1:72 WZ-10 Thunderbolt

The first attack helicopter of Chinese design

The WZ-10, designated the Z-10 in service, is the first attack helicopter that China designed and put into production with its own resources. Work began in the second half of the 1990s, the Russian Kamov design bureau took part in the preliminary aerodynamic design, the prototype flew in 2003 and the machine reached army aviation units at the turn of the first and second decades of the new century.

In shape it follows the classic school: a very narrow fuselage, the crew seated in tandem with the gunner at the front and the pilot higher up behind, a five-blade main rotor, short stub wings with pylons at the sides and a movable gun under the nose. On the pylons it carries anti-tank guided missiles, pods of unguided rockets and weapons for close combat. The seats and the cockpit are protected by armor and the machine is designed for fighting at low level over the terrain.

The kit in 1:72 scale captures the characteristic slender silhouette and the typical crank of the booms. The package contains injection-molded plastic parts on sprues; paints, glue and a finished rotor are not in it and the modeler obtains them separately.

What to watch out for on a helicopter

The most sensitive parts are the main rotor blades and the joint between the tail boom and the fuselage. Thin parts twist easily, so they are glued last and left to cure undisturbed on a flat surface. It makes sense to spray the inside of the cockpit before the fuselage halves are joined, because you will not be able to reach it afterwards. The glazing is glued with clear cement for clear parts, as ordinary polystyrene cement would fog the transparency at once.