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Firstly, MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!!!

OK, now that that is done, I can tell a little backstory. Two years ago my brother, who is now four, got a fire brigade toy set for his birthday. It included a jeep, a truck, some other stuff and, most importantly, a helicopter which I recognized a a Mi-8. Some time later I looked over it in detail and thought how unusually detailed and accurate it was for a '3+' toy. So when the main rotor broke off and my brother left it on a shelf, I seized my opportunity and took the helicopter+rotor. My idea - improve as much of the helicopter as I can, scratchbuild an interior, repaint, possible cut out the clamshell doors and pose the open.

I have discovered a review/build article of the Hobby Boss 1:72 Mi-8: http://www.flankers-site.co.uk/modl_mi-8.html

This not only contains wonderful information and pictures of the interior, but has also helped me identify my Mi-8 as a Mi-8T. The parts breakdown of this thing is very similar to ordinary plastic models - fuselage in two halves, transparent glazing part, a separate cockpit and several other parts like gear, rotors etc.

Here are a few photos of what it looked like before I started:

CA3oVm2.jpg

yF6ZKTC.jpg

WgS9l21.jpg

As you can see, the the detail is quite good, though slightly exaggerated. Having removed one screw and battled with the rest of it for ten minutes I braved the horrible snowstorm and went over to the garage, or rather the guest area above it, where I keep my modeling stuff. With the help of a screwdriver, a knife and some fairy dust I manage to take apart everything except for the tail rotor and the side window glazing parts which are stubbornly attached to the fuselage halves, the tail rotor with a tiny nail (!!!) and the window parts with some sort of super-strong glue which seems to have melted the transparencies to the fuselage parts. That will be fun to deal with.

Here is what everything looks for after the disassembly process:

ptulx72.jpg

The cockpit part is rather simple by scale model standards, but incredible for a toy. The seats and bulkhead (+door!) are there, and even the Mi-8's strange instrument panels are accurately shown!!! With a bit of paint that part will look amazing!

uyJqnBE.jpg

Sorry for the horrible photos, the iPhone camera is made more for epic panoramas than tiny helicopter parts. And another thing: The snowstorm I mentioned is getting scary, of course nothing as bad as what happened in upstate New York recently, but still. There was no snow at all for the whole of December here in Moscow, and now it has snowed 50 centimeters in the last two hours. The following photo was taken 40 minutes ago. There was no snow on the ground this morning when I woke up. If I do not post before this time tomorrow, the roof has probably collapsed under the weight of all that snow and I am having a very merry christmas trapped under the rubble and freezing to death.

rYh5MxT.jpg

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Thank you. I have developed an annoying but very hopeful voice in my head telling me to learn how to cast resin using rubber moulds and turn this into a Mi-8 kit...should I shut it up or listen carefully to the advice?

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