Mil Mi-24D Hind by Dan Vadas - FINISHED - Halinski - 1:33 scale - CARD - Russian Attack Helicopter

[Old Collingwood]

The bottom sections underneath the tail boom  could be flare units, I have seen this done in an airshow.

 

OC.

[Dan Vadas]

This is the main landing gear bay. I'm going to install all the parts for this and prepare it for the landing gear, but I won't fit the gear until the winglets have been fitted :

 

Two of the four landing gear doors :

 

The medicine cups hold the myriad of different parts for the landing gear struts, among a few other items :

 

One of the landing gear struts. Note the spiral groove cut into the wire with an Xacto knife to assist in glue adhesion :

 

Danny

[Dan Vadas]

This pod fits beneath the gunner's cab. Two smaller pods are attached to it :

 

Danny

[Dan Vadas]

The four-barrel "Gatling" type gun and it's swivelling mounting. This is another piece that will be fitted later in the build :

 

Danny

[popeye the sailor]

so many odd shaped parts..........masterful work!     love that gun........so freak'in neat! 

[Old Collingwood]

Brilliant work dan  - really first rate.

 

OC.

[Dan Vadas]

The "winglets", or Weapons System Platforms if you like, were a relatively easy step to construct. I had to glue the trailing edge of the wings in-situ after making up the frames this time, as the vertical pieces of the wings didn't allow me to fit the wings the "usual" way :

 

The left wing has a pod attached :

 

I made the rocket launcher/bomb pods as a demonstration of Card Model Building at the Port Macquarie Model show over the weekend, although I seemed to be spending most of the time explaining the construction of card models to interested spectators :

 

Danny

[Dan Vadas]

The two rocket launchers took me three days to make. The kit gives you the option of using 4 launchers, 4 bombs or a combination of the two. I've opted to do two of each. Hopefully the pics are fairly self-explanatory about the construction :

 

There were a total of 58 1.0mm diameter angled tubes to make which fit inside the oval holes in the nose cones :

 

I glued a toothpick to each cone for ease of handling :

 

Aligning each internal tube was accomplished with the aid if a piece of 1mm wire :

 

The tubes were not a perfect fit, but quite easy to trim down after the glue dried :

 

A bit of touch-up acrylic paint was needed after the trimming :

 

Finally, 5 more tubes were fitted to the end of each cone :

 

Danny

[ccoyle]

Halinski -- not for the faint of heart.

[Old Collingwood]

Amazng work  - truly  amazing.

 

OC.

[Dan Vadas]

The inside of the rocket launcher needed to be painted, one of the very few bits of this kit that could have been designed better :

 

The launchers fitted to the wings :

 

The two bombs were an enjoyable step :

 

Again, there is a mistake in the kit. The outer side of the rings should have had a coloured piece fitted. I used some left-over card from the two bombs that I wasn't going to fit to fix the problem :

 

The nose cones came out the best of any rounded pieces I've done so far :

 

The bombs fitted :

 

The four missiles use a mounting bracket. These are a rather involved unit, as there are 28 pieces of wire holding the inner part to the other which needed 56 0.5mm holes drilled right on the edge of the parts. This step took me 3 hours :

 

More pieces of the brackets :

 

I made a jig to assemble the rails :

 

Danny

[GrandpaPhil]

Excellent work!

[Dan Vadas]

Now that I've finished the Lighthouse it's back to this model  . Moving along with the missile brackets, I used the jig to assemble them :

 

Next I added the air lines made from 0.2mm wire :

 

The completed missiles. I forgot to take progress pics. The wire pieces haven't been painted yet :

 

All finished and fitted to the racks :

 

Danny

[Dan Vadas]

I'm guessing these are some type of exhaust noise suppression units (aka mufflers  ). They are quite complex assemblies which needed very careful cutting and gluing at every stage to ensure that no problems arose later on. I'm very happy with the final results :

 

Danny

[popeye the sailor]

rocket racks look very good.......nicely done!  

[lmagna]

Great work Danny

 

I do not think I would want to be around when those bombs were dropped. Helicopters as a rule are kind of low and slow aircraft. Bombs tend to be a high and fast type of weapon. I have read of more than one case where the dropping aircraft almost got it's own tail plucked when the fuse of the bomb they dropped at low altitude had been set too short! There is a BIG difference between 1/10th of a second and 10 seconds when you are already close to the ground and the bomb does not have that far to travel!

 

The exhausts you built were probably cooling, or diverting exhausts. Helicopters are a BIG target for shoulder fired heat seeking missiles.

 

It's been fantastic following your build.

[mtaylor]

I've been looking at those intakes for the engines.   I'm thinking they're actually an air filtration system where the air is spun, the dirt and dust goes out an opening and the clean (for some value of clean) goes into the engine.   Any one know?

[Dan Vadas]

The final pieces of the exhaust coolers are two flanges :

 

The coolers fitted. I'll fit the right side one later, as it will be in the lowered position :

 

I've re-installed the part that broke off earlier and fitted the guards around it :

 

Then I fitted the weapons platforms :

Danny

[Dan Vadas]

Now for a REAL fun bit - the control system for the main rotor. Here are most of the parts :

 

The lower part :

 

A "drive shaft" part which controls the angle :

 

The upper part. I used a 2mm punch to keep the centres aligned while gluing the pieces together :

 

The upper and lower parts fitted to the main shaft :

Danny

[Old Collingwood]

4 hours ago, mtaylor said:

I've been looking at those intakes for the engines.   I'm thinking they're actually an air filtration system where the air is spun, the dirt and dust goes out an opening and the clean (for some value of clean) goes into the engine.   Any one know?

Yep  - the S-61  Sea King had them fitted  because of the dust  in  certain climates  and they just kept them fitted.

 

OC.

[Dan Vadas]

The top cap :

 

The five support arms. Once again I used a piece of wire to keep everything aligned while fitting :

 

A control arm fitted to each support arm :

 

Danny

[Dan Vadas]

Starting the main rotor blades :

 

I made an extra rib to support the end of the reinforcing wire. This is a rare design flaw in the kit, they just leave the wire floating around :

 

This was one of the most challenging pieces to glue due to the length of the seam - 235mm with a minimal amount of twist in the blade. One of the blades finished up with a slightly bigger twist than the others, but not enough to lose any sleep over :

 

The blade temporarily fitted to the rotor control while I fit the hydraulic lines, made from 0.2mm wire :

 

I'm thinking of making the rotor blade as a removable part for ease of transport to model shows etc. They are a snug fit onto the shafts and fairly easy to attach and the hydraulic lines slip into a slightly oversize hole in the end of the blade. The overall diameter of nearly 0.5 metres would make transport difficult.

 

Danny

[Old Collingwood]

Superb engineering work danny  - looking just as good as the real thing.

 

OC.

[Dan Vadas]

The parts for one side of the main landing gear :

 

I cut angles on the ends of some of the struts for better adhesion. Here's a landing gear nearing completion :

 

Next job was the landing gear doors and the wheels. Everything has turned surprisingly strong despite my earlier fears that these parts would get damaged :

 

The nose landing gear fitted. I used wire to pin some of the joints, and once again it's a lot stronger than it looks :

 

Both landing gears completed :

 

Danny

[Dan Vadas]

Now I fitted the Gatling Gun turret which can swivel and elevate. The gun itself will come later - something easily caught on accidentally :

 

Both the opened rear compartment doors, the right side transmission door and the right side exhaust cooler have also been fitted. Again all parts can sustain handling, albeit carefully :

 

Danny

[Old Collingwood]

Really looking the part mate.

 

OC.

[popeye the sailor]

well done!  

[druxey]

Quite remarkable, Danny.

[Dan Vadas]

On the home stretch now. I've fitted both halves of the fuselage together :

Now came time to fit the missiles to the weapons platforms :

 

Last thing to fit before turning the helo back up the right way was the lower antenna :

 

Danny

[Dan Vadas]

The two canopy doors were fitted next, followed by the Gatling gun and the probe. Any thoughts on what the probe was for? I'm thinking maybe a lightning rod? :

 

Danny