Kellett K-2 Autogyro, Claudio Luchina, 1/72 Scratchbuild

What is an autogyro? A plane with an umbrella? An overly complicated fanning device? What an engineer will do if asked to design a plane? But you all know what an autogyro is, of course. This unlucky cousin of the helicopter enjoyed a brief and well deserved moment of glory during the 30’s and for no reason its popularity dwindled. I started this project lured by the promise of some cases of my favorite beer unscrupulously offered by a fellow modeler that suffers the delusions generated by the implacable sun of Arizona. In a matter of hours (1,459 or so they seemed) I had the vacuformed shells ready. And since once in the dance room you have to dance, here is my rendition in 1/72 of a little understood but appealing Kellett K-2. Oh, don’t look at me like that! Scratch-building is indeed easy; the only issue is that it is difficult. Hey, at least I only have to deal with my own mistakes and I can build whatever I please (although that Kalinin K-7 looks really scary). Anyway, where were we…Yes! Elephants! as Eddie Izzard will say. You can tell by the photos that this wasn’t just a walk in the park. More like a walk in a family reunion: many patches had to be performed, some parts that resisted matching were persuaded with a little CA and putty and convoluted engineering had to be skillfully managed; but at the end my test pilot was as happy as an Argentinean eating empanadas. Be this the homage to a machine that deserved a better fate and more enduring recognition.