A twisted coronal loop of length 80 Mm, width 8 Mm and an initial maximum twist of 11.5 pi is simulated numerically using the MHD equations with parallel thermal conduction. The model evolves from the initially unstable equilibrium into the kink instability, during which synthetic observables are generated from the data. Integrated intensities for the SDO/AIA wavelengths 171 A, 193 A and 211 A are generated using the instrument’s temperature response functions. Hinode/EIS Fe XV, Fe XII and Fe X lines are generated from the CHIANTI contribution functions and analysed for Doppler shifts. Both these synthetic diagnostics are degraded to the two instruments’ resolutions for direct comparison with observations.