Piasecki CH-21C Flying Banana Vietnam 1:72 Italeri

This is my Flying Banana in 1:72 scale, made from an old but pleasant kit from Italeri.

I intend to build all types of helicopters in 1:72, and Flying Banana had long been in the list until I found the old kit on Ebay. It turned out that it was in the local shop some 50 miles from my current location 🙂 The shop has tons of old kits but my stash is too big right now...

Back to the topic. The kit was not in a good condition: some parts were broken, and decal sheet was destroyed by mold. But luckily I've got a decal sheet from Printscale with a couple of interesting options for Vietnam war. Also I've replaced wheels with ResKit and added a paper mask from KV models (used it as a template to cut my own kabuki masks).

The kit is poorly detailed and not accurate, of course, but has a great fit overall (except, surely, its big bubbled canopy). It required minimum sanding, and most of outer parts sit without glue. It is extremely easy to build, and most of the time I spent painting the interior (I used a lot of AK markers, and it was somewhat mixed experience) and fix the canopy. Also I enjoyed the nylon mesh: this was my first experience of adding mesh parts to the model, and it went pretty well. It was also easy to mask the interiors: I just sealed it with the masking tape from the inside, and it didn't tear off during sanding, priming, and painting.

Due to the dark color of plastic, it was difficult to examine the quality seams, but I skipped the correction step after priming, so the model may not look neat. Also I've cut corners with the rotors - just painted it once with matt black and used dry brush and markers to finish.

For painting, I decided to choose a camoed version which I guess was painted in the field, with all bright insignia painted over with common USAF colors - I didn't find exciting information about these helicopters in Vietnam. The pattern of the helicopter is mostly my fantasy, I didn't find a reference. Moreover, I'm not sure what basic color was used - older ANA type of Olive Drab (I chose it) or FS34087 which is darker and more brownish. All I can see is that museum helicopters are painted ANA colors, so I followed their example. I have used Vallejo paints almost without mixing, just made their US Dark Green a bit more pale (it is obviously a bit darker and saturated than needed). If you need some advice about SEA colors, ping me in DM.

All in all, the Banana looks stunning in my opinion, and it was fun to work with it. I have a 1:48 model in my stash, and I will make it all-drab next time.