The Sudenkorento

[The Rat]

The story will go something like this - After deciding to attempt a home-grown aerospace industry, Finland develops an idea for a helicopter, primarily for coastal patrol and fisheries monitoring. The contract was awarded to one of the few large Finnish industries, Rapala fishing lures. They simply scaled up one of their products, fitted it with large Russian engines in a dorsal pod arrangement, and sited the radar where the diving lip would normally be.

Once this thing is finished it will be disassembled. I've promised my daughter the lure (she found it!), and some bits are needed for other projects.

Overall neutral grey, engine pod carved from balsa:


Main rotor is from an Airfix Westland Scout, tail rotor from the soon to be unveiled Breguet Calypso:


Main gear from the late Airfix Boeing 727-200 which became the Ekranoplan, wheels and tailwheel from..., uh..., I don't know.


It looks even rougher in reality, but we all know what digital photography can do about that without even tweaking.    

[Brian da Basher]

Amazing! A helo from a fishing lure! Mr. Rat-San sir, I am humbled by your incredible whiffing abilities!

Brian da Basher

[The Rat]

Thanks Basher! I got the idea when I was sitting at the dock just going through the tackle box. I've handled Rapalas since about 1965, but this is the first time the shape has leapt at me like it did then. It just looked like a good whiffer. My original idea was for a fixed wing aircraft, possibly with gull wings, and one day that might get done too.

No national markings yet, Finnish decals aren't easy to come by. Since it's going to be disassembled I'll probably just try to print some out on the computer and paste them on with white glue.

[K5054NZ]

Would that be the dock of the bay?


Sorry.


Great lurecopter! Fantastic! So......imaginative.....

[nev]

I might have some Finnish roundels Ratty, how many you want?

[cthulhu77]

Bravo, Sir !  Love the radar scoop !

               

[anthonyp]

Now that's something I do a lot, but never actually make a built model of out it:  Take items (like remote controls, other pre-shaped plastic items) and wonder what they'd look like with wings, tails, engines, or other things.

Great job there, Rat!

[The Rat]

I might have some Finnish roundels Ratty, how many you want?

Thanks for the offer Nev, but as this thing is going to be stripped down afterward it would be a waste of good decals. They're hard to get though. Someone told me that the Airfix 1/144th Mig-21 has them , but not the one I have, just Russian and Polish. Maybe the ones distributed in Europe are different.

Take items (like remote controls, other pre-shaped plastic items) and wonder what they'd look like with wings, tails, engines, or other things.

Yeah, I've often looked at some of the weird creations in things like Star Wars and wondered if they just grabbed whatever was nearby and started tinkering.  ^_^  

[Brian da Basher]

I might have some Finnish roundels Ratty, how many you want?

Thanks for the offer Nev, but as this thing is going to be stripped down afterward it would be a waste of good decals. They're hard to get though.

<snip>

I'm going to be making my own Finnish roundels using white disk decals and SEA-style British roundels (the ones without the red center). The shade of blue might be off, bit it'll be close enough to make me happy.

Brian da Basher

[The Rat]

Ratty, that's a nice looking chopper with a good backstory, but I'm going to have to point out the one glaring flaw - your tail rotor.  The main rotor is rotating clockwise and to counteract the torque the tailrotor should be on the port side - it's on the starboard side and pushing the tail WITH the rotor!

Perhaps you should consider Irish markings instead?  

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!

(gag sputter barf...)

Okay, who would notice if I simply flipped the whole thing over, I mean, there's not that much hub detail that it would show.    

[The Rat]

Hang on a tic... The main rotor is going clockwise, so the torque would spin the fuselage counterclockwise, meaning that the tail would be swinging to starboard. So, the tail rotor pushes it back to port.  

Or am I missing something?

OLLIE! Where are you?!    

[lancer]

That is a brilliant bit of work Ratty. Thst helo has a hell of a shape to it.

[nev]

Italeri 1/72 F-18 and Revell 1/72 Mig-21 have Finnish roundels.  Possibly the Italeri Hawk as well...

[Gary]

That's a very A-luring chopper.

I can see it luring Russian subs up from the depths.

Sweet.

[Captain Canada]

That's a very A-luring chopper.

I can see it luring Russian subs up from the depths.

Sweet.

Ha !

Beauty job, Ratman ! Awesome idea...very creative. I've played with lures pretending they are subs and boats, but never thought of a helo or aeroplane !

As for the rotor issue.....who cares !