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The Duke Finishes Another One


Mark Deliduka

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And the Duke finishes another one!

 

Back in May a friend and I were manning the IPMS booth at the Chino Air Show. Further down the flightline was sitting a Piasecki H-21 Flying Banana that we both thought was an unflyable static display. Well, as we were packing up after the airshow, we heard an interesting sound and looked up to see the Piasecki sitting on the taxiway firing up it's engines. We stopped what we were doing and watched as it fired up, taxi'd out and did a rolling takeoff. What a sight!

 

As soon as I got home I dug through my stash to find this Hobbycraft kit and got started.

 

Now, a couple weeks later, here it is all completed:

 

US_Army_Piasecki_H_21_I.JPG

 

US_Army_Piasecki_H_21_IIJPG.jpg

 

I added the extra large insignia and "army" on the side from my spare decals to make it look more like the one that was at the airshow. Other than that, it's built OOB. I hand painted the canopy rails too.

 

Thanks all for looking in. I have more projects under construction in the individual workbench area. Feel free to go check them out.

 

Comments are always welcome.

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That green banana must not be ripe yet......:smiley4:

 

Looks great Mark! I have one of those to build in 1/48, but I keep opening the box and then put it back on the shelf for a day when I have more courage (it's the Fonderie Miniature 1/48 kit). Congrats on yet another fine build!

 

GIL :smiley16:

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Thanks Gil! I also have a Fonderie Miniatures 1/72 scale helicopter (can't remember the name). I had started it, but then, set it aside until I was ready to deal with it again. Not sure where it went....

 

Thanks again for the great compliment!

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I saw the same helo at the Pt. Mugu airshow a while back. Had a conversation with the crew who are all ex Army folks associated with this aircraft type. They said the amount of weight they can carry is limited because the high octane fuel originally used is no longer available. Lower octane translates to lower power output. They operate solely on donations so if you happen to ran across them, drop a few bucks in the bucket. Nice way to remember what you saw.

 

Chris

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Thanks Christopher for the compliment and the info. I never knew that about them. I wish I had been able to break away from our booth to go give a little now.

 

Thanks Bob! I love doing the interesting subjects. Then again, I've already done everything else!:blush::smiley4:

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