Zvezda

1/72 Mi-26 “Halo” Russian heavy helicopter

Kit Number: 7270

Reviewed by  Jim Pearsall, IPMS# 2209

MSRP: $52.00 Website: www.zvezda.org.ru The Helicopter A rotary wing pilot once told me that "any aircraft that has to beat the air into submission in order to fly is not quite right." Okay, but VTOL certainly is useful in a lot of situations…and it still beats walking. The Mi-26 is the biggest and most powerful helicopter ever built. It first flew in 1977 and it went into Soviet service in 1983. Payload can be up to 20 tons (40,000 pounds), 8 tons more than the predecessor Mi-6. You can also compare this to the CH-47 Chinook’s 10-ton capacity. One of the first uses of the Halo was decontamination flights around Chernobyl in 1986. For the modeler searching for markings and schemes not often seen, the Mi-26 has real possibilities. Military that used (or still use) the Halo include Belarus, Congo, India, Laos, Mexico, Nepal, North Korea, Peru, Russia, the former Soviet Union, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Venezuela, as well as civil operators in Canada, China, Greece, India, Laos, Peru and Russia. Russian troops generally refer to the Mi-26 as the "Korova" (cow). The Halo was used by Russia in Chechnya in 1994-96 and 1999 to 2008. The helicopter was designed to carry 80 troops, but on August 19, 2002 a Mi-26 was shot down near Grozny, killing 147 troops, the greatest loss of life in a helicopter crash to this date. The Kit The Mi-26 comes in a really big box; reminiscent of the Monogram B-52s. The instructions are a 12-page book, A4 in size. There are six sprues, A, B, C, D (2 of these) and E (clear). Any part that is used more than once, such as the eight main rotor blades or the five tail rotor blades appear on sprue D. The only unused parts are one tail rotor blade (six provided, you’ll use five) and one of the "steps" on the side of the helicopter. I was also pleased to see that the rotor blades have the correct droop molded in. When the machine is parked, the rotors sag several feet, and that is what’s modeled here. While the box is big and sturdy, it’s not damage-proof, especially since the kit was shipped here from Russia. One of the parts on the intake had come adrift from the sprue (D8) and was bouncing around in the box. The broken "leg" was missing. Thankfully, this was fixable, so no need to bother Zvezda for a replacement. I manufactured a replacement from one of the tags on the sprue. The decal sheet has markings for two machines, one Russian Frontier Troops, Tajikstan 1993, and one United Nations, Uganda 2003. The Russian markings are certainly interesting, but the all-white UN bird had me thinking about Captain Ahab and his "white whale". However, during my web searches, I found the helicopter I just HAD to build – from south of the border. Mexico had two Halos, but one crashed, leaving the other operational, but sitting unused in storage. Wikipedia also provided me with nice graphics for the markings for the Fuerza Aerea Mexicana, and I did the text in MS Word, using Amarillo USAF font. Since our club meeting theme for May was Cinco de Mayo, this model would be appropriate. Construction Although I didn’t use the kit markings, I did make extensive use of the provided decals. The Halo requires a four-man crew, and there are panels, consoles and gauges all over the place. The picture at left shows, from top to bottom, the pilot/copilot panel, the two panels for the "back seaters", the back seat consoles and the overhead panels for the back seat. The picture at right shows these neat markings becoming almost invisible after the cockpit is assembled.

I really do appreciate good engineering in a kit. When someone puts some thought into the way parts are connected to the sprues, or how the assembly goes together, it’s really cool. I came upon these horrible-looking ejector pin marks on the interior of the fuselage halves. "Oh, great," I thought, "even if it’s inside, someone will look in there and notice!" Then I looked at the parts to be assembled into the interior, and found that there’s a part which neatly covers these marks, making them invisible. Way to go, Zvezda!

Not everything went as well with the rest of the fuselage, however. There’s a ceiling on the cargo bay, with minimal location references. Either I managed to get it about 1 mm too far forward, or the part’s 1 mm too long. I think it’s me. I had to cut the front off this part in order to get the top of the cockpit in place. The next problem was the windscreen. I am glad I used the Eduard mask (read review here) for this kit, as getting the windscreen to fit, stay in place, and be gapless required the use of Gator Glue, Spot & Glaze putty and Mr. Surfacer. I know I would have ruined that nice clear glass at some point if it had not been protected by the mask.

While I was waiting for all the parts to set up in the fuselage assembly, I tackled the rotor. The Mi-26 is the first helicopter to have an 8-blade main rotor. Therefore, I had to mask, paint and decal eight rotor blades. I felt like a disciple of Frederick W. Taylor, the first efficiency expert. The drill was something like this… Paint all 8 blades white. Mask blade 1, paint the silver leading edge. Mask blade 2, paint the silver leading edge, mask blade 3, paint the leading edge, and the same with blade 4. Now the paint is dry on blade 1, so pull the masking tape off, and use it on blade 5. Paint the leading edge of blade 5 silver. Pull the tape off of blade 2, use it on blade 6. Tape from blade 3 for blade 7, and finally tape from blade 4 to blade 8. Mask blade one, paint the remainder of the blade grey. Mask blade 2, paint it grey. Blades 3 and 4. Then remove the tape from blade 1 and use it on blade 5. Repeat for 2 and 6, 3 and 7 and 4 and 8. THEN I was ready for the decals on the blades. There are 3 decals on each blade. Decal one on blade 1, then decal one on blade 2, right on thru blade 8, followed by decal two on blade one… You get the picture. Assembly line work at its finest. Then it’s time to fabricate this huge assembly. Each blade is about 8½ inches (21 cm) long, which means you need about 150% of the blade length in space to work on the rotor. I wound up working on the lid of the deep freeze, the only clear spot in my workshop which was large enough. I cut a hole in the box to allow the rotor head to sit down, and allow the blades to be fairly level. This way I could also be sure it wasn’t going to slide off onto the floor, where I would surely step on it. And back to the rest of the aircraft. It was now time to do decals. I had made my own, and they worked fine. I put on the rear ramp and the doors, and added the landing gear. A note here; the main gear looked like it would not be robust enough to handle the weight of the model, but Mil’s design is remarkably strong. It may sound like this is fairly racing through assembly, but these two steps required two evenings. I also added the tail rotor. It’s only 5 blades, but it was almost as much fun as the main rotor. Then it’s time for the "fiddly bits". There is a ladder which runs up the left side of the aircraft. 12 steps, each has to be carefully placed. Then there are three antennas on the bottom, plus two lights on the bottom and a red and green navigation light on the side of the fuselage. I spent a full evening just putting on these small parts. Painting The easy part since it’s overall green drab. Of course every time I handled it, I somehow managed to either rub off some paint or get a fingerprint somewhere. My crowning achievement was when I was putting on those little ladder rungs and managed to get CA cement on my finger, which I then transferred to the paint job. If you get to it quickly, #1000 grit sandpaper will remove the fingerprint, allowing repainting.

Overall Evaluation It may sound like I had a lot of trouble with this project. Not really. It’s just that with a project this big, it takes a lot of time and care to get everything right. And this is certainly a BIG project. I managed to get through without permanently losing any parts, although I did spend some time on the floor looking for the victim of a tweezers misalignment, which left their grip with great velocity. I was happy with the fit, and the instructions were clear enough, as long as I could find the section in that 12-page volume concerning the part I was looking to attach. Something like this requires a good deal of patience, and sometimes just willingness to go back and fix your mistakes. My friend George has always said, "There’s nothing you can screw up on a model that you can’t fix somehow." That and patience will help a lot on a project like this one. Thanks to Dragon USA for the review copy, and IPMS/USA for the chance to review this impressively large kit.