This AH-64D Apache Longbow is license built by Westland/Boeing for the British Army. A couple of interesting features unique to the British built aircraft are the inclusion of folding rotor blades, and Rolls Royce Turbomeca engines that replace the General Electric T700 in the US machines. There are also some avionics and weapon systems differences.

This was a very enjoyable and for the most part easy model to build. The two instruction sheets are a foldout type with, for the most part, clear pictures and logical directions. There is one for assembly, and one for the parts tree map and decal guide. It was nice having the tree map separate as I didn’t have to fold pages back and forth to find a part.

Eduard has produced many different sets of seat belts over the years for many sizes and types of aircraft. They also have several different styles, with the fabric belts and straight photoetch belts. This set is 1/32^nd scale photoetch steel with preprinted color on one side. The printing is top notch and even includes the required stitching on the belts. No specific aircraft are mentioned on the set. One set is tan and one is green and there are two complete sets of each including the lap belts.

The shoulder belts are straightforward in that you cut them free, bend the bottom clips perpendicular and glue them in place. One note here- to make the belts drape more naturally, I bend them up a little and twist them slightly. Not too much or the printing can come off but by doing this and bending them into place and then gluing, you get a more natural look.

Master Model has a line of finely done brass parts which upgrade the kit they’re designed for. These parts are great if you have an accident and one of the cannons breaks off. The other possibility is AMS, as the machine guns are far superior in detail to the little nubs provided on the kit wing. See the parts comparison below.

The Spitfire IXe had a pair of 20mm cannons in the wing. These had been moved outboard to allow more ammunition for the Browning .50 caliber machine guns. The cannons stuck pretty far out from the wing, but the Brownings barely showed. The “fix” for the Brownings was to put the muzzle inside a tube which extended from the wing.

The kit contains six parts, two cannon barrels, two .50 muzzles and the wing tubes for the Brownings. The cannons for the early e wing were conical in shape. The later e wing had a more elliptical shape for the cannon fairings. This kit has the “late” cannons.