Airfix SA-330 Puma 1/72

[ice225]

Perhaps you remember that romantic comedy-drama called Rambo III? I've seen it back in the early 90s and was impressed by that mighty helicopter flown by the sowjet soldiers. For me the helicopter was the star of the film and since then I wanted one. Sadly no kit maker produced a kit of that helicopter so I had to wait until I was able to do one by myself.

I used the SA-330 Puma by Airfix and added sponsons and rotorblades from Whirlybits. The weapons under the wings are from the Hobby Boss Hind and the doorgunner weapons are FN-MAGs by Goffy Models.

 

I love this view!

 

The wings were made from styrene after I made some screenshot of the movie and took some measures.

 

If you don't remeber the movie you can see some pictures of the helicopter here: http://www.rotaryaction.com/pages/rambo3.html

 

I used colors from Revell and the decals were made by a fellow modeller.

 

I hope you enjoy the pics and perhaps someone feels inspired to do the smaller helicopter - I think it's a Gazelle.

 

Edited April 17, 2017 by ice225

[Albert Moore]

Oh man, that's looks great, Stefan! Definitely one of a kind for sure.

Cheers,

Alby

[RotorheadTX]

I like it too. Well done!

[Sebastijan]

Cool project!

[avgass]

Very cool! I wonder which came first - the Denel XTP-1 Beta or this one.. Both look very similar.

[dragan_mig31]

I always wanted this one built but had no guts to start it.Great work :yahoo:

[ST0RM]

You've captured the look of the Rambo "Hind" perfectly. Outstanding paint work. Those colors look great.

Jeff

[lifeline]

Great job indeed..!

Really love the detail (cockpit, Door gun), and the paint job too.

How did you build the search light?

Cheers,

Mario

[tempestwulf]

I have to concur with the chaps here, that's a beaut model. I still love Rambo III, especially the "Hinds", being older I can recognise the fact it's Puma not a Russian model. I seem to critique things like that now in movies. What about Red Dawn though? I think they actually were real early model hinds.

[Diego Quijano]

Great transformation! You nailed it.

Love it.

Q

[ice225]

Thank you all for your kind comments! I'm really happy that you like how my idea turned out.

How did you build the search light?

I used a stabilo point 88: http://www.stabilo.com/pages-us/products/point-88.php

I cut out a small piece from the pen, sanded it in shape, made a small cone from aluminium, made a backplate from thin styrene and pane from a blister pack. I also placed a small cylinder in the middle of the cone made from dark plastic. That's pretty much it.

I have to concur with the chaps here, that's a beaut model. I still love Rambo III, especially the "Hinds", being older I can recognize the fact it's Puma not a Russian model. I seem to critique things like that now in movies. What about Red Dawn though? I think they actually were real early model hinds.

I have to disappoint you in this case. In Red Dawn they used the same helicopters as they used in Rambo II and Rambo III.

Here are the Pumas in Red Dawn. They placed something like a glasshouse with tinted windows in front of the puma cockpit to get the look of the early hinds. When you compare the wings they are the same as in the Rambo movies.

You should lower the volume before watching this. :blink:

In Rambo II they removed the glass house and placed something like a radar housing on the nose and gave the helicopter a splinter camo:

hints:

- if you watch the explosion frame by frame you see that they used a model of a helicopter that looks like the helicopters in Red Dawn

- count the rocket launchers in the different scenes - sometimes there are 3, sometimes there are 4 of them. If you watch the movie in slow motion you can see that one of the rocket launchers exploded in one scene.

Edited October 19, 2010 by ice225

[611_sqd]

That Hind/Puma/hindma/Pumind looks far better than the movie that inspired it.

I think Red dawn used Puma's as well

good job

[611_sqd]

Wasn't their smaller choppers in Red Dawn as well as the Hind. Been ages since I saw it.

Edited October 27, 2010 by 611_sqd

[toniosky]

Very nice project !!!!!!!

[4scourge7]

What a cool subject, very original.

Real nice job with that, excellent stuff in capturing the look of the movie `Hind`.

Cheers, Ian

[ice225]

Pictures are up again.

[janman]

Cool project! As a kid I remember wondering what they were using in the movie, but quite quickly drew the conclusion. By then I had already read every aviation book available in my local library so the task wasn't hard!

[ChernayaAkula]

Good to see this one again, ice. You should build one of the Romanian SOCAT Pumas as well. They'd make a helluva nice couple.

 

Would love to see Airfix do a new 1/72 Puma.