The AH-1W Super Cobra was the US Marines’ attack helicopter. Designed and developed by Bell, it entered service with the US Marine Corps (USMC), Marines have been flying the AH-1W Super Cobra since 1986. The last AH-1W was delivered in 1998. and was retired in October 2020 after 34 years of service. The AH-1Z Viper, which is also manufactured by Bell Textron, replaced the Super Cobra. It is also a brand new tooled kit in 2025.

The Super Cobra was the first attack helicopter to qualify both the Sidewinder air-to-air missile and the Sidearm anti-radiation missile. Both missiles can use the same LAU-7 rail launcher. Sidearm has a range of more than 15km. AIM-9L Sidewinder is an all-aspect, short-range, air-to-air missile has a range of 15km.

Historical and Reference Notes

AH-1W Super Cobra

The USMC promptly sought greater payload capacity than that provided by the original Sea Cobra; thus the AH-1T, equipped with the dynamic systems of the Model 309 and a lengthened fuselage, was produced by Bell during the 1970s. In the following decade, in response to the denial of funding to procure the Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, the USMC opted to procure a more capable variant of the AH-1T; equipped with revised fire control systems compatible with new munitions, such as the AGM-114 Hellfire anti-tank missile, the new model, designated AH-1W, commenced delivery in 1986. Seeking to further develop the type, Bell opted to develop the extensively redesigned and modernized Bell AH-1Z Viper during the 1990s and 2000s.

The Sea Cobra was involved in multiple major operations during the latter half of the twentieth century, such as during the United States invasion of Grenada in 1983. During the Iran–Iraq War of the 1980s, Iranian Sea Cobras were intensely used, proving itself to be capable in both anti-armor and anti-aircraft warfare. Turkey, who operated numerous Cobras and Super Cobras, used the type on multiple occasions against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) insurgents. On numerous occasions in the 1990s, USMC AH-1s were deployed during the Gulf War of the early 1990s, as well as for the United States invasion of Haiti in 1994, and the US intervention in the Yugoslav Wars in the late 1990s. In the twenty-first century, the type also saw action in the multi-decade War in Afghanistan, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. During October 2020, the USMC withdrew the last of its AH-1Ws in favor of exclusively operating the AH-1Z.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_AH-1_SuperCobra

The Super Cobra is armed with a 20mm turret gun, Hellfire, Sidewinder, and Sidearm missiles, and 5 inch or 2.75 inch rockets.

I have also provided the Scalemates reference as this is a great modeling site and contains the information for literally thousands of models and genres.

Initial Impressions

I am initially quite impressed with this kit. The surface detail very detailed and includes rivet detail and panels. It is a surprisingly large kit, with a length of a 469mm (18.46 inches) and rotor diameter: 419.5mm (16.5 inches).

Building this kit was a great exercise, beginning with the kit’s exhaust ducts and cockpit interior. These steps include the pilot’s seat, cockpit floor, control stick, the area behind with the fuel tanks, the radios and cockpit sides. This entire section looks and fits together very nicely. There are over 380 parts in this kit, with ten sprue sections, one photoetch sheet, a set of clear parts, a masking sheet and a decal sheet for three different aircraft.

Construction Notes

I was impressed with several aspects of this kit, including where foam sheeting used to protect and cushion the rotor blades and clear canopy sections of the sprue trees. This method of packing clearly shows the care for parts across the entire kit.

The overall fit when joining the two fuselage requires both a steady hand and initial dry fitting.

I also found that the center of gravity was left to the modeler to correct. I used my favorite product which works especially well for getting into any size nooks or crannies. I use Deluxe Liquid Gravity # BD38 and their Roket Hot Super-thin penetrating cyano glue, # AD43. This combination of very small non-toxic shot and super thin 1-5 second CA provides the sometimes simple solution to a problem weight balance.

Also, you should be prepared for numerous small and very small parts. This was especially evident in the sub assembly involving the missile and weapon pylons. The drawings fail to adequately illustrate the positions of some of the smallest parts. And you will need to work with many PE parts, which brings me to another suggestion: I had recently learned about the BSI-inc.com line of Super-Gold+ cyanoacrylate (CA as it is often referred to). While it’s reasonably fast setting and odorless like many other CA products, what I tumbled to is that you can use these around clear canopy sections without the usual fogging of clear areas. Try it and I hope you’ll be as pleased.

There are several items need explanations for painting; there are no interior call outs for many of the interior details provided. While the instructions are generally very good, I found places where parts are shown but the modeler is left to figure out where to place them or their orientation. There is limited (and sometimes no) indication of what paints and colors should be used, leaving the box top art and side images as your only guide. There are areas where some filing/sanding is required to achieve a better fit. An example is the raised area leading to the tail rotor which didn’t fit without some heavy duty filing to shorter the top of the fuselage. Another particularly difficult area was fitting the assembly of the engine exhaust manifold; I had to use some hillbilly surgery to get the halves to finally mate properly.

A very significant omission is not including any shoulder straps and lap belts. As these will be clearly visible, they need to be scratched, which is what I’ve done, using tape.

Fit and Finish

This kit’s fit overall ranges from good to excellent. I was disappointed when mating the fuselage halves together; I took the time to ensure the top joints were matched as closely as possible, and found the bottom joints were a skosh off and I was left with good of sanding, with a remaining small seam line is still visible along the bottom joint.

For those of you who count rivets and other small details, you will also notice that my Super Cobra has only seven Hellfire missiles; this is because I used the larger LAU-130 rocket containers rather than the LAU-131s, which precludes mounting all eight AGM-114 missiles.

While I worried about the canopy fit around its edges, I found it to be almost perfect. I attached the left side first using the CA (mentioned above) with a bit of zip kicker to quickly set the CA, followed by positioning the right side. Again, it fit perfectly.

Decals

Decals are another ‘sticky wicket’ in their own right. I found the missile markings alone to be a very challenging aspect; they require a very steady effort and comprise a major portion of this build. This is evidenced with any of the several very thin decals, where the slightest mistake leaves you with nothing but a very tightly rolled decal mess. Be prepared for the challenge. An example are the AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, each of which has 14 (yep, fourteen) decals for each the eight missiles—that’s 112 separate decals (if I had used them all)!!

Painting

To Trumpeter’s credit, they have provided a complete set of canopy masks for this a/c kit. These adhere well to the surface and allow for a clean and clear transparency after painting. I was unable to match the canopy area perfectly, though once it was painted it looks good.

There are painting and markings provided for three separate aircraft including one digital camouflage scheme which would be challenging though very interesting. I chose to paint this aircraft in a very clean overall condition using the two grey paints indicated for HMT-303’s ‘QT’ aircraft.

I used a variety of paints including these primary colors: AK Real Colors Light Gull Grey # RC220; Aggressor Grey # RC248; Light Ghost Grey # RC252; Flat Black # 001; Atom Gun Metal # 20167; Mr. Hobby Aqueous Interior Green, # 53; Zeon’s MS Gray, # UG 09 (for the darker gray spine color); Crystal Orange A-Mig-097; Crystal Periscope Green A-Mig-096; Metallic Black ATOM 20168, and Burnt Iron ATOM 20169. I also used several AK Real Colors Markers for both touchup and to pick out small dials and knobs, etc. This was followed by an overcoat sprayed coat of Alclad II Lacquer’s Aqua Gloss Clear (#ALC 600). I used this to provide a glossy surface for the decals. This is my personal favorite which produces a great clear finish (although in the bottle it appears cloudy, not to worry, it dries clear).

I used a small amounts of Tamiya Mark Fit Strong setting solution #87135 and Walters Solvaset #904-470, which allows the decals to snuggle down and fit tighter when dry.

I completed my dry brushings, using my old standby Windsor & Newton’s Artist Oil color Naples Yellow Light, No. 426. And I sprayed my overall final finish using Testors Dullcoat Lacquer (#1160).

As you will see from the following images, I chose to paint and mark my AH-1W Super Cobra with a basic two-tone gray scheme.

Recommendation

As you can see from earlier notes, I found this kit to yield an accurate representation of the AH-1W ‘Whiskey’ helicopter and it’s a great addition to my other 1/35^th scale models. It is an overall beautiful kit, and I highly recommend it.

I want to thank the Model Rectifier Corporation (MRC) and Trumpeter for the opportunity to review this great kit.