Boxart:
Parts:
Planned finish. USAF Red Tops 1959. I am researching this one but believe stationed with NORAD in Newfoundland. More on that later.
Not sure if it was old man's insomnia or excitement about this group build but I was up early working on the "Flying Banana." A little history. The US Army called the H-21 the Shawnee. Army Aviation things are named after Native American Tribes. Like the Huey is really the Iroquios. The US Air Force called them "The Flying Workhorse." Any idea what the Canadians called them? Please let me know.
At any rate the cockpit area is detailed enough. You have collectives, cyclics, anti-torque peddles, decent seats and instrument panel.
Here are the innards awaiting paint. There is no reference in the instructions to nose weight. Even though the main landing gear sets a ways back from the nose gear, I fear tail setting problems. I will hide weight in simulated stowage. More on that later.
One word of caution to builders of tandem rotor craft. Front and rear rotors are counter-rotating to suppress torque. Beware the rotor blade parts and make sure you check the position of the blades so the airfoil is not reversed. Also it will require one set of blades over the other as to which is mounted front or rear. Now there is a sentence that should go in to get cleaned. Italeri instructions and part numbers need to be followed
Cockpit and cargo bay are painted up now. Another word of caution to builders of this kit. The web seat benches are only held in place by pins that are inserted into depressions on the floor board. Not a very strong point. I added a small square of sheet stock to brace the rear portion.
Overview so far
I did notice that the panel lines do not align correctly and maybe the attachment pins are the problem.
A nice touch from Italeri is in the form of a small mesh sheet. There is a pattern on the instruction sheet for trimming and the pieces go here:
Latest update.
Interior parts painted and in place. Was surprised when I did the first dry fit: everything fit!
After that, it was quick work to get the fuselage halves together and start looking at landing gear.
Problem mostly solved on the conopy. Two areas that caused the problem was 1. The anti-torque pedels were slanted to far forward making contact with the glass and 2. There was a small lip on the upper glass that would not tuck under the forward doghouse. The first part was fixed by removing the pedels and re-attaching slanted more rearward. The second part was fixed by lightly "adzing" the top of the glass with the hobby knife to remove the offending lip.
The fit was much better.
Here is a shot of the masking completed. The rotors are dry fit for right now. Lots of fiddly tape and Micro Mask.
Today, there was time to do some painting. Floquil Old Silver has long been my favorite even though the drying time is longer.
Getting back in the saddle again after quite a bit of time on family duties.
Masking came off without a hitch. Just a small bit of touch up with a 12/0 brush.
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So we are now ready for gloss and decals. Been in and out a bit lately and it has taken me from the bench but has not dampened my spirits. Tamiya Red was used on top even though it looks orange in the photo.
Mission accomplished.
I have to say that the kit had no vices except the ones from my input. I would highly recommend this kit to anyone interested. It appears to me that Italeri has nailed many of the 1/72 scale helicopters.
In finishing the kit, I found the decals stiff but strong but they reacted nicely to Solv-a-set as the Micro products just were not strong enough.
Thanks everyone who followed along.