Team Yankee 3D Printed Mi-24 Hind Gunship - Part One

On opportunity that 3D printing offers is the ability to add exotic (i.e. expensive!) options to your armies!

As I've said before, I upgraded to the Creality Ender 5 Pro due in part to the large print area (220x220x300mm) that presents lots of opportunities!

Now I've had a few issues with the printer since I received it, namely intermittent filament feeding. This (fingers crossed) has finally been solved with the replacement of the entire hot end.

To try things out I thought I'd give it a challenge....let's print a Team Yankee helicopter gunship!

I found a suitable model of the Mi-24 Hind on Thingiverse, in approximately 1/144 scale. I thought this would be fine as a true 15mm scale aircraft might be a little over bearing on the table.

The model is designed by Steve Lava (Lava808) and can be found here; - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3030137

I decided I would slice it up (within 3D Builder) to simplify printing further still. Creating two separate .stl files for the fuselage and rotors + weapons.

Fuselage printing - 2.5 hours in total

This was printed out, but to be honest I wasn't too sold on the main rotor as the real thing should have 5 blades. A quick search on Thingiverse solved this with a 1/300 set for a Mi24 designed by Kevin Mahony (kmahony) here; - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3685857

Finished component parts.

This (and his other designs) are a good way of enhancing Heroics & Ross models (especially the old ones that came without blades at all!). I simply doubled this in size using 3D Builder and inlet a recess ready to take a 4x2mm rare earth magnet before printing it out.

Assembly underway

Once all the component parts were printed, they needed minimal cleaning up before assembly with superglue.

Finished fuselage

I plan to print a flight stand base that will take a clear Bic biro body as a mount for the finished aircraft, held on with another magnet to enable easy disassembly for storage.

Finished model, ready to paint.

I think now it's finished the model is nearer 1/120th in scale which is "pure" 15mm. It will be an imposing addition in any game and I can't wait to get it painted up. 

To see the finished model, check out Part Two; - https://timstanks.blogspot.com/2020/06/team-yankee-3d-printed-mi-24-hind.html