1/35 Academy AH-60L DAP Blackhawk

by Daniel

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The AH-60L is an armed outgrowth of the MH-60L and provides more firepower over a greater operating range than the AH-6Js of the 160th SOAR. The DAP in its title stands for ‘Direct Action Penetrator’, which is evidently Army speak for their new birds ability to kick the door down.

This new Academy kit is really worth its price (ca. 43 Euro). There are a lot of parts for one’s spare parts box; things like the seats of the UH-60L and drop tanks etc. etc.

I built the kit basically OOB, just added a self-made 30mm chain gun under its right pylon and opened the pilot’s and co-pilot’s doors (and added some details to them).

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As you can see, I added two more 7.62mm MGs to each cabin side; the two .50 cal. weren’t enough firepower for me. Don’t know if that’s possible in the real world, but why not. I also installed some ‘aluminium plates’ which were put on the fuselage to repair battle damage.

I painted the chopper in flat black, because I thought if they fly mainly at night (?), this would be the appropriate painting. The machine was weathered using the dry-brushing technique; some grey and aluminium should show the helo was extensively used.

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This kit made really fun to build; it’s large and there are myriads of parts!! All the sprues are very well done; and this scale gives you much room for additional detailing.

This Blackhawk and the Panda UH-1N which I built at the same time were my first Choppers in 1/35; first, I just built an LAV-25 and an M1A2 in 1/35, but after the AH-60L I think my new scale is 1/35. I have done so much in 1/72 so it became a little bit boring after some time.

Hope you enjoyed it!

Regards, 

Daniel

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Photos and text © by Daniel