I had this model since forever. I found the box art to be extremely attractive back in the days, so I bought the model and its Verlinden aftermarket set.
It has an interesting story, and a tragic one – the helicopter crashed and killed its crew. You can read more about it in this Armorama forum post.
Looking at the photos I have to admit the actual vehicle did not look as striking as the one on the box. The black on the boxart looks much better than reality… (Not to mention that the Cobra looks more yellow than gold.)
I also made a cardinal sin- my heart was not in the build. The decal seemed to be deteriorating, so I built the model; my first aircraft in many, many years. All the bad memories flooded back -filling and sanding seam lines over and over, frosting the canopy with glue and the rest. The issue with the canopy was that it did not fit very well, so the usual (and gentle) PA glue method did not work. I decided using extra thin glue, being the smart man that I am, thinking that it will just run along the edges and do a great job. It also ran into the clear part, marring the surface. From the inside.
So yeah. At this point I almost cried, and thought about retiring the model for good a’la Calvin.
The Verlinden set is actually quite good, and improves the model a lot -however it does not provide a pitot tube, which the original helicopter had.
The Butterfingered Modelbuilder's Adventures 