A Hind with a different tilt
Probably my most favorite helicopter (which is probably not my most favorite aircraft type) is the Mi-24 Hind. It is a very interesting and unusual looking design. And from what I've read, it's pretty effective as well.
One of the things that strikes me as strange is that it seems all the available kits of this machine lack one very important detail: “for aerodynamic reasons the central section and tail cone are inclined 2 degrees 30 minutes to starboard”. And I am quoting from the Czech 4+ publication on the Mi-24, a resource I believe is a very good one. Even the Trumpeter 1/32 kit does not reproduce this, seemingly a gross error at that scale.
Once you are aware of this fact, it is interesting to look for its evidence in photos. You will find it.
Quite a few years ago I built the Monogram 1/48 Mi-24 using this information. It wasn't easy to achieve this, and I found also that the tail boom on this kit was too short, so had to correct that as well. Of course this kit has its other problems, but it was the one I had, and at that scale, I was crazy enough to give it a try. This just seemed too important a fact to ignore and not try to correct on the model. Too bad I was too far along to include the Cobra cockpit!
Anyway, here are a few photos of my model of the Hind. Two of them show the canted fuselage pretty clearly. Also, if you look at the port side photo, you can see the extra vertical space I added above the windows, on the door with the two windows, compared to the starboard side. That's where the “tilt” occurs, to push the cabin and tail boom to starboard. As they say, “the devil is in the details”.
Excellent job, sir...it appears you captured "the look" quite nicely. Nice work.
Bob,
Beautifully done. Prior to first seeing this model I had no idea there was deviation in the tail feathers.
Robert, Great job all around on you hind Hind. The Hind is big, ugly and highly effective...kinda like Lemmy from Motörhead!
I think helicopters can make great looking models, but are very difficult to get 'right'. You've obviously done the necessary research on this one, and it has the 'look'.
Very nice work, particularly getting the "twist."
I have never built a helicopter, but have also liked the look of the Hind. Thanks for teaching me about the built-in incline. Did not know that and you did a nice job on the conversion to get a convincing look.
Thanks for the nice comments on my Hind model. This was not an easy one, but I seem to get into these things every once in a while. Makes life more interesting!
Very nicely done. I am sizing up a Hind now with all the aftermarket but have made a final determination where to make the cuts on the port fuselage. Any pointers where you did your cut? I have about 5 Hinds bought cheaply on the last production issue in the US so I am not concerned about making an initial error. TIA
John
It is hard to remember the exact details of how I did the mod to the Hind model, that was quite a while ago, and unfortunately I didn’t take any in progress shots. If you look at the vertical space between the top of the cabin windows and the top of the cabin door on each side, you can see that the vertical space on the port side is larger than on the starboard. So that is where I made a horizontal cut, running from the vertical joint at the back of the cockpit to the rear, between the top of the windows and top of the door. The cut continued aft, above the rear two windows, to a point under the leading edge of the wing, then at an angle down, then aft to the joint between the fuselage and the tail boom. The cut is where I added shims to raise the port fuselage and boom, and create the tilt. The starboard side had to be bent outwards to get the tilt. It was tricky as I recall, trying to get things to move without breaking something! The cut where I lengthend the tail boom was I believe somewhere in the rear half of the boom The 4+ book on the Hind was a great help, it’s a fantastic reference. Hope this is of some help to you, and good luck!