OH-58 Kiowa of the PoAF

[DogfighterZen]

Well, i've decided to join the fun and give this year's OWGB but i'm almost sure i won't finish in time... i'm hoping this gets me going again because i've got two builds on my bench and although not totally stalled, i've been doing very little on both cause work has been rough lately.
Anyway, i've recently been going through a few boxes of the stash and got a few kits out to keep them closer but with no real plan to build them.
One of the kits i got out ended up being the chosen one for this GB as i believe it's an easy build and i have no plans of trying to improve anything on the kit so, should be a simple and quick build... 
It's actually a rather rare kit, which took me years to find on ebay at a reasonable price, it's the Italeri 1/72 Bell OH-58A Kiowa.
So, getting down to business, here's the opening pic of the kit box and contents, along with the KV mask set for the windows.

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Choosing this kit was easy cause it's a build i had on my list since i started building helicopter kits.
Much like my PoAF OH-6 Cayuse build, the idea is simple to keep the choices to a minimum and, to speed up the whole process, it will also be another simple paint and markings scheme, much like the real Spanish and Austrian ones possible OOB with the kits decals.
But that's enough talk, time to get something done.

[Mossie]

Great reason for starting the GB. 

[kerick]

I hope you have your magnifying glasses ready! That kit looks tiny.
Italeri makes great chopper kits!

[NARSES2]

Italeri makes great chopper kits!

It is something they do well

[DogfighterZen]

Thanks for the support, gentlemen! 

I hope you have your magnifying glasses ready! That kit looks tiny.
Italeri makes great chopper kits!

Yep, they're on my bench at all times! 
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Italeri has lots of helicopter kits and i have quite a few of them in my stash. I've only built their 1/72 AH-1W Cobra and OH-6A Cayuse so far and i can say that both are simple kits but there are serious fit issues due to the way the kits were designed and careful cleaning of the parts is needed due to the quantity of flash on some parts.
They're not bad, just older kits that are showing their age. Still, they have some kits that are the only available kits of the type, some for the scale and others are simply the only ones in production at the moment.
The 1/72 Kiowa/Jet ranger is the only game in town for that helo and it looks pretty good to me.
It's actually only been released 3 times, the first box was in 1994, it's the one i'm using for this build, second was the Tamiya rebox in 2002 and the third was the Italeri rebox in 2015, as the L.A.P.D. Jet ranger and all are very hard to find, even on auction sites.

Regarding this build, i've managed to get all internals painted last night. Got the bigger bits assembled and tonight i'll have another bench session after dinner to get something done.

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Some dry-fit tests show that this kit is much better than both of my previous Italeri chopper kits when it comes to that but, there are small things like absence of the collective and rudder pedals(not to mention seat belts) for the pilots, there's just the central control stick.
Again, 31 year old, cheap kit, it's more than enough for me.

[DogfighterZen]

Got some work done on the cockpit and that was repainting the interior in black as the real ones, adding the seats, cyclics, instrument panel that got a decal to give it some detail beyond the best painting i could do on it...
Also added collectives and rudder pedals from scrap styrene bits but the later are very rough. Doesn't really matter as they're so tiny that it won't be seen in any real detail so i won't waste more time with the interior.

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Also drilled out the exhaust pipes which were solid bits and that was worth the time spent on it...

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Tomorrow i wanna get the fuselage closed so i'll have to get the seat harnesses done, get the doors glued to the fuselage halves, drill holes for the weapon stations and add the exhausts on the dog house's interior... then i can move on with the rest of the build and maybe even have a chance of finishing this in time.

 

[Weaver]

Nice project - good luck with it! 

Thanks for the info too. I've got a Revell(?) OH-58D, but I also want a "clean" -A or Jet Ranger so that I can swap bits to get a clean, early 1970s machine with a 4-bladed rotor. I can't just clean up the -D because a lot of it's electronic bits and bobs and it's IR suppressed engine fairing are moulded on.

[DogfighterZen]

Nice project - good luck with it! 

Thanks for the info too. I've got a Revell(?) OH-58D, but I also want a "clean" -A or Jet Ranger so that I can swap bits to get a clean, early 1970s machine with a 4-bladed rotor. I can't just clean up the -D because a lot of it's electronic bits and bobs and it's IR suppressed engine fairing are moulded on.

Thank you!  
Yep, the -D is has a very different doghouse so that would be hard to modify.
The only problem with this kit is that it is as rare as money in my bank account and when you do find one selling, the prices asked are simply ridiculous for the plastic you get.
I was hoping that Italeri would rebox the kit this year but no luck, maybe next year.

[Weaver]

Nice project - good luck with it! 

Thanks for the info too. I've got a Revell(?) OH-58D, but I also want a "clean" -A or Jet Ranger so that I can swap bits to get a clean, early 1970s machine with a 4-bladed rotor. I can't just clean up the -D because a lot of it's electronic bits and bobs and it's IR suppressed engine fairing are moulded on.

Thank you!  
Yep, the -D is has a very different doghouse so that would be hard to modify.
The only problem with this kit is that it is as rare as money in my bank account and when you do find one selling, the prices asked are simply ridiculous for the plastic you get.
I was hoping that Italeri would rebox the kit this year but no luck, maybe next year.

It's literally easier to get a 1/144th scale one at the moment!