Recommendations for replacement Cobra crew

flpickupman · Post by **flpickupman** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 8:39 am

I have a handy dandy Standard camo Cobra that is in need of more accurate crew members. The guy with the baseball hat isn't cutting it. Anyone have some suggestions as to any figures that would be better suited?

Thanks,

Scott

lsc1002 · Post by **lsc1002** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 8:40 am

That is a very good question!

flpickupman · Post by **flpickupman** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 8:54 am

Okay, I see Bad Cat has a Blackhawk crew bubba which should work. Since I'd like to do a head swap, does anyone know if the helmet is molded with the head on that figure?

Razor17019 · Post by **Razor17019** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 8:54 am

What about the NAM Huey pilots? or the surplus NAM figures with different body?

digger · Post by **digger** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 8:57 am

flpickupman wrote:Okay, I see Bad Cat has a Blackhawk crew bubba which should work. Since I'd like to do a head swap, does anyone know if the helmet is molded with the head on that figure?

No - helmet comes off. The bbi pilots are perfect for the Cobra - they fit, you can head swap with them and if you have the LB, Kiowa or Apache you could steal some better headgear.

flpickupman · Post by **flpickupman** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 8:58 am

I was thinking of using a couple of my surplus guys, but the armor crew helmet is noticably different than the aircrew helmet. Plus, I'd like to have figures with a more modern appearance since this is the AH-1H (I think, late model at any rate).

flpickupman · Post by **flpickupman** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 9:00 am

digger wrote:No - helmet comes off. The bbi pilots are perfect for the Cobra - they fit, you can head swap with them and if you have the LB, Kiowa or Apache you could steal some better headgear.

Sweet! I'll have to order a couple now. Thanks!

tmanthegreat · Post by **tmanthegreat** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 9:11 am

The carded BBI "Blackhawk crew" figures (either in the OD green jumpsuit or the desert tan jumpsuit) seem to work best and look great! The fit in the cockpit quite well and look like your standard helocopter pilot. For a while, I used the new BBI Night Stalker pilot figure in my Cobra. They looked good in there, but were a tight squeeze and the USAF cammo just didn't seem right for the Marines, so I went back to the older BBI figures.

tpa05 · Post by **tpa05** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:23 am

Hands down the best helicopter pilot is the BBI helicopter crew member. The easiest place to find them (although I've bought them at TRU and other vendors as well) is on the bottom of smalljoes.com under the elite force 1:18 scale. I've since purchased (at least) 8 of them and as you may have read in my other posts I've also used them for jet pilots as well.

The helmets are removable and for two of them I painted the helmets neutral grey (to match the Air Force colored HGU-55) and then used oxygen masks from other sets. A little surgery to the masks and the pilots look great. He's the one piloting several of my scratch built jets and the 21c F-104. He also the only pilot that fits in the PTE cobra.

If your gonna use the BBI pilot I have one suggestion. Shave off ONLY A LITTLE off the top of the pilots head for a perfect fit. Crazy glue it in place and you'll be happy.

As for the night stalker pilot, I tried to use it in it's original form but it's too "wide" to fit in any of my aircraft. I dremeled off the side of the arms and the side pockets of his vest and with a little paint you can't notice the difference. In order to get it to fit in the jets I also had to dremel down his "backside" and flatten out the back of his legs. A little paint to touch up the arms was all that was needed. On the second night stalker figure I again used the helmet from the helicopter pilot and again painted it neutral grey. I added a mask from a 21c WWII figure and, although it was not my original intention, when done he immediately became a Navy pilot as the look was spot on. Looks damn good to if I do say so myself.

I built yet a fourth jet fighter pilot using the body and helmet of the BBI helicopter pilot. With some of them now looking the same I used the same mask from the 21c P-47 pilot, did a little etching and it fits perfectly. I then used the head from the new(er) BBI figure Lt Hanson. The mask covered his (IMO) "goofy" look on his face but when complete it looked pretty good.

Good luck flpickup man. Let us know when you find some more good 21c stuff in South Florida.

flpickupman · Post by **flpickupman** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:45 am

Will do tpa. Thanks for the tips. I appreciate it.

Aviatornut.com · Post by **Aviatornut.com** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 6:03 pm

we have the blackhawk crew member in od and tan for $5.99 each and they come with a large selection of weapons

flpickupman · Post by **flpickupman** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 6:04 pm

OD too? Dang! I already ordered a pair of tan, but I'll swing by your site. You can never have enough aricrew right?

tpa05 · Post by **tpa05** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 6:56 am

All of the BBI pilots I described above are in OD green