ESCI – 9101 – AC-130H Spectre II

Description:

Unassembled plastic model kit in 1/72 scale of a Lockheed AC-130 gunship, a long endurance and heavily armed variant of the Hercules C-130 for ground attack and close support. Introduced during Vietnam War (AC-130A variant) the AC-130H was an early upgrade, featuring two 20mm M61 Vulcan cannons, one L/60 Bofors 40mm cannon, and one M137 105 mm. The AC-130H lasted in service (through modifications) till 2015. United States is the only operator of the AC-130 Gunships, early or late variants.

In 1990 when this kit was released there was just one more AC-130 gun ship in the market, an A variant tooled by Italeri in 1983 and a very old Airfix raised panel lines AC-130H released in 1987 based in the 1971 C-130E kit, a kit with its own problems. ESCI had in this release an opportunity to make history in the 1/72 scale aircraft kits, but did they succeed ?

Sadly not, the kit has some issues, starting by shape (nose cone) and size (overall fuselage length, engines size) and not a pleasure to built due problems for fitting specially around canopy, which also doesn’t shows correct sizes on panels, main body and other parts. Is it all bad ? not it’s not, it showed nicely recessed panel lines and remains as the only option for an AC-130H Gunship in 1/72 scale, and better news, Italeri reissued in 2011 (Italeri – 1310 – AC-130H SPECTRE) and they nicely updated the canopy, which now fits some better and has some better panel sizes.

Is not an easy to build kit, but on skilled hands can produce a nice model, and that’s our recommendation, a kit for experienced builders who know how to deal with frustration and improve the model. This kit can be also found under AMT/Ertl brand but our best recommendation is to go for the Italeri reissue Italeri – 1310 – AC-130H SPECTRE.