Italeri Bell OH-13S Sioux (AH-1) 1:48 – build review

Feature Article with Tim Haynes
Kit ref: 857

Background:

This diminutive kit has been close to the top of the build pile a few times, and made it onto the bench late last year (2022). I’ve gathered quite a few helicopters, but have only built a few up to now, so with the Revell Has Mk3 recently finished, I fancied doing another.

The Plan…

There are several choices in this boxing a US Army version, a British Army AH-1 and an Italian Army version. My interest was the British Army AH-1, and I planned to use the scheme included in the kit. A few things I had picked up on when reading other modeller’s reviews, were the out of scale structure of the tail boom, and the incorrect shape of the bubble canopy. The tail boom I planned to try to improve with scraping / sanding, however, I intended to work with the canopy (the AH-1 should be more spherical, the US version is flatter at the front) as I was not aware of any alternatives. Using the kit decals, my aim was the represent XT131 at some point in its later life. The finished model is not quite the current British Army Historic Flight configuration, but I like the look I achieved.

References:

My main reference source for this build was the good old Internet, with the images of XT131 of the British Army Historic Flight being particularly useful. I did obtain a couple of reference books, which were no real help in terms of the build, but provided some interesting background information.

H-13 Sioux – Mini No. 6 Squadron / Signal Publications by Wayne Mutza
Bell 47/H-13 Sioux Helicopter – Legends of Warfare by Wayne Mutza

Extras:

eduard 1:48 BIG ED set BIG49336 for the OH-13

The build…