Unboxing and Review of:
- Italeri 1/72 scale AH-6 Night Fox -
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| a peek inside the box |
Time for another unboxing and review. Today we have the Italeri 1/72 scale AH-6 Night fox. A small helicopter used quite extensively during the later half of the Cold War. I don't really know much about this helicopter, I just picked it up because it was cheap, and I wanted to have an interesting looking helicopter in my collection. Anyway, on with the review.
Box art
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| box art of the Italeri AH-6 Night Fox |
The front of the box features a really nice depiction of the AH-6 flying at night with some sort of fire raging in the background. I have to say, the artwork makes me really hyped for this kit 😁. Which is exactly what the box art should do. At least in my opinion.
At the top of the box then, to the left we have the name of the model. Below that is the kit number in this case No 017, in case you also want to purchase this kit. Next to that, is the scale, confirming that this is indeed at 1/72 scale. Then, the box tells us that you can pick from 3 different paint schemes; a US, a Japanese and an Israeli scheme respectively. We are also told that this kit does not include a figure. And in the far right we have the Italeri logo.
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| long edge of the box |
Moving on to one of the long edges of the box. At the far left, the box informs us that this belongs to Italeri's helicopters range. Then we have the Italeri logo, with the scale and kit number underneath. Then we have a short description of the real world helicopter written in several languages.
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| the other long edge |
Flipping the box around to the other long edge. We once again have the same information at the far left as on the other edge. Followed by 3 photos of a finished model, giving you a rough idea what could be achieved with this kit.
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| short edge of the box |
On the first short edge, we have the same information we've seen on the other edges, along with a diagram of the model with the dimensions of the finished model which is 13.6 cm or around 5.4 inches. So it's really not a large model by any means. Then we have the same artwork we've seen on the front of the box.
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| the other short edge |
Flipping the box around once again, we have the exact same stuff here as on the opposite short edge only in a different orientation. Which is a bit of a waste, really. Surely they could have come up with something more useful than repeating the same thing.
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| back of the box |
On the back of the box, we have a painting guide for the Israeli and US Army versions of the AH-6, with the suggested colors from Italeri's own acrylics range. Of course you can use the equivalents from your prefered paint manufacturer.
Moving to the right edge, we once again have the Italeri logo, the recommended age. We are also told that this kit was manufactured in Italy, followed by a block of text in several languages telling us that the kit only contains the parts necessary to assemble the kit, any glue and paint you may require must be purchased separately. Then we have general recycling information, a QR code, a bar code and a copyright of 2013, which may or may not also be the tooling date, however that's not a given.
Contents of the box
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| inside the box |
Inside the box we have a plastic bag which contains all of our sprues, instructions and decals.
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| contents taken out of the bag |
With everything spread out, we have two decently sized sprues, molded in this very soft, brown plastic. At the top, next to the sprues is the decal sheet. On the left we have the instructions, and below that is the sprue of clear plastic packaged separately, which is always nice to see.
Documentation
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| front of the instruction leaflet |
As far as paper work is concerned, there isn't much. Just the instruction leaflet and the decal sheet. On the front of the instruction leaflet, we have a description of the real world AH-6, this is the exact same info that we saw on the box.
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| instruction leaflet folded out |
The instructions are in this fold-out format. As mentioned before, I'm not a fan of. They just take up to much real-estate. But at least you don't have to put together the kit blind. As you can see, there aren't too many steps to building this kit. The instructions are a bit cluttered, but over all seem quite easy to follow.
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| back-side of the instruction leaflet |
On the other side of the leaflet we have one more building step. This is followed by the painting instructions printed in black and white.
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| sprue maps |
At the beginning of the instructions we have the sprue maps. This is always very nice to see. It allows you to make sure you to compare your sprues to this map and make sure that all the parts are there. At the top right side there is a key of the symbols you'll encounter throughout this build and their meaning. And above this and just out of shot are some general health and safety tips.
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| paint callouts |
Then we have the paint callouts. These are all for Italeri's own paints. But as I said before, you can substitute these to the equivalents from your preferred manufacturer if you so desire.
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| cockpit assembly |
The build itself begins with the cockpit. Now, I'm not that in tune with helicopter terminology, so you'll have to excuse me if I miss label or don't know the name of some of these components. Anyway, it looks like we start with the cockpit floor to which we add the instrument panel, the rudder panels. The cyclic, I believe (parts 11B) go onto a structure that gets attached to the floor. The seats then need to be glued to the forward bulkhead.
We also have to glue in the rear bulkhead. In-between the seats go the pilot's and co-pilot's collective. Between the front and aft bulkhead goes another part. I believe, the weapons get attached to this. And depending on the version you are building, you might want to cut off the long arms from this part. So pay special attention at this step, I'd recommend.
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| assembling the fuselage (versions A and C) |
Next we need to install the cleat parts inside one of the fuselage halves. We also need to drill some holes into the sides of the fuselage, should we choose to build one of the versions with external weapons. The exhaust also gets added at the back of the helicopter. We then attach the clear parts to the left side doors which come separately molded unlike on the right side. This allows you to display this model with the doors in either the closed or open position should you wish so. Then, we add the large windshield to the front.
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| fuselage assembly for version B |
Next, we have essentially the exact same step as before, but adjusted slightly for the 3rd version that you can build from this cockpit. This one has a slightly different looking exhaust. Other than that, the steps are the same. They really could have included the two different exhausts in the previous illustration as another option.
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| installing the skids and sensors |
The next step has us attaching the skids and the IR sensor to the underside of the chopper. We also have to attach a small part towards the end of the tail-boom. I have no idea what this could be. If you do know, leave it in the comments below.
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| main rotor assembly and tail section assembly |
Now, we assemble the main rotor, which comes in several parts. We also need to ad the pitot tube to the top of the aircraft at this point. Then we assemble the tail section. And in the bottom left corner we have assembly instructions for either rocket-pods or gatling-guns. These are only for version A.
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| version B exclusive assembly instructions |
Lastly, we have instructions for assembling the armament and sensor array specific to version B, which is the Israeli version.
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| U.S. special forces painting instructions |
Next are the painting instructions for the U.S. Special Forces serving in the Arabian Gulf in 1986. It's a bit of a shame that the instructions are in black and white. But, the scheme is only one color so it's not that bad. I still would have preferred this to be in full color. Luckily, this scheme exists in color on the back of the box.
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| Israeli Air Force paint instructions |
Next we have the paint scheme for the Israeli Air Force as it served in South Lebanon in 1982. This too has a simple camouflage, consisting of just one color. Thankfully, this scheme is also featured on the back of the box. So you could use that if like me, you would find it more useful.
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| Japanese paint scheme instructions |
Lastly, we have the camouflage for the Japanese Army as it served in Hokkaido in 1990. Perhaps the most striking of the three paint schemes. Unfortunately, this scheme is not featured on the back of the box. That's a shame, because this one would have benefitted the most from having full color paint instructions.
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| part replacement form |
In case you have missing or damaged parts, the instruction leaflet has this small form, you can cut out and fill in with the necessary details. Which you can then send in to Italeri for replacements. Hopefully you don't have to use it. But if you need it it's there. Above the form, there are instructions for applying decals provided in several languages.
Decal sheet
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| decal sheet |
Before we get to the main event, let's take a look at the decal sheet. It contains markings for all three possible variants. The decals for the U.S. Army version are at the top, the Israeli markings are in the middle, and the Japanese markings take up the bottom and right side. They are printed by Zanchetti-Buccinasco, Which I believe is actually Italeri's own inhouse decal manufacturer, although I might be wrong on that. The quality seems to be decent, with nice, vibrant colors. And most of the text is legible, the only exception to this being the text inside the yellow rectangles for the Japanese version.
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| decals are a bit thick |
One thing I did notice however, is that they are a bit on the thicker side. And that's apparent in this shot. If you look closely at the roundels for the Japanese and Israeli markings, you cand see the light being caught by the edges of the carrier-film. Thicker decals mean that they might not conform to the details quite as nicely as thinner decals would. It remains to be seen if that holds true or not.
The plastic
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| sprue A |
We've now arrived at the main event. And we'll start by looking at sprue A first. This contains the left half of the fuselage, the doors for the right side, part of the cockpit interior, the pitot tube, the arms that hold the weaponry for the Israeli version, as well as a part I don't recognize.
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| passenger door |
Taking a closer look at the passenger side door, there are some fairly heavy scuff marks visible, as well as some flash around the door hinges.
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| co-pilot's door |
Moving on to the co-pilot's door, there are a few more scuff marks and more flash around the door hinges. Obviously, this will need cleaning to ensure good fitment.
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| cockpit floor |
Next we have the cockpit floor, which features some verry simplistic details. And again we can see some scuffing, particularly towards the front of the cockpit. I'm starting to see a pattern emerging here.
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| pilot and co-pilot's seat |
The seats feature some upholstery detail. And again we signs of the ever present scuff marks, as well as some flash around the seats. On the corners of the seat cushion there are some weird marks. I'd like to say that these are creases as the tapestry conforms to the cushion. But given the simplistic molding of the seats, these are simply indentations left behind by poorly maintained molds.
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| instrument panel |
The instrument panel details are replicated rather crudely. But at least there's something. Of course we can see more scuff marks all over the instrument panel. And I can't help but notice the absolutely massive sprue gates holding the part. This will require a lot of car to cut out to avoid damaging the part.
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| rear bulkhead |
The rear bulkhead features this mesh pattern, I suppose it's meant to replicate upholstery but I'm unsure about that. And we have the now usual scuff marks as well as some scratches and a tiny sink mark inside one of the diamonds. There are also signs of flash here and there.
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| front bulkhead |
The front bulkhead is represented rather simplistically. With some strange marks visible on the right-hand side and bottom (top as we look at the part). And a massive sink-mark at the top (bottom as we look at the part).
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This is the central console into which the cyclic gets glued into, and it has a small indentation on the right.
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| weapon supports |
The weapon mounting points for the Israeli version are molded rather crudely. And there's even more flash and scuff marks. I think I'll stop mentioning these going forward, unless it's particularly bad.
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| control box |
Next we have the part that goes between the front and rear bulkhead. This holds the weapons for the American version of the chopper. I called it a control box in the caption. But I genuinely have no idea what it is or does. I suppose it's some sort of control console for the weapons, given that this part is required for all 3 versions of the helicopter. But it could be something else as well. Do let me know if you have any idea.
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| pitot tube and unknown part |
Next is a part that again I have no idea what it is. This goes on the underside of the tail-boom on one of the versions. Below it is the pitot tube.
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| right-side fuselage half |
Then we have the right-sed fuselage half, with some panel line detail and some over-sized rivets. And if you take a look at the top, around the rotor-housing, we can see that it's rather oddly shaped. That is because this part is suffering severely of what we call short-shot. This happens when there isn't enough plastic in the tanks during the molding process. And this is bad. This is really, really bad. I don't think I've ever seen short-shot this bad. Normally, this would need replacing.
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| comparison |
Thankfully I have another kit of this model. Actually have two more. I'll get into why that is towards the end. But, if you look at the one at the top, and then at the one I'm reviewing now, you can see what the fuselage should actually look like. Fortunately, this is the only part from the kit that suffers from this. And yes, I intentionally chose to showcase the worst version of this kit. But I did it in good faith and to show you that sometimes, stuff like this will happen. It shouldn't. QA should have caught this in my opinion. But it is what it is.
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| backside of sprue A |
Turning the sprue to the other side, we once again take a look at the doors, that feature barely any detail which is a shame given that the kit offers the possibility to display it with open doors. Furthermore, there are some very poorly placed ejector-pin parks around the door frames. Those will need addressing as well.
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| right-side fuselage interior |
The inside of the fuselage has absolutely no details, but there are some more poorly placed ejector-pin marks. And two holes; on below the passenger door, one slightly aft of it. These are there to mark the areas where you need to drill through the plastic to install the weapons.
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| control box, maybe? |
And a look at this part that goes in between the bulkheads from the top. It has some detail, but nothing special. There's also a bit of flash, which wasn't noticeable from the other side.
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| sprue B |
Sprue B carries the left-side fuselage, the weaponry and massive sensors for the Israeli version. Back to the left hand side and below the fuselage are the landing skids, the IR camera for the weaponry on the U.S. version. The tail-plane assembly, main-rotor mechanism. Then we have the 5 blades of the main-rotor. The rotor-shaft, exhaust, tail-rotor blades, control columns. And at the very right we have the rocket-pods, ruder-pedals and weaponry mounting brackets.
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| left side fuselage |
One thing I failed to mention previously, is that this kit presents raised detail, which dates it far back than the copyright date would have you believe. In any case, the left half of the fuselage has some rivet and panel line detail. Thankfully, this side of the fuselage, doesn't suffer from short-shot on the rotor-housing. The rivets, once again, look out of scale. This model will definitely quite a bit of work to get it to a presentable state.
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| weaponry and nose sensor array |
The weaponry for the Israeli variant, has signs of flash in places and the ever present scuff marks we've seen throughout the kit.
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| landing skids |
The landing skids present some flash, and they seem to be slightly misshapen. Perhaps it's just me, but they don't look quite right to me. I will need to look at some reference images to figure out how they should look, and see if I can fix them when I get to building this kit.
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| IR camera and other small parts |
Next we have the IR camera for the U.S. version with quite a bit of flash around. There's also some flash on the rear winglets (parts 35, 36). There's even more flash on the small exhaust pipes (parts 45). Parts 29 and 32 I don't know what they are, but they don't look too good either.
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| vertical stabilizer and rotor assembly |
Next we have the vertical stabilizer which also shows a bit of flash, the rotor assembly has a lot of flash, and frankly, they look more like blobs rather than components you'd see on a helicopter.
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| horizontal stabilizer |
There's more flash on the horizontal stabilizer with some random scratches and scuffs.
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| main rotor blades |
The rotor blades are molded in a pretty simplistic manner but there is a bit of detail at the roots representing the control mechanism.
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| interior and exterior detail |
Up next is the roto shaft with signs of flash, next to it is the rotor-cap I believe, followed by the engine exhaust and the tail rotor which lacks any real detail. Then bellow are the cyclic and collective controls. Showing signs of flash, and a small sink mark on one of the cyclic columns. Luckily, this won't be visible so you might get away without any filler.
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| rudder pedals, rocket pod caps, mounting brackets |
Next we have the rudder pedals, the mounting brackets for the external weaponry, and the four circular parts representing the front and rear end of the rocket-pods. Detail is minimal and again there are signs of flash and scuffs all over the place.
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| rocket-pod housing |
Next are the halves for the two rocket-pods. There's really not much to say about these other than pointing out even more flash that will require cleaning.
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| left-side fuselage interior |
Looking at the inside of the left-side fuselage we see that there are no details anywhere to be seen. However there are some ejector-pin marks which will need cleaning. We can also see the small hole that will need drilling out for the weapon mounting points just below the locating tab for the rear bulkhead.
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| sprue of clear parts |
Lastly, we have the sprues containing the transparencies. And there are quite a few. That's understandable, given that this is a helicopter. They are quite thin and transparent as they should. Not the best in terms of transparency, I've seen better, but definitely not the worst. What's not so good, is the framework around the windshield. They are barely noticeable. Masking them will be a challenge. I'm not sure if there are any pre-cut masks for this kit out there, if not, I think the best bet is to paint the framework by hand. The framework is far too shallow and soft to cut your own masks, unfortunately.
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| transparency demonstration |
Here is a demonstration of the transparency. And they really aren't bad in this department, you can almost make out my fingerprint through the glass. The only part that has a bit of damage being the small rectangular window seen at the top left, right in front of the tip of my pointer finger.
The good and the bad
Instructions.
Pros:
- Slightly cluttered, but easy to follow build instructions
Cons:
- Potentially a bit confusing when choosing variants
- Black and white paint instructions are not ideal, especially for the three tone Japanese camo
Decals.
Pros:
- Printed to a decent quality
- Sufficiently vibrant without looking oversaturated
Cons:
- Quite thick, might not conform well to details
Main sprues.
Pros:
- None to speak of
Cons:
- Soft, raised panel lines and rivets
- Lacking in interior detail
- Simplified details on instrument panel and seats
- Visible ejector-pin marks on interior surfaces
- A lot of flash and scuff marks across the board
Transparent sprue.
Pros:
- Transparency is surprisingly good
Cons:
- Scuff marks on one of the windows
- Almost non-existent framework on main cockpit window
Final verdict
Overall, the state of this kit is quite disappointing. It has a lot of flash and scuff marks. There are also ejector-pin marks on the interior surfaces in areas that will be visible if not addressed. The kit is also molded in a fairly soft plastic, which will make sanding and repairing all the problems quite difficult. This kit will need a lot of work to make it look half decent.
All of these issues are exacerbated by the fact that the first copy I bought of this kit had that horrendously short-shot fuselage half. I wanted to get a replacement, and did contact Italeri about the issue. After a bit of back and forth, it would have cost me about €25. I paid €11 for my copy, so it would have cost me more than twice the price to replace one part. And that didn't land well with me.
Ultimately I decided to get another copy. Well, two. I never planned for this, I'm not that interested in this whirlybird, there are so many other helicopters out there I'd rather have multiple versions of. But I still wanted to have a kit that is more or less intact. In the end, since there are three versions possible, I decided I'd get two more copies. The two intact kits will be built normally, whilst my damaged copy will end up in a diorama depicting a crashed AH-6. But all that is in the far future. Most likely, I will build one of the versions this year, but for the diorama, you will have to wait until some point next year, since I've never built dioramas before so I will need to learn how to build them.
So, ignoring the issues of my first copy of this kit, I don't think I can recommend this kit to beginners. Even if you get a kit that doesn't suffer from short-shot, there are plenty of issues that need to be addressed that first timers won't be able to deal with.
The box gave us a copyright date of 2013, however, the kit was tooled back in 1992. And that's really shocking to me. Given the raised panel line and rivet details, I would have said that it's a lot older than that. By this point in time, all but the smallest manufacturers have moved on to putting out kits with recessed detail. So I'm not sure what happened there, unless Italeri inherited the tooling from someone else, I cannot explain the state of this kit.
Unfortunately, I can't really give you any good alternatives. Tamiya has an AH-6 in their line up, but from what I can tell that it's just a re-box of this kit. There are also a few others out there, but they all come from short-run manufacturers like AZ Models and these types of kits are not suitable for beginners.
Before I wrap it all up. I want to mention that I will not always be building kits in the order I review them. With that said, you can definitely expect to see one of the versions of the AH-6s on the blog at some time later this year. Most likely, I will build the Israeli version first, as that one looks the most striking in terms of overall looks.
I hope you found this review helpful, let me know if I've been too harsh or if I was to lenient in the comments bellow. Don't forget to leave a like if you think this article deserves it, and perhaps even share the blog with friends and family if you think they could find it helpful. For now, I hope you have a wonderful day, and happy modeling everyone. Cheers! 😁
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