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What size are the drop tanks carried by some H-21 Workhorse helicopters, and what kit can I rob them off in 1/48 scale? The SH kit does not have them.

Rick L.

Rick,

Not sure if you are looking for measurements (which i don't have) or photos. Anyhow, maybe these will prove useful for your build.

Ray

H-21%20drop%20tanks.jpg

H-21%20drop%20tanks-3.jpg

H-21%20drop%20tanks-2.jpg

H-21%20drop%20tanks-4.jpg

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These look extremely similar to the larger capacity drop tanks used on late F-80 types. The nose cones appear to be more blunt, but the tails are almost identical.

49fbg-f-80-c-49-689.jpg

These tanks and others from the same time period also provided the basis for many of the first mass produced napalm canisters.

Compare to the M116A1/A2 napalm canister of the same time frame:

B4940U01.jpg

It appears to be shorter than the M116 series, but diameter of the tank might well be close.

Edited by thatguy96
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I have a book on the H-21 and it says they were 165 gallon tanks. I have some 1/72 H-21 kits with these tanks, if it was useful I could measure them so you could scale that up to find a suitable tank in 1/48.

Thatguy96, do you know what the capacity of the M116 was? I was looking for a suitable napalm cannister for a Korean war F-84, maybe I can use the tanks from an H-21.

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I'm not sure about the capacity. The OrdData entry has it listed as in the 750-pound weight class, but the BLU-11/B, which should be the same canister in the post-62 AETDS nomenclature is in the 500-pound weight class. I'll check some stuff at home tonight.

For the Korean War time frame, the E47 (not sure whether the system was standardized or not, its not related to the M47 series) would also be a good option no doubt. These were made from the standard F-80 tip-tanks. More in this PDF: http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=AD...oc=GetTRDoc.pdf

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Just a quick note, the E47, and therefore the "range extension tanks" mentioned for the P-80/F-80 are apparently 165-gallon in capacity. It is possible that these or a variant thereof could be the tanks in the picture or otherwise used. It would imagine most of the tanks would generally be similar.

EDIT: So the M116 is rated in the 750 weight class according to another source. This raises doubts as to whether the BLU-11/B is related. Regardless, its filler is only supposed to be 80 gallons, so those tanks are probably too small. The range extension tanks in the pdf are probably a safer bet if you're looking for base dimensions.

Edited by thatguy96
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By the way how is that kit? I put it on my x-mas list (along with 1/48 Chinhook) because Squadron has it on sale and it looks interesting with all the PE and resin included. Now if I can just build faster..... have to finish my CH-46E, my MV-22 and start on my Wessex maybe then I could look forward to building it, such is the life of a a parent of a 2 year old.

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What size are the drop tanks carried by some H-21 Workhorse helicopters, and what kit can I rob them off in 1/48 scale? The SH kit does not have them.

Rick L.

I suspect that the 165 gallon tanks used on the contemporary F-80/F-94 and T-33 would be correct. These would be the early tanks suspended UNDER the wing, not the later Fletcher tanks.

Perhaps this image would be of some help.

Norm

IMG_6141.jpg

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Interesting. What kit would that be? AFAIK none of my Italeri H-21 kits have tanks.

Thanks,

Andre

It's the Italeri H-21C gunship, the box art shows an H-21 with rocket pods. It includes door guns, rocket pods and fuel tanks.

I found the different Italeri H-21 kits are not simply a decal switch. As I recall the H-21C Flying Bannana kit includes different tail surfaces and landing gear to make different non-US versions, that the gunship kit doesn't have.

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  • 2 years later...

These look extremely similar to the larger capacity drop tanks used on late F-80 types. The nose cones appear to be more blunt, but the tails are almost identical.

49fbg-f-80-c-49-689.jpg

These tanks and others from the same time period also provided the basis for many of the first mass produced napalm canisters.

Compare to the M116A1/A2 napalm canister of the same time frame:

B4940U01.jpg

It appears to be shorter than the M116 series, but diameter of the tank might well be close.

I have a pair of M116 tanks. They were manufactured by Beech Aircraft Company in Wichita, Kansas, in 1952 according to the QA stamp on the inside. I can't find much info on these. Anyone have some details?

photo.jpg

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Rick,

Not sure if you are looking for measurements (which i don't have) or photos. Anyhow, maybe these will prove useful for your build.

Ray

H-21%20drop%20tanks.jpg

In the first photo, does anybody know what the T-shaped antenna under the nose is?

A couple of weeks ago I was at the American Helicopter Museum in West Chester, PA, and was looking at their H-21 in detail. Boy what a bucket of bolts and rivets that aircraft is, especially the back end with all of the airframe supports for the engine. Close up it's like looking at a Dumpster. The H-19/H-21/H-34/H-37s were more like trucks than aircraft....big, vibrating recip engines, lots of gearboxes and grease fittings. The H-21 particularly looks like it would have been difficult to work on.

John Hairell (tpn18@yaoo.com)

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I've seen pics of H-21s with teardrop shaped tanks that look like the 75 (?) or 110 (?) gal ones (not the paper ones) used on P-51s. Decades ago whn I built the old Aurora H-21 I stuck drop tanks from the Hawk P-51D on it and they seemed about right.

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