1/35 Aerosani Vertolet (Aerosan helicopter)

[frank2056]

I like the look of the various Soviet WWII aerosans but they're useless during the fraction of the year that isn't covered in snow and ice - and a waste of potential with their small, serviceable aircraft engines.

I've already made a Gaz-98 based swamp boat, so why not turn an aerosan into an airplane or helicopter?

I started with the idea of turning the Trumpeter NKL-6 Aerosan into an airplane:



and went as far as scanning in the wings of the Monogram Piper Tri-Pacer (which is listed at 1/32 but based on the figures, might be closer to 1/35), and printing them out (on paper). Placing them on the NKL-6, it was clear that they would work best shoulder mounted and it would be an easy modification.... but what about the tail? I would have to make a couple of tail booms far apart enough ti clear the prop and support them from the main wings. The more I thought about it, the less interested I was in the project (at least for now).

I also have the much smaller KM-4 Aerosan:



What about turning it into a small helicopter? After some futzing around, I found some of the bits from an old Revell 1/35 Bell H-13H so I designed and printed an engine/gear head cover for the rotor. I used the engine section of the Mil Mi-1 for inspiration. Here it is, fresh from curing and having the supports removed:



Here's where the project is at the moment, all taped up. The French guy and the bored guy at the computer (I modified his legs) should give a sense of how small this helicopter is.  I removed the original engine section from the kit's roof and added the 3D printed part  The tail section is the rear half of a 1/200 B-52 and the angled rotor support is one of the tail booms from an old Heller 1/72 J-21. The tail rotor is from a Hasegawa Hughes egg helicopter kit:



The tail rotor may be on the wrong side - it's easy to rotate it to the other side.

I've been tempted to make the roof completely in 3D, but I don't want to add any extra transparencies so I may leave it as is.

For the cockpit, I  scratchbuilt a copy of the seat from a Tamiya Schwimmwagen in white styrene; I also designed a similar seat and printed it. I think I'll use the styrene seat for the pilot and one or two of the 3D printed chairs for the passengers.

As for the original NKL-6, I'll turn it into a coaxial helicopter, similar to some of the early Kamov coaxial helicopters - flip the engine pod around, remove the prop, make a gear head cover then add a drive shaft from the engine.

[Dizzyfugu]

Very nice! The main rotor might need some trimming, though?

[Old Wombat]

Looks good, Frank!

Seems big enough (just) for a MedEvac helicopter.

[Tophe]

  I like very much (or love) this inventive project! 
An aircraft coming from elsewhere than aviation...

[Wardukw]

Lovein this Frank..its weird and ugly but in a cute sort of way 
That tail rotor would be fine there ..if the baldes are facing the wrong way just flip em ..tail rotors are mounted on both sides so thats no issue and Dizzys right..you'll need to shorten your main blades so their just in front of the tail rotor..to long and they can cancel out thr tail with to much down thrust and in a tight maneuver could hit the tail rotor..not good 

[frank2056]

Thanks, guys - Dizzy and Phill - I think I'll lengthen the tail rather than cut the blades down to keep the rotor out of the downwash. I've been tempted to use the open framework from the old H-13, but it looks even uglier.

[Wardukw]

Thanks, guys - Dizzy and Phill - I think I'll lengthen the tail rather than cut the blades down to keep the rotor out of the downwash. I've been tempted to use the open framework from the old H-13, but it looks even uglier.

Ohhh dude ya so got to do that mate 
Freakin ugly is always good ..i have the MASH H13 in 35th and remade to entire tail boom as the kit didint look good at all.
If you lenghten the boom out past the rotor blades it will balance out the look better..the chopper will look slimmer or sleaker but i think that will make it even better.
A long solid tail boom would look better than a H13 lattice frame.

[Tophe]

A long solid tail boom would look better

and two booms (twin booms) would be even better! (no, this is a joke, even if a few helicopters are twin-boom)

[frank2056]

Tophe, have you met this helicopter?



Phill - I have an issue of Fine Scale Modeler where the builder remade the tail boom with in-scale(ish) plastic rod. It didn't look too difficult and the results looked fantastic.

[Tophe]

Yes I know this McDonnell XV-1 of 1954, half helicopter half-autogyro, called a gyrodyne in somme places. I love it, but feel free to make your model more simple.

[Wardukw]

Thats the bugger Frank..the rod works a treat and you just just the kit part as a template 
One day I'll finish mine but with the way i am and seeing the entire engine exposed ..ya know what that means 

[frank2056]

I spent many days just dealing with the windows on the KM-4. The kit windows are attached to a clear plastic strip that is pushed into the window openings. It looks awful. I thought that I could saw the windows out of the carrier strip, but each window has an odd indentation in the middle - the edges are supposed to represent the window seal, but they take up about 1/3 of the clear area... not that the windows are all that clear.  So I went with plan B and vacuformed copies of the windows and trimmed them to fit. All good except for the windshield. It has a main clear area and two smaller side windows and getting all three to stay in - and even with the front of the vehicle - was impossible. So I cut out the two frames that defined the side windows, cut some clear plastic to match and I was done. There's some clear glue that I have to remove but all I have to do now is mask it:



With that out of the way, I painted the interior with a turquoise similar to Russian interior green.  I added the kit part seen behind the pilot's seat, a scratchbuilt pilot's seat, control stick from a Hasegawa egg helicopter and 3D printed pedals, passenger seat and collective stick/side control panel. The back wall is from a Trumpeter CH-47 interior kit - always handy for parts:



The silver pipe is supposed to represent conduit for control lines, cables, whatever. It's just some styrene rod:



Also visible above is the control panel. I found artwork online depicting the control panel for a Robinson R44 helicopter. I printed two copies on my color laser printer - I used one to represent the instruments, then punched holes in the other where the instruments were. I painted superglue on the back of the paper instrument panel parts and when dry, I used Gator Glue (just a nice PVA style glue) to sandwich a thin clear sheet between the two instrument panel parts. I then glued everything to a sheet of styrene and cut to shape. It sounds complicated, but it couldn't have taken more than 30 minutes to complete.

The panel looks OK from a distance (and inside the cockpit) but close up, you can see that it was printed on paper:



I could probably get better results printing on glossy or photo paper.

[Tophe]

Wow! Great hard work with the clear parts, i would have been totally unable to do what you did, congratulations!

[Wardukw]

Thats looking the bis Frank.. nice and clean and tidy..lovin it matey 

[NARSES2]

Looking really good