SA. 341 Gazelle (Mark III)

The finished model:

In the manga:

After Shin is discharged from Area 88, he realizes that he cannot simply return to civilian life. He’s become addicted to the life and death action of being a mercenary. So, after crossing paths with Laurent Bosch in Paris, Shin signs up for a mission with another mercenary group known as Mark III. Originally tasked with helping the President of the African nation of Bamballa escape a coup, the situation changes, and Shin and his team become hunted. Easily escaping land-based pursuit in a UNIMOG, Bosch is forced to call in an Aerospatiale SA 341 Gazelle with mounted side guns to attack them from above.

The kit(s):

SA. 341 Gazelle by Airfix

The build:

I suspect that Shintani had his main character leave Area 88 for a while just to give himself the chance to draw some vehicles that wouldn’t otherwise appear on the Asranian battlefield. I’m glad he did, because what a great little chopper this is! I’m a sucker for including some of the more obscure aircraft/vehicles that make an appearance in the manga as part of my Area 88 1/72 scale project , but this one would’ve made the cut regardless. Not only is a stylish little helicopter that is part of a great action sequence, it’s also a relatively easy to find 1/72 scale kit available from one of the big model companies.

Having said that, the kit itself is quite old – and I managed the get my hands on one of the older boxings. It wasn’t a difficult build, and I only added a bit of detail to the interior cockpit – how could I not with that HUGE clear canopy?!

One tip is to include some weight in the nose (I hid it under the floor mainly, but some in the control console) to make sure you don’t end up with a tail sitter.

Being an older kit. the fit was a bit suspect. I was REALLY careful when glueing on the clear bubble because I really didn’t want to end up with glue marks, but I also had to glue it on about 4 times because it kept falling off while handling.

Since I was trying to get away from the desert colouring that most of the Area 88 projects end up with, I decided on a Tamiya XF-19 Sky Gray for the main cockpit and XF-67 Nato Green for the camouflage pattern.

I didn’t make a ton of modifications to the kit itself, but I did use a bit of wire to give some better detail to the tail rotor axel. Luckily, my build of McCoy’s UH-1D Iroquois was able to provide the gun mounts, and I raided the spares box (and then the stash) to get a pair of machine guns from an Academy Willys Jeep sprue.

I think it turned out, but feel free to lend me your comments below: