"The Flying Hedgehog", Done.

[Sticky Fingers]

I wanted to build something o.o.t.b. for a change. Phat chance.

I was given this nice little kit in it's 'Sécurité Civile' guise. It's a nicely detailed kit, especially given the scale (though with a bit of flash here and there), with loads of parts, so my first plan was to do something a bit special and actually follow the manual for once.
It was then that I noticed that a lot of the parts are actually not needed; there are a lot of sprues but there's a couple from which you will only need one part to build a chopper in the Sécurité-livery, leaving you with a LOT of spare parts. So it became too tempting to give it my own twist with a small part or two, you know, here and there...

Turns out this is going to be less Sécurité Civile, and more Sécurité Uncivile...


Anyway, to the pics!



Yea yea, nice, now bring on the weapons already! Geez!


There's more to come, but the pods you see attached here are from Italeri's 1:72 Su-22 strike fighter.


A quick dry-fit.

Now, see that hole in what used to be a side window? This is what lives on the inside:

Just enough to look busy,
And this is what sticks out of it:


Now, back to that dry-fit picture. I think the boom looks a bit too... skinny for the rest of the heli. So this is what I came up with as an alternative:



And a couple more dry-fits, with the new and improved (well I think so at least) boom, and the fixed forward firing fingy (not in its final position).




Amongst all the things I still plan to do with this little whirlybird I have now started to argue with myself wether or not I should ditch the skids and make wheelwells, either with the wheels down or with the wheels up and put it on a nice stand. And I like the idea more and more; i feel that, would this thing exist in real life the added weight of the weapons might be too much for the skinny skids.
Other things are: what to do with the rear windows, winglets or whatever on the boom, extra antennae and radar-type things and other assorted greebles.

Thanks for looking, going to walk the dog now.
And before someone asks: No, she hasn't been Frankensteined...

[Green Dragon]

Love them rocket launchers! Have to keep an eye on this.

Paul Harrison

[Weaver]

Nice one - evil looking little SOB with all that hardware....

Most military helos leave the skids on, and most of the wheeled ones have fixed wheels with BIG shock absorbers. There's too much chance of having to drop from a low hover with battle damage to take the time extending a retractable u/c, and speed (and low drag) isn't generally a priority.

[Sticky Fingers]

Thanks for the comments!

@ Weaver:
Added thanks for the info re. wheels vs skids; saves me the hassle of creating wheelwells .
I think I'll keep the skids but maybe I'll beef 'em up a bit.

[lancer]

Looks positively lethal!!! Will it get off the ground with all that hardware??

[TallEng]

Yes you've got to keep the skids, looks much better that way,
Have you given it a 'NOTAR' type tail boom as per the MD 600 etc,
or do my eyes deceive me? here's a link thingy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOTAR
So you can see what I'm going on about.
Unless of course you knew all about that...

Regards
Keith

[Spey_Phantom]

looks cool,

ive built an armed version of the EC145 to a while back, i got another one in the stash and im concidering a Navalised version with a wheeled undercariage  

http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php?topic=27057.0

just one question, how are they going to aim that big gun sticking out the window.
reminds me of an armed Mi-8/17 for some reason  

[Old Wombat]

just one question, how are they going to aim that big gun sticking out the window.

I'd guess/suggest via camera, either mounted on the side of the barrel inside the helo or on/in the fuselage mounted where the rear window that Sticky Fingers filled in was.

[Captain Canada]

Looking good !

[Sticky Fingers]

Will it get off the ground with all that hardware??

If it doesn't it will be one hell of a mole-killer...  

...or do my eyes deceive me?

No, Keith, they don't. I like the look of the Notar contraption and the likes. Most would expect to see a rear rotor on a heli, so things like the the Notar-boom, coaxial blades like the Russians are keen to use, vectored thrust etc really pop out. So it's definitely based on that. I'd like to think mine is a combination of the notar and a vector-type-instalation, because... eh... why not. Apparently such a thing exists in my little universe  

just one question, how are they going to aim that big gun sticking out the window.

I'd guess/suggest via camera, either mounted on the side of the barrel inside the helo or on/in the fuselage mounted where the rear window that Sticky Fingers filled in was.

Actually I want to make some sort of dedicated sensor pod with cams and sensors and place it either above the filled-in (gunport) window or use (one of) the windows in the reardoors to make space for it. We'll see. There will be another sensor pod either on top of the rotorblades ala Kiowa or underneath the nose. I've got a few thousand plastic BB-balls to experiment with...

Looking good !

Thanks!

[Sticky Fingers]

[jsport]

looks like this will be pretty beepin wicked coolness

[arkon]

well ,once it starts a shootin it will be a whole lot lighter when all that empty brass is a droppin!!
looks great!
is that 17 cal. brass out the back for guns or just tube?

[Sticky Fingers]

Came up with a nickname for this little chopper. Since it has all these guns sticking out, and the antennae I'll add later, I can now present to you:

The flying Hedgehog!

[Sticky Fingers]

Anyway, here's some more pics as the little weed-cutter is slowly getting ready for another layer of primer. Glazing is masked and small protrusion are left off:
(Oh, and yes, I know, that camera/sensor thing slash BB-ball is a bit of a waste of taxpayers money as it might swivel from up to down and back again, but side to side is a no-no. Alas. Looks nice, though.)





All pictures taken with my cellphone, i'm sorry to say. Couldn't be bothered to charge the batteries to start up the proper one.
Ta-ra!