Tag: helicopter
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Sandown Park 2019 – Part Eight – Chop Till You Drop
I really must make more of a study of model helicopters – having built four of them for my own small airfields. Thankfully, the kit industry has as much affection for them as for fixed-wing aircraft and there seem to be varieties from every country on offer. If you were a dedicated helicopter modeller you…
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Piasecki Flying Banana – Part Four – I Love it…
I love it when a plan comes together – and equally when a collection of sub-assemblies can be piled into each other to yield a finished product. The last day building on a project is always a surprise. For some people it slows down – like a video of dogs catching frisbees – and for…
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Piasecki Flying Banana – Part Three – The Jesus Nut
My friend Warren tells me Air Force facts and trivia gleaned from his years of service. One of the latest bits is the slang term for the nut that finally secures a helicopter’s rotor to the vertical shaft that drives it – the Jesus Nut. If it fails you go to… Well, joking aside, I…
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Piasecki Flying Banana – Part One – You Had Me At…
They had me at the name – ” Flying Banana ” is not something that you can pass by in a neutral fashion. You either love it or hate it. I have fond memories of these helicopters as Revell kits in the 1950’s. This one is Italeri – itself a recommendation – and when I turned…
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Piasecki HUP Retreiver – Part Five – The Droop
I am alternately delighted and saddened by my first Piasecki. Delighted that it could be made as a Canadian aircraft and in a service that I have not yet explored – the Royal Canadian navy. Delighted that the lacquer paints turned out so well. Delighted that the tiny details of the landing gear actually worked…
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Piasecki Army Mule – Part One – Buy Me, Boss…
Trolling the aisles of Hobbytech recently I was feeling discouraged – they’d had a big Christmas and sold off a lot of goods – but there weren’t many small kits left that fit my criteria; cheap, simple, and a western prototype in the propeller or early jet eras. I wasn’t able to spend big on…
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Bell Model 47 – Part Three – The Bubble
Well, that was a surprise. I opened the Italeri box one morning at the modelling club and the helicopter landed, finished, on my studio table at 4:30 PM next day. And there was time in between working on it to put the camouflage colours on the CH-147 Chinook. I’ve no idea what this indicates in…
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Bell Model 47 – Part Two – Nothing Looks Like An Airplane
Upon opening the Italeri Bell Model 47 box and sliding out the two sprues I was struck by the fact that nothing on them looked like it could end up being an airplane. A collection of random boxy shapes interspersed with spindly framework. Frighteningly delicate parts. And when you come to think of it, wasn’t…
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Bell Model 47 – Part One – Sheer Terror Over the Brazeau
Being a kid whose dad was the project manager for a big construction project had its advantages – you got to ride out with him after supper when he made the evening round of the construction site and you got to climb all over the big tractors and earthmovers. In some cases, if they had…
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Boeing Vertol CH 147 Chinook – Part Five – Whatever Happened To Sky??
Specifically, whatever happened to the colour Sky as applied to the underside of British and Commonwealth aircraft? The underside of this Canadian CH 147 Chinook seems distinctly visible, as the bronze-black and deep green camo scheme – as admirable as it seems on the top and sides of the helicopter – wrap around down under…
The Little World 