AH-60L Blackhawk DAP

Looks like a real nice kit. But, since I just received the kit yesterday I have not started it. The one thing I did notice after opening the box, and it rather disappointed me was there are no instrument panel decals on the decal sheet. This helo is plenty big enough for Academy to have decals for the instrument panels.

Full disclosure: I was a UH-60 crew chief, so I am really familiar with the aircraft generally and am therefore probably unfairly picky. Still, this is a Jekyll-and-Hyde kit. On the plus side, there are a bazillion options if you are familiar with the aircraft you want to build; lots of MH-, AH-, HH-, and UH-60 variants can be fashioned reasonably well from this kit (depending on era you are modeling, as panels have changed over the service life of the Blackhawk). Until Kittyhawk came out with their $100-plus kit, this was the best Hawk in the best scale, and it's still probably the right choice for modelers of my pay grade. But fit is problematic and the decals are much more yellow than the OD markings on the 160th aircraft I happened to encounter during my enlistment. Some specific fit issues: make sure to sand down the top of the cargo hook box so the cabin floor can sit flat, and the windshield/greenhouse piece needs a lot of work. The floor and ceiling of the cabin are badly oversimplified, and the main landing gear struts are clearly visible in the cabin, so you might want some sheet styrene to cover them. Overall, I would recommend this kit to a modeler with a good understanding of the particular airframe they want to represent and the skills and patience to deal with the fit issues. The price gap between this and the much-lauded KH kit would cover a LOT of aftermarket; Werner's Wings has some nice options.

This model is great. A lot of options to build it in plenty of ways. You can go the DAP route or other 160th SOAR variants. Plenty of hellfires, rockets and drop tanks and guns. No pilots or aircrew but detail kits are easy to find. Now, I'm not sure if this kit is undersized for 1:35 scale or my other Helicopter kits are actually 1:32. It honestly seems a bit smaller at first glance. The resin is strong and sturdy with great detail. Use snips/cutters to get the pieces out. All-in-all, great model with great potential. Looking forward to the build.