Iron Swords AH-64D Saraf

At 6:28am Saturday Sukkoth holiday, Palestinian Hamas terrorists initiated the greatest bloodbath experienced by the Jews in a single day since the Holocaust of World War II. The first air assets to respond to the invasion were a pair of AH-64D Apache helicopters named “Saraf” by the IAF. In the complete chaos that ensued, and lack of communications with forces on the ground, the pilots first priority was to stop the flow of terrorists rushing into Israel from Gaza.

The 1/72 Academy-IsraCast model before you represents one of first pair of “Apaches” to scramble at dawn to repel the invasion of southern Israel, wearing the kill marking of an Iranian UAV that entered Israeli air space 5 years earlier, on 10 February 2018.

      Academy's AH-64D Apache is the only accurate kit on the market in 1:72 scale, designed from the outset as a wide cheek AH-64D. Released in 2015, kit number 12514 is a new tool of a Block II early version AH-64D used by the United States Army between the years 2003 and 2010. Four marking options are provided for Apaches seeing service in Iraq during 2003 (two with shark mouth) and two for Apaches stationed in South Korea in 2010. The kit comprises of two extensively detailed parts trees featuring recessed detail and one clear parts tree that features a closed canopy and additional details such as position lights and IR suppressor in clear plastic.

A recent release by IsraDecal conversions which includes resin cast, resin printed parts and decals enables the modeler to covert the Apache into a 2023 Israeli Air Force operation "Steel Sword" AH-64I Saraf.

Building the Model:

Step 1 – Shows hole locations to be opened for adding details applicable to the Apache versions provided in the kit. For the Israeli Saraf, I had to remove the rectangular "boxes" molded onto the fuselage booms and fill the resultant hole with round sheet plastic. A rotating chaff/flare circular base molded onto the left side boom also required sanding smooth.

Skipping to steps 3 and 4, to the right side of the fuselage I added access panel doors A20 and A24 and to the left side of the fuselage, doors A19 and A23 were applicable. All handles shown in step 8 were replaced at this stage with bent metal piano wire sized to the corresponding kit parts and attached to the fuselage with cyanoacrylate cement.

Step 2 - Cockpit instruments and controls are provided as fine raised plastic that is easy to dry brush and paint to show off the detail. The only detail I added were seat belts made of 1mm wide strips of Tamiya Tape, affixed in place using cyanoacrylate cement. Cockpit is sprayed Revell 09 Anthracite Grey; seat back, headrest and lower seat belts Revell 08 black, seat pan and shoulder harness olive green, cockpit screens a mix of black and gloss green; instrument panel and side console buttons flat white. Step 2B shows assembly of the main rotor mast transmission which were painted Anthracite Grey and silver rotor axle B38.

Step 3 – shows joining of the fuselage halves along with the painted cockpit and main rotor housing and wings, the parts fit was very good. After joining the fuselage halves using Tamiya Extra Thin which was allowed to harden for 24-hours the lower mid fuselage rectangular panels inadvertently sanded off were replaced with sheet plastic. The kit provided wings are not applicable to the Saraf, replacement wings are provided in the IsraDecal conversion set. Once I had the fuselage halves together, I added the upper fuselage part A18 which was of excellent fit.

Step 4 – illustrates the construction of the aircraft's 28mm machine gun. Fit it very good but I had to resort to photographs in order to properly locate guards B16 and B25.

Step 5 – the kit provides rocket pods and hellfire missiles for both wings. The standard fit for the Saraf are a pair of underwing fuel tanks, four Hellfire missiles and three Rafael Spike missiles. The rocket pods and spare Hellfire missiles can be used on current AH-64A Peten used by the Saraf's sister squadron. I modified the Hellfire missiles by drilling a hole in the aft end to represent a rocket outlet and the nose for the addition of a reflective lens seeker. Each Hellfire was initially sprayed Revell 15 yellow prior to applying .5mm bands of Tamiya Tape mask prior to spraying them with Revell SM302 semigloss black. The Hellfire missile rails were painted with an equal mix of Revell 9 + 46, prior to cementing the missiles using cyanoacrylate cement. The spike cylindrical sensor attached to four lugs located at the right-wing tip. The resin printed part provides these lugs, but their gap needs to be widened with a razor saw in order to fit the kit's lugs in place. For added strength, I inserted a metal paper clip rod into holes made through the sensor base and the wing tip. Only three of the Spike missile tubes were to be used, with the upper outboard rail taken up with a scratch-built avionics adapter box. Brown reflective lenses of the proper diameter were chosen for the Spike seeker heads, to be added after the tubes were painted Humbrol 142 Field Brown.

Step 7 – Once the fuselage halves were together, I moved on to the attachment of the nose sensors shown in Step 7, using optional part B33 along with parts B61; B26, B30 and B32. Once affixed in place, I drilled two round recessed in the sights of part B32 to which in intend to attach reflective lenses during final assembly. The nose section was sprayed with an equal parts mixture of Revell 9 and 46.

Steps 9 & 10  – I assembled the main rotor hub as shown but left off the radar. I modified part B41 by sanding it flush and covering it with two disks of sheet plastic to represent a rotor cover. I modified part B36 by trimming off the rotor stem and replacing it with a metal rod furnished from a paper clip. Moving on to step 10, rotor assembly, its plastic stem was also replaced with a metal rod. The main and tail rotor blades were sprayed Revell SM302 semigloss black, masked with Tamiya Tape and clear plastic wrap prior to spray application of an equal mix of Revell 9 and 46. The tip of the vertical fin was modified by replacing the kit's plastic antenna with a metal tube to which a rod will be inserted during final assembly. The forward circular bulge was removed, and plastic strip position light took its place. At the aft end of the fin, two holes were drilled, and metal rod was inserted at 45 degrees angles to represent the radar warning receivers.

     The kit instructions show the addition of the wings in step 3, prior to the attachment to the fuselage fairings in step 4. Excessive clearance between the Saraf resin wing tabs and the kit's fuselage tab openings, the wing trailing edge angle may vary and thus prevent the installation of the side fairings. Due to the kit’s main landing gear attachment design they must be added prior to adding the fuselage fairings. After cementing the main landing gear in place, the right-hand side fuselage fairing was attached using cyanoacrylate cement applied to its three robust internal sockets and pins. Once the fairing was fixed in place, the resin conversion wing trailing edge was slid into the kit's fairing and cemented at the proper angle and bonded in place with cyanoacrylate cement. The left side fuselage fairing forward section overlaps the upper wing, making it impossible to attach the wing after the fairing is in place. To allow for wing installation after the left side fairing is attached, the upper aft end of the fairing was sawn off. The resin kit conversion's left wing was aligned with the forward contour of the fairing in order to obtain it's proper angle. The fairing aft segment that was cut off was cemented back in place after the left wing and fairings were affixed in place using cyanoacrylate cement. With the wings attached, the kit's lower fuselage and side cheek forward fairings could be added. This required careful positioning and attachment which was done using cyanoacrylate cement that also provided gap filling in some areas of the fairing-fuselage joint.

     With the primary fuselage assembled, it was time to add the Saraf's unique external detail. Rudimentary tubing underneath the engine nacelles was furnished from soft metal wire and plastic rod. Saraf conversion kit lumps and bumps are small and required careful handling using tweezers. I strongly suggest that when you buy the conversion set, you get a second set as spare, when positioning resin sensor (part 12) it launched itself from my tweezers into outer space. I had to source photos on the internet in order to get the location and position of the sensors correct. Access door vent covers were scratch built and other details filled with sheet plastic and cyanoacrylate filler.

Once all the Saraf's external sensor "boxes" were cemented in place, I preceded to close the canopy. I brush painted the doors and frames of the kit's one piece canopy from the inside using Revell 09 black-grey. To insert the canopy at this stage of assembly required sawing off the overhanging circular forward fairing. Upon placement of the canopy in place, a gap was revealed along the right side joint line. This gap was filled with a strip of evergreen sheet styrene .010” thick. At locations where the clear canopy was in contact with the fuselage, Tamiya Extra Thin was applied sparingly with its application brush. Gap found at the overhang to clear frame section was filled with clear two part epoxy in order to avoid possible fogging of the canopy. Next to be cemented in place included the lower taxi light in the open position, cable cutter atop the canopy, and additional kit provided upper engine fairing details. Piano wire was used to scratch build a grab handle at the forward right side of the nose and the vertical "post" sensor inboard of the left engine nacelle.

     All resin parts, the exterior surface of the clear canopy and erosion rubber panel underneath the horizontal stabilizer were sprayed with a layer of Gunze 1500 black surfacer primer. The aft left canopy widow frame was sprayed Gunze 1000 grey primer and masked along with the black frames of the remaining side window frames. The fuel tanks use on the Saraf are made in Israel and are of different color then the airframe. The fuel tank's lower surface is painted FS 36280 which is very close to Humbrol 140 which was used; their upper surface is FS 30145 which I mixed using 3pts Humbrol 110 + 1pt Humbrol 119.

     To avoid overspray onto the camouflage pattern colors, it's best to first apply the Saraf's mid fuselage FS 33538 Insignia Yellow upright identification "V" for which I used Humbrol 154. Once dry, 1mm thick Tamiya Tape strips were applied to the yellow segments that go over the external bulge sensor to form 2mm wide yellow stripes.  The lower surface of the airframe, horizontal stabilizer and unattached engine nacelles were painted FS 36492 light grey using a mix of 3pts Humbrol 166 + 1pt Revell 04 White.  Next the entire upper surface of the model was sprayed FS 33448 sand-yellow using the out of production Xtracolor X326 DN9530 Kuwait Sand A-4KU which was found to be a very good match to an actual FS 595b - 33448 color chip. The upper surface brown used on the US factory painted AH-64D is FS 595b-30219 for which I used Humbrol 118 Tan. To help facilitate painting the intake "bulbs", a hole was drilled through the attachment flange and the "bulbs" attached to a wooden tooth pick using cyanoacrylate cement.

The fuselage was camouflaged and protected with a layer of Future Klear gloss prior to attachment of the nacelles due to the airbrush’s inability to get inside the small gap that separates the wings and nacelles. I returned to step 6 of the instructions to assemble and attach the nacelles to the fuselage. The pre-painted black exhausts were cemented into the nacelle fairings prior to attaching the nacelles to the sides of the fuselage using cyanoacrylate cement. In order to attach the inlet “bulbs” B59 and B60, I trimmed off the inner locating tab and shorten the side fuselage tab areas shown painted red. To attach the exhausts lower support rods C3 and C4 required photo reference for properly locating the fuselage attachment point. At this late stage I noticed that the kit lacks the APU exhaust outlet at the root of the right engine nacelle, this was carved into the plastic using a needle scriber and sharp X-Acto blade.

With the engines attached, I returned to step 3 to add cable cutters and diverter rods and wheels to the main gear struts which were previously attached. Main wheel alignment is fiddly and requires cyanoacrylate to be fixed in the correct location. The wire diverters parts B9 and B10 are a bit wide for the cable cutter attachment point and requires slight trimming to fit in the allotted slot. The forward lower fuselage cable cutter was attached to which a 3.5mm long wire rod support was added. Tail gear assembly appears in step 4 and parts B48 and horizontal stabilizer actuator part B15 were added at this stage. The landing gear were brush painted in a 1:1 mix of Revell no.9 and no.46.

The kit's Cartograph printed stencils and IsraCast Saraf conversion set markings were applied to the model using Solvaset in some places and Future Klear to most of the stencils. "Saraf" Hebrew identification was found in ArmyCast IAF Peten/Saraf decal sheet.

Oil paint mix of black, brown and orange; thinned with mineral spirits was used to enhance the kit's recessed panel lines and to streak the lower fuselage grime and oil runs. The upper fuselage surfaces were faded by blending white oil paint onto the center of the upper fuselage panels. After a day's drying time, the model was sprayed with a layer of acrylic clear flat mix made from Tamiya X21 Flat base and Future Klear, thinned with alcohol and water.

     The IsraCast resin fuel tanks were tended to next, with the addition of drain tubes made from brass and plastic tubing which were added to a hole drilled into the bottom of each fuel tank. Attachment of the fuel tanks pylons to the lower wing was done with cyanoacrylate cement and gaps between them filled with clear two part epoxy. The engine nacelle clear strobe lights were partially drilled and red paint applied inside the hole to represent the red strobe light. The kit's clear IR "disco light" suppressor was painted with Tamiya clear red and yellow, providing a very good representation of its colorful mirror multi-faceted shape. The top of the "disco light" was painted acrylic silver prior to painting the outer surface brown color.

     IsraCast spike missile containers were painted Humbrol 142; a black acrylic wash was applied inside the container and to  enhance the external detail followed by lightened Humbrol 142 drybrushed to enhance the external details. To each Spike missile, a reflective lens was attached using clear epoxy. The fuel tanks, missiles and sensors were attached to the wings using cyanoacrylate cement and gaps filled with clear epoxy which was painted over. The kit's plastic engine probes that protrude from the sides are prone to brakeage so replacements were made from piano wire, aluminum tubing and plastic rod. Last to be added were the kit provided windshield wipers, painted Helo Dk Green, the canon, tail rotor, Albion Alloys wire antenna atop the vertical fin and finally the main rotor.

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Thank you,

Yoav Efrati