Italeri 1/48 Bell OH-13S Sioux

with Eduard photo-etched detail set

US Army, 1962

I picked this Italeri OH-13S at a sale in a Beatties shop in 1999 (that shop sadly now defunct). It’s a surprisingly nice kit that goes together really well. Sure the boom is overscale, but that’s hardly surprising given how thin it would really have to be. To tart it up a bit I added the Eduard photo-etch set, which is worthwhile and enhances the basic kit a lot. It supplies new cockpit parts, including a completely new instrument console, antennae, tailplane end plates and loads of details for the rotor and engine assemblies. The only weak area of the Italeri package is the instructions. They provide no help on which of the alternative fuel tanks should be used, or which of the tail rotors. I couldn’t find many pictures of operational US Army OH-13s, so I made an educated guess. The paints used were, unsurprisingly, Humbrol enamels, followed by Klear, an oil wash, the kit decals (very good) and Pollyscale Flat.

Year bought: 1999 (Beatties, Guildford)

Year built: 2002 (Maid’s Causeway, Cambridge)

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© Copyright 2004. All Rights Reserved. Jonathan Bryon.

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