Takom 1/35 AH-64E Apache Guardian Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

In the late 1980s, the US Army began planning upgrades to their AH-64A Apache fleet. The AH-64B and AH-64C were incremental steps in the process, but the next production variant was the AH-64D Longbow Apache. As incremental improvements continued, the AH-64D Block III became the AH-64E Apache Guardian and is the current production variant. Powered by the General Electric T700-GE-701D engines and an upgraded transmission, the AH-64E can use the APG-78 Longbow millimeter radar mounted in a radome atop the main rotor mast to identify and track ground targets. The helicopter is armed with a variety of air-to-ground and air-to-air weapons to deal with specific threats.

Takom released an interesting kit molded in gray styrene and presented on 13 parts trees plus the two fuselage halves, one tree of clear parts, and four small frets of photo-etch details. The kit has the following features and options:

• Very detailed front and rear cockpits featuring many small parts
• A roadmap is included outlining where and how large holes need to be drilled in the fuselage halves
• Detailed transmission and main rotor mast
• Cockpit enclosure appears to be designed for closed display (no options for displaying entry doord open)
• Lots of small detail parts on the airframe exterior
• Detailed undernose cannon
• Detailed nose-mounted TADS sensors
• Avionics bays in side sponsons are detailed, but appear to be closed off by doors
• Detailed T700 engines in engine bays that appear to be posed open for display
• Detailed main rotor system
• Main rotor can be posed in flight or folded positions
• Detailed tail rotor
• Detailed main landing gear
• Detailed tail wheel
• Can be built with or without APG-78 mounted

Weapons options include:

• 4 x AGM-114 Hellfire
• 2 x rocket pods

There are quite a few tiny parts in this box, but the resulting model will benefit from such detail.

There are no painting instructions (color, camouflage, etc.) in the box. The instructions do provide decal placement for the multitude of airframe stencils, but do no provide subject reference decal placement.

Despite the instructions (and parts breakdown) being a bit over-engineered, there is little help for kit options other than rotor blade positioning. The canopy crew entry doors are molded separately, so it should be possible to pose these doors open. Ditto on the avionics bay doors. The instructions do not show how to close the cowling doors for the engines, but this too should be easy enough to work through.

This is a very detailed kit that should build into a breathtaking model, but expect to take several weeks to get this beast built and painted!