Small Scale Military Headquarters

i just opened my apache box from bbi-(purchased from smalljoes) but 1 st question is this an origial box ? it has a small label which looks like a sticker ...

other question is about the paint,this helo is not used before for sure,but on the helicopter the painting on the edges looks like worn-out metal color,is this ok ? got the same paint problem on yours ?

The box was not the original window box but you got the same Apache.
The paint wear is the weathering - the "metal" in some areas you mention is there to appear as if the paint has worn down, and apparently it's working..

Can't really help with the box I'm afraid (did it have lots of those dratted wire ties holding it all in place on an orange 'liner'? If yes, it's probably original - it's bad enough taking the dratted things off, I'd hate to put them all back on again!) , but the "worn paint" effect is deliberate - it's BBI's attempt at making the bird look like she's been flown.

Just a shame nobody seems to have told them that the Apache's fuselage is built from Carbon-Fibre not metal...

Jeff


"I'm now a perfectly safe penguin and my colleague is rapidly running out of limbs!"

how about the ones in the original window box....do they have the same style paint?

turkish1 wrote:how about the ones in the original window box....do they have the same style paint?

Mine did. As mentioned, it's supposed to make the helicopter look more real - paint scraped off is a common sight on all sorts of military (and non-military) kit.
So that leads me to ask, where's the mud? (And oil, hydraulic fluids, exhaust burns etc... oh wait, that's Superdetailer country innit? Where's Mig29K when you need him? Oh yeah, currently raiding Carriers for Hornet details...)

Of course, any crew chief who left that much paint missing off "their" helo is either (a)in combat and more concerned about keeping the thing in the air than mere appearance or (b)Navy, not Air Force.

Don't forget that a "mere" quarter-inch of silver paint on a 1/18th-scale Apache would be a scrape nearly five inches long on the real thing. And almost all the way across the avionics bays, too. Nobody would leave that sort of a mess on a real helicopter without a very good (or bad, depending upon how far you are away from it) reason.


(Note: that second reason earlier was intended as humor and NOT a real dig at the various Navies of the world... honest.)

TTFN,

Jeff.

"Apaches don't fly. They're just so gorram ugly the earth keeps throwing them away!"

I hate to throw a wrench in....but the fuse on an Apache is not carbon-fibre. There are sections of the fuse made from composite materials, but the overall frame and skin is stressed aluminum, steel, and composite metal. Most of the "armor" for the Apache is buried under it's skin or designed around critical components. So the metal silver showing through on scratched or worn surfaces is correct. Ask any crewchief and he'll tell you how often they have to be spot-painted....just look for a guy with green fingers.