The basic kit by Italeri has been modified considerably though. I do not intend to spend much time complaining about this kit's poor accuracy of fit, especially concerning the transparent parts' concavities.

In this model a lot of photo etched parts by Eduard were used which allowed more details. Furthermore, I used parts of a conversion kit by the Cobra Company, which were very helpful.

Additionally, several components are self made. Starting with the interior, where Italeri avoided to structure the headliner and provided only poor details. With profiles and various small parts I created a lot of new components. The bottom, the cockpit and the additional tank have been completed with etched parts and assemblies by the Cobra Company. Moreover, the interior walls have been redesigned, since the original's main gear, for example, is not visible from inside. Some avionics parts behind the pilot seats have also been created by me.

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The cockpit doors were given new windows and I had to replace the small, sliding side doors completely, since the included parts in the kit were too thick. I also revised the engines form and customized the engine casing. The six flare and chaff dispensers have also been self made. I built two pieces for a mold and reproduced them with resin.

Transparent lamps for the navigation lights would have been nice to have but  were not included in the kit, so they have also been self made.

I mainly used Model Master and Revell colors. Furthermore, I used products by LifeColor, Vallejo and Andrea to paint the small parts. The weathering has been made with oil colors, chalk and weathering-sets by Tamiya.

Since Italeri's decals were just not enough, I hopefully bought decals by Aztec that also included maintenance labels of all kinds. To my surprise, all the decals that should have been black were printed in gray. So I scanned the sheet and printed it in black on a blank decal sheet. Where I was in the process, I also made new decals for the  IDs. I downloaded the required font from the internet. 

The final model was ultimately placed on a picture frame by a Swedish furniture manufacturer. I framed a shred of a U.S. Army jacket with airbrush writing and small printed patches from the 304th Rescue Squadron.

I really spent much time on this model and I was close to madness occasionally, but finally, I am pleased with the result.

Lars Kolweyh

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