see how they would behave. The
printing is crisp, the registration is
good, and they worked perfectly on
the smooth blades. Next I applied
the small underside Navy roundel,
conveniently centred on the
underside nav beacon, to see how
they would handle panel lines and
rivets. Again they settled down well
so I applied the two side roundels.
The instructions show them as
bigger than they actually are on the
sheet (the same is true of the smaller
ones), but fortunately the size
provided on the decals is accurate.
However, while staring at
pictures from Toulouse I noticed
that the anchor style on the
roundels is wrong for this aircraft;
there are breaks in the black that
don’t appear on the real thing.
Next a real test, the “D” on
the tail. How would it conform to
the ribs, and where should it go,
considering the tail in the drawingdoesn’t look like the real thing?
Actually, pretty well, as did the rest
of the decals, which I now applied.
It’s fair to say that the
instructions and my references
have some difference of opinion
in which stencils are present and
where they go, so my end result is a
bit of a mélange of the instructions,
photos from the museum, and
period pictures from the web. The
only ones I really took exception to
were the “Cut here in emergency”
ones over one window on each
side. They’re a completely different
style to anything I’ve seen pictures
of so I replaced them with small
lengths of yellow decal strip.
With the decals in place and
the wheels and a couple of aerials
installed underneath (that neither
Italeri nor Eduard have bothered
with), it was time to do a top coat.
I applied another coat of Klear,
which gave quite a gloss finish,
more than I was intending as I
was looking for a dustier, more
faded finish. But that is a personal
judgment as I didn’t find enough
detail shots to really help with this.THE FINAL BITS
I now unmasked all the glazing
and added the last few airframe
parts. I fitted the cockpit windowsand the side doors open (just
because I could) and added the
four transparent light parts: red
upper and lower beacons, and the
left and right navigation lights.
(Note: The instructions have you
paint them wrong, the port (left)
light should be red, not green as
called out, and it’s worth noting
that only the very front should be
coloured, as the rear two-thirds of
the light are the fuselage colour.)
Again, all the pictures I have
showed them in different positions
to the instructions, so I went with
my references for preference.
I didn’t add the “optional”
cargo sling (made from “Stirred
Plastic”?), as I haven’t seen it
fitted, so the very last things
added were the windscreen wiper
and the rotors. Both Eduard and
Italeri supply an etch wiper (I used
the Eduard one), and the rotor
assemblies (Stages 14 and 15) went
pretty smoothly. The blades have a
nice positive blade attachment, and
while the moulded-in droop might
be a little much I was in no mood to
change it. I didn’t use the supplied
lower caps to fix the blades to the
airframe, as I am happier being
able to lift them off for transport.
And that was my Banana finished.CONCLUSION
I’ve read several reviews (yes, I read
other reviews) that have praised
Italeri for this release. And, if I’m
honest, I’m quite pleased with
the result. But to get to that stage
needed far more work than it really
should for a modern new tool kit.
I really feel that you cannot do
without Eduard’s cockpit and external
etch sets. It would also be nice if some
weapons were included, like the door
guns or even the drop tanks, (which
are shown on the colour profile for
the Rescue bird but aren’t in the box).
Maybe in another release (gunship
version due later in 2018, Ed).
Based on this, if Zoukei-Mura,
Wingnut Wings, and Tamiya
are Man United, Liverpool and
Arsenal, then Italeri are Everton
or Newcastle, trying to stay
in touch with the leaders.
My thanks to Italeri’s UK
importer, the Hobby Company
for the review sample.REFERENCES
- I found a walkaround which
included internal access shots
on the French IPMS site; http://
ckclub31.ipmsfrance.org/wa/
h21/, which was very useful.
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