!
The kits go together beautifully, with minimal assembly. They come with lovely flying stands and magnets to attach them to the stands (also magnets to attach/detach the rotors, which is a great idea for ease of storage). They don’t come with clear windows, but these are wargames models and it’s no different to a metal or resin model, so no worries from me.
However, the decals leave a lot to be desired. I’d never used Flames of War decals before and perhaps it’s a bad batch, but I found the Lynx decals to be pretty bad – difficult to get off the backing and often ripped. They then didn’t stick down properly and when dry, came off when touched. I had to go over the models, lifting off the decals and gluing them back down with gloss varnish. I’ve never felt the need to use any fancy decal-setting solutions before, but I might now make an exception…
Anyway, here are the finished Lynxes, with a Gazelle scout by Heller (markings painted on that one – no flippin’ decals):
Next up are a pair of Soviet Mi-24V gunships (known as ‘Hind E’ to NATO), which are plastic kits by Battlefront/Flames of War/Team Yankee. These are very nice kits, though the rotor assembly is WAY to thin and brittle and is unlikely to survive many games. One of the blades was also very badly bent and I broke it trying to bend it back with the aid of some hot water. 🙁 It’s glued back together for now, but I’m going to get some clear plastic discs to replace the rotors.
Note that like all the other Team Yankee helicopter kits, the canopies are solid plastic and not clear, so need to be painted in. Not really a problem, as we’re used to that with resin/metal kits.
Last criticism is that like the Lynx decals, the decals didn’t seem to want to stick and went ‘silvery’ after drying. This is despite me gloss-varnishing the application area first (advice received after the Lynx experience) and then gluing them down firmly with more varnish.
Next is another pair of Team Yankee kits: These being US Army AH-1S Cobras. I’ve been DYING for an AH-1S to appear in 1/100th, as it was the standard US Army helicopter gunship throughout the late 70s and 80s, until the Apache started to appear in significant numbers in the late 80s. They’re quite different from the Vietnam-era Cobra, in that they have a small sensor/weapon sight turret mounted on the nose, which is separate from the gun turret, which is mounted under the cockpit. It also has a very different shape of canopy, as well as a much larger engine exhaust.
Although the box and blurb doesn’t say, the kit also includes all the bits necessary to build the slightly earlier AH-1G Cobra, which served into the early 80s with the US Army and later with other nations. This has a turret with a dual-mounted Minigun and 40mm automatic grenade launcher. The box also includes stacks of weapons options, but I’ve gone with the fairly standard Germany fit of 8x TOW missiles and 2x rocket pods.
Once again, the decal sheet however, leaves a lot to be desired. The sheet provides you with two pairs of ‘United States Army’ decals and several pairs of registration number decals, which is great, but then only gives you ONE set of tail rotor ‘Danger’ markings (one of which crumbled when I tried to get it off the sheet) and only provides you with one set of decals for each unit depicted. So you can’t do a pair of helicopters from the same unit! Grrr! Nevertheless, they come out very well and I’m happy with them. I stole the nose-art decal from their Vietnam M113 set:
Last is a Canadian CH-136 Kiowa scout helicopter, which is essentially the same aircraft as the OH-58 Kiowa, Bell Jetranger and Agusta-Bell 206. This is a very scarce kit by an otherwise unknown company called ‘Pocket-Pak’ that we found on eBay. As far as I know, it’s the only Kiowa kit to exist in 1/100th, so it was a lucky find. I could certainly use more!
The kit is pretty poor quality, but it does the job. The canopy was clear plastic, but in a strange clear blue colour, so I painted it over. The side-windows were in any case, moulded to the fuselage and not clear. Decals supplied were late 60s US Army vintage, so I painted the Canadian markings. The Minigun was salvaged from a Flames of War M113 APC set – very handy.
My wargames blog: http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/
13/02/2017 at 15:57 #57894Darkest Star GamesParticipantVery nice looking models. You’ve done them an fantastic job!
"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."
13/02/2017 at 18:00 #57902Jemima FawrParticipantCheers DSG! 🙂
My wargames blog: http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/
13/02/2017 at 18:08 #57904kyoteblueParticipantGreat work, from what I have heard all the BF decals are bad.
13/02/2017 at 21:33 #57921Jemima FawrParticipantThanks KB.
My wargames blog: http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/
13/02/2017 at 22:45 #57923shelldrakeParticipantThey look superb! I am tempted to get some.
15/02/2017 at 20:57 #58009Jemima FawrParticipantTwo more done and the last for now. These are West German Bo-105 PAH-1 anti-tank helicopters. Again, the models are by Battlefront/Flames of War/Team Yankee and again, the decals are rubbish and have gone ‘silvery’:
My wargames blog: http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/
20/02/2017 at 21:06 #58285Jemima FawrParticipantSomeone is trying to private message me. Being a skinflint, I’ve not got private message rights on this forum, so I can’t read the message and can’t even tell who is trying to message me. Hopefully the message-sender will read this and ‘transmit in clear’…
My wargames blog: http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/
20/02/2017 at 23:52 #58291GeoffQRFParticipantThat’ll be me – as your name showed up I assumed it meant you could read them. Can you drop me an email?
QRF Models Limited
www.quickreactionforce.co.uk21/02/2017 at 05:58 #58300Jemima FawrParticipantWill do! 🙂
My wargames blog: http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/
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