Scratchbuilt: Mi-24 “Hind” Attack Helicopter With 100K Parts

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Scratchbuilt: Mi-24 “Hind” Attack Helicopter With 100K Parts

The first sentence of Precise Modeling’s article about this amazing creation begins, “This particular Hind was flown by the Soviet Forces in Afghanistan…”

Those first three words—”This particular Hind”—say a lot: While most scale modelers are content to build more-or-less generic replicas of a particular make and model vehicle, Alex Sklyar, who spent about 9,000 hours over 15 years to complete this build, set out to achieve a level of detail at which the differences between one particular helicopter and another are significant and have to be considered.

Every reported fact about this model is more amazing than the last: It was begun in 1986, when much information about the Hind was still protected by the Soviet Union as military secrets. It is constructed mostly from corrosion-resistant metals: aluminum, titanium, brass, stainless steel. The pedals in the cockpit work. The tires actually have air in them. The shocks actually compress. Many of the parts were fabricated under a microscope. The list goes on and on.

The scale is 1:32, which brings the model in at just over 21.5″ in length. [Thanks, Scott!]

22 thoughts on “Scratchbuilt: Mi-24 “Hind” Attack Helicopter With 100K Parts

  1. Adam Gower says:

    The level of detail of this model is eerie.  It reminds me of Stephen King’s story “Battleground”:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battleground_%28short_story%29

  2. Dandan Callighan says:

    that is one amazing scale model, and precision engineering. i’m happy if anything i build slighty resembles the box picture. just wondering what it weights in at and would it be a near scale weight?

  3. Dandan Callighan says:

    that is one amazing scale model, and precision engineering. i’m happy if anything i build slighty resembles the box picture. just wondering what it weights in at and would it be a near scale weight?

  4. Dandan Callighan says:

    that is one amazing scale model, and precision engineering. i’m happy if anything i build slighty resembles the box picture. just wondering what it weights in at and would it be a near scale weight?

  5. Anonymous says:

    OMG! It’s got over 100,000 parts! Is that even possible?

    1. Jeff says:

      If you count every rivet, sure.

    2. Jeff says:

      If you count every rivet, sure.

  6. Anonymous says:

    How much is 21.5″ in actual units ?

  7. Anonymous says:

    To spend 9000 hours over 15 years shows an enormous amount of dedication. As a person without a lot of free time, it is very inspiring to see what can be accomplished if you just keep plugging away. Hats off to this guy.

  8. Wayne Middleton says:

    A Hind D? Colonel, whats a Russian gunship doing here?

  9. asaidurai. a. r says:

    WHERE CAN I FIND YOUR 3D CAD MODEL?

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I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

View more articles by Sean Michael Ragan

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