Metal Earth: Boeing AH-64 Apache

A helicopter that looks like it was designed by someone in a genuinely bad mood.

The Apache has been in service since 1986 and still looks modern, largely because nothing about it was styled. The stepped tandem cockpit, the sensor turret hanging off the nose, the stub wings loaded with hardpoints: every line on it exists to do a job. It is one of the few aircraft where a bare metal model loses nothing, because the real thing is matte green and equally unlovely.

Two sheets of laser-cut stainless steel, tab-and-slot assembly, no glue and no paint. Rotor blades and the tail boom are fiddly at this scale, and the sensor turret is the part most likely to end up on the floor, so work over a tray. Tweezers and needle-nose pliers strongly recommended. Finished model sits on a display stand.

Perfect for: Anyone who finds the phrase tail rotor authority more interesting than it has any right to be.

Laser-cut steel | No glue required | Age 14+