H-21C Shawnee “Flying Banana” Italeri 1/48

I want to make a 1/48-scale airplane for the first time in a while. That said, it’s not an airplane; it’s a helicopter. It’s been a long time since I built a helicopter. H-21C flying banana with a characteristic shape.

I thought that Italeri plastic models had bare parts and were put in a box, but recent kits are placed in a plastic bag, and transparent parts are put in another bag. I’m impressed.

The pilot seat belts of the etching parts were included. There are some other parts made of metal.

I made the cockpit. I tweaked the brass seat belt a little so it looks natural. I think it’s better to paint the inside all at once before sticking the right and left together.

It’s a Japanese sweet called Anpan. It is a souvenir of Golden Kamui, a famous Japanese animation. My wife bought it for me.

They all taste different. I tried one, and it was delicious.

I had other things bought for me. I like mint candy and eat it quite often.

A cat broke in. He is already three and a half years old and quite big. I want a big cat-like Norwegian Forest Cat, but a Munchkin is big enough. Is it significant because it’s male?
(2022/06/01)

I’m checking if the seat will fit in the cabin without interference. I’m worried if it works properly, but it’s probably okay.

The backrest of this seat looks like a board in the kit, but it’s a fabric mesh with a band hanging down from the upper pole.

Well, I think about the process to some extent. I am painting the inside of the aircraft. Rather than thinking about putting all the parts of the same color together, including the airbrush, it may be easier to understand to paint the work in front of me.

I appreciate it because there was a meter decal in the cockpit. Without this, the panel of this kit is flat, and there is no mold, so it won’t be easy to improve the detail.

The temperature has risen recently, so before I noticed my cat was entangled in the leg of a chair with casters and taking a nap. I move the chair often, so it’s hazardous. When I put an empty box of plastic models by the window, he sleeps there, so I want him to stay quiet.
(2022/06/03)

The interior of the fuselage was attached to etched parts and painted light gray. The rear part of the aircraft is a whole engine section, so I think it will be painted with chromate yellow primer.

The engine part is almost invisible, but the pieces are roughly painted. Vallejo silver, flat black, and red paint are mixed.

I have finished painting the cockpit and passenger compartment, so I want to put the right and left together as soon as possible. However, the engine part is quite large, and this kit has many parts. The engine section was painted with interior yellow primer. I’m going to glue the pieces on one side and put them together right and left, but I wonder if they fit correctly. A temporary assembly of parts will be fine.

It was glued first, so all around here is brushed.
(2022/06/05)

It wasn’t easy to stick this together. The right and left parts are bonded together and crimped. When I put some pressure on the parts, one of the clear parts of the window came off, and it would be impossible to glue from the inside. The only way is to cut it and insert it from the outside.

I can see the engine when I open the panel.

This time, the panel line was scraped by the sanding on the fuselage, so I reworked the whole line. Because it doesn’t have wings, it’s easier than I expected. I like the feeling that the enamel paint goes in smoothly when I re-engrave it.

I have attached small parts and landing gear. The round window that came off during assembly was finally re-fitted using tweezers from the inside. It’s a big kit, so it’s too small on a Tamiya paint stand and will stick out. I want to paint as soon as possible, but masking work is hard.
(2022/06/07)

I built a helicopter rotor. The size of this helicopter may be a little small because it has two rotors. If there are two, it can gain some upward power. The plane is so long that it seems complicated to control it.

The cockpit canopy has many windows. Helicopters often fly while looking at the terrain below, so the whole cockpit seems to have popped out. It’s pretty scary to imagine.

Because there were many windows in the transport helicopter, there was a lot of masking and blocking the opening.

Only the parts of the suspension hook are included in this kit. It said that the builder prepared and attached the string. Nylon rope is tied as wire.

The H-21C has been assembled. I have to paint it before the masking tape rolls up.
(2022/06/11)

I think it’s time to start painting. First, use black as a primer.

This time, I will make an H-21C of the Vietnam War, so the color of the body is olive drab. I feel like I’m making a U.S. tank.

The blades of the helicopter rotor seem to be silver on the top and flat black on the bottom. To be precise, there is a thin silver band on the underside, and the wingtips are painted yellow. There are still decals and detailed paint, so that it will take a little more time.

I went to an exhibition of Golden Kamui, a famous Japanese comic. It was crowded even though it was Friday noon. My wife loves this work so much that she bought all the comic books on Kindle.

A miniature model of the Type-38 machine gun that Lieutenant Tsurumi was randomly shooting was displayed.

A Type-30 rifle owned by Saichi Sugimoto. After looking at the materials from the Japan-Russia war, I feel like making a 1/700 scale battleship Mikasa that I have in stock. But the other day, I had a hard time in the battleship Missouri, so maybe a little later.

In Golden Kamui, an essential Japanese brown bear was exhibited. It’s so big. I think it’s real.

We always get colored paper with illustrations of the characters, but it depends on the day of the week. It was Hyakunosuke Ogata on Friday. I bought some playing cards as souvenirs. This is very interesting because there are so many characters.
(2022/06/15)

The H-21C is finally complete. The 1/48 scale is about 35 centimeters long. It’s a tandem rotor with rotors on the front and back, so considering that the display space is much larger, it’s imposing.

In the painting guide of Italeri H-21C, the blue at the top and bottom edges of the vertical tail was as bright as cobalt blue, but the decal was light blue. I thought this was a terrible decal fading, but other decals were in excellent condition, and I thought it was strange. I checked it and found that blue is FS35250, so it is light blue. The painting in the manual is too strong, and the decal seems to be correct.

This kit was released by Italeri a few years ago, and I think it is pretty new for Italeri, which often has kits that are decades old. I thought it wasn’t easy to assemble because of its unusual shape, but it wasn’t, and it came out right.

The H-21C was vulnerable to small-arm fire during the Vietnam War. Many parts were easily damaged, even by minor strikes such as fuel pipes. It was initially designed for use in cold climates, which makes it a little inappropriate in tropical Vietnam.

This marking is U.S. Army, 93rd Transport Company, Da Nang, Vietnam, 1963.

When I brushed to cover the failed part with an airbrush, the color and gloss were slightly different, so the paint became uneven. The plane must have been overused, so it may not be a problem, even if the details are rough, but I was disappointed. But looking at the real plane, the plane’s surface is quite rough. I think the damage to the airframe was severe due to the tropical rainforest climate.

The helicopter participated in the Vietnam War this time, so I guess it is CH-21C. It can carry 22 soldiers. However, it wasn’t easy to transport such personnel during the Vietnam War. A hanging hook was also at the bottom of the fuselage to carry howitzers.

The color of the wingtip lights in the manual is probably the opposite.

It wasn’t easy to attach the canopy to the body. It was hard to fill the gap with putty. But a big canopy is an accent and looks attractive.

Various equipment, such as lights and hooks, is on the body’s lower part. The nationality mark decal is attached, and it is pretty cool to look at from below.

The decal sheet included in this Italeri kit has good color and fits well to the body. The quality is good enough to make me think it’s a Cartograf.

The rotor is just covered from the top without glue.

The excellent box picture attracted me, so I decided to use olive drab from the U.S. army without hesitation. There are many other colorful and exciting paint variations, so I think you can enjoy painting.
(2022/06/23)