piasecki h21 flying banana

There's a 48th scale H-21 out there???

Hmmm.... I may have to look further into this....

Jon

Yup, it is a multi-media kit by Fonderie Miniature from France.  Looks pretty good, but I have heard it is a little rough.  Pretty steep on the price too, around $70 USD.

Here is a review of the kit.

Wow, yeah, that's a bit steep.  Still, it'll fit in nicely with my collection.  I'm building a Special Hobby R-4B right now and although its been a bear of a kit, it is coming together well.  I've gotten rid of a lot of the framing supplied with the kit and have replaced it with styrene rod. 

With the review of that H-21, I think I may end up splurging on it at some point.

Thanks Gino!

Jon
 

How about this one, Jon?  And get this to go with it.

Didn't know if you had it or not.

The problems lie in kits from FM period!

Poor fit, thick parts, warped parts, missing parts, etc. That said, using more patience than glue and you can acheive great results.

Don

dkmacin wrote:

The problems lie in kits from FM period! Poor fit, thick parts, warped parts, missing parts, etc. That said, using more patience than glue and you can acheive great results.   Don

This, too, is what I have heard.  It's why I have steered away from FM kits.  I don't have a lot of patience and when I get frustrated I stop and walk away.  That being the case, I would lose a lot of weight from walking and I would never get the kit done!!

 Guys,

According to the review that Gino posted above, this seems to be a much better kit than FM's previous releases.  Better molding, better fine detail, etc.  

Oh, and Randie, I hate you.... Now I've gotta get an R-5!  I WISH someone made an R-6A.  The R-5 didn't do much during WWII, but the 4 and 6 did a LOT and no one knows about it (hence my next book will be on WWII Helicopter units!) 

I do need to get that kit...

Jon 

Cobrahistorian wrote:

Guys,   According to the review that Gino posted above, this seems to be a much better kit than FM's previous releases.  Better molding, better fine detail, etc.   Oh, and Randie, I hate you.... Now I've gotta get an R-5!  I WISH someone made an R-6A.  The R-5 didn't do much during WWII, but the 4 and 6 did a LOT and no one knows about it (hence my next book will be on WWII Helicopter units!)  I do need to get that kit...   Jon

Jon, Jon, Jon.......don't hate the messenger!!!!

Well, you get the very best of both worlds:  Its LIMITED RUN, and its FRENCH!  Oh, for the hours of modeling fun!

And, yes, I have built that pig.  Be aware that every piece will put up a valiant struggle, most being embedded in sprue gates and flash, with a few warps and molding flaws thrown for extra amusement.  For the fuselage, you have the choice of thinning the interior plastic, or sanding down the over-large internal formers to fit (or some combination of the two).  If you don't do this, the fuselage halves will never get together.

If you intend to build a Viet Nam version and to detail the cargo compartment, extensive thinning will be required, followed by scratch-building the nest of perforated ribs.  I did mine in arctic scheme and was able to just plate the interior with quilted insulation, somewhat avoiding the "thinning" problem.  Web passenger seats are provided, but they are embedded in a sea of flash.  They are also quite brittle, so use lots of care getting them cleaned up and detailed.

The resin cockpit is actually very nice.  Just be sure you fit it very carefully to the fuselage or the nose transparencies will have no chance of fitting.  Actually, the vacu-form transparencies in mine were way large:  I ended up cutting out each individual clear panel, reduced the perimeter, then replaced the framing with evergreen strip.

There's nothing in the aft section except a couple of formers.  Even with the large cooling openings you really can't see much, so a lot of scratch building won't be necessary.  (I detailed the entire engine room, and its totally hidden).  For the rotors, be sure to pin the blades to the actuators because the attaching shaft is brittle plastic.  I broke four of the six just trying to assemble them.

The rescue hoist boom can only be built extended, and you are totally on your own if you decide to include lift hooks or fuel tanks.

With a ton of work you CAN make it into a stunning model.  Some pics of mine can be seen at http://www.renohighrollers.com/images/Aug06_14-Aug06_12_sel.jpg, http://www.renohighrollers.com/images/Sep06_11-Sep06_06_sel.jpg and  http://www.renohighrollers.com/images/Sep06_11.jpg

Phil

gdarwin wrote:

well haveing read all your acconts of this it am putting it on hold of abit,so im going to start one of my apache kits,one is ah-64a from kangnam 1;35 ,the other from revellin 1;32 scale the are both the same kit,which is the better kit of the two,thanks for all your help.

Best thing to do with the Kangnam kit is to melt it down and use the plastic for something else.  There's a guy on ARC that is doing by far the best Revell Apache I've seen.  Here's the link for some inspiration.   http://s102164210.onlinehome.us/forums/inde.php?act=idx

HTH,

 Jon