Weaponry

The weaponry on the Scorpion is what makes the craft distinctive. Some pieces like the Gatling guns under the forward winglets and the nose turret are really nice. The Hellfire missiles and racks fall into the OK category and I replaced both the missiles and rack with AH-64 parts.

The FFAR pods are OK but the pylon arrangement is confusing. The instructions call for the pods with long pylons to be glued to the wings. There are already short pylons molded into the wings and there's no indication if they are a guide or a base to glue the AGM pylon to. Either way, the FFAR pods would end up hanging too low.

Lining up the pods is a nightmare. The first row of three is staggered and the second row of two is staggered so the front of those pods falls between the staggering of the bottom three. Lining the pods up with the stagger and making sure they a consistently spaced and parallel to each other is difficult. I ended up rebuilding the pods in styrene just to make gluing them together easier.

I also made black decals to detail the front of each FFAR pod. This allowed me to paint the missile tip area with Zinc Chromate and mask off each missile and the inside of the tube front with the decal.

The mounts for the Gatling guns on the front winglets need to be trimmed drastically to prevent the guns scraping on the ground (they default to the pointing down position).

Decals

The kit comes with white tail numbers and alternate tail numbers just in case you want to build a fleet. I added two yellow stripes around each Hellfire, a black “No Step” on each of the smaller front winglets, the fronts to FFAR pods and some thin white lines to the nose gun.

The Cockpit

The one really weak part of this kit is the cockpit canopy. You get two clear vacuuform canopies but no resin plug. Cutting them out can be a hit or miss operation and, frankly, I can never seem to get the edges right. The frame detail is very soft and when compared to screen caps, the frames are about twice as wide as they should be. There is very little that can be done about it and because the frame edges are so soft, it makes masking difficult.

Given that fitting a vacuuform canopy is a less that joyful task, I detailed the cockpit and glued the canopy in place. After filling the seam between fuselage and canopy with white glue and Mr. Surfacer, I masked the whole canopy, painted the model and detailed the frame work with painted decal.

Paint

What can I say; it's Olive Drab all over. You can paint the Hellfires black and the rotors black with silver (steel) hubs. I used a fine sponge tipped brush (eye shadow applicator) and “painted” the panel lines a very dark green pastel mix. Using the sponge tip creates a dark center line with a bleed on either side.

With all the under wing stores, it's best to paint the wing roots and first row of FFAR pods before adding the second row.

Display

I plan to use a simple base with floor modeled on a screen cap from the movie. In spite of the additional weight, the Gunship does not sit evenly on its skids (it looks tail heavy). I may add some ground clutter - tools kits, fueling pipes, electrical cables, etc. - and use one of those tubes (plugged in below the tail boom) to support the tail.

Overall

It really is pretty nice model despite its challenges and because of its unique design and scale; it's a nice addition to my collection.