A very nice bit of kit landed on my heli pad a couple days ago and I would like to share some information on this slick little fun-scale Hind Mil-24.

The kit I have is a pre-production kit with a one-off camo paint scheme. It comes complete with mechanics which are A2Pro/e-Copter Excellium 450. These mechanics turn out to be very similar to the big brother Excellium 500 that I have in a review thread at: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1115397

The mechanics come installed on a very cleverly designed LASER cut aircraft plywood foundation. All of the guess work and fitting, that can be a real challenge, is done for you. Simply remove the access panels (a total of three)that are held in place with rare earth magnets and phillips head micro screws. Remove the screws that hold the main part of the chassis to the fuselage foundations. Then unscrew the forward boom clamp and remove the T/R drive belt from the forward drive pulley. Twist the boom and pull to the rear of the heli until the boom and elevated T/R are free and can be removed. Now you will be able to remove the main mechanics chassis form the central part of the fuselage. Now you can outfit the mechanics with servos, motor, ESC, and gyro.

The elevated T/R is a nicely executed piece of machinery as is the pitch linkage which is also pre-installed at the factory. I have a three blade T/R of the correct size for this model. We'll see how it works with the five blade main rotor head that I plan to use.

The mechanics will be configured as a pod and boom to support flight testing and transmitter tuning. Once everything is dialed in, the mechanics will be put back in their Happy Hind Home.

The fuselage is made from light weight fiberglass with appropriate individual plywood foundations for items such as the nose gear, main gear, Cannon mount and removable access panels. The landing gear have working oleo strut action and a very nice set of scale looking rubber tires (no sponge wheels to go flat on you). The wings and stores(armament) are shipped not installed. The installation task is best accomplished when you have the mechanics removed for outfitting. They are held in place by two screws on each side. The office (spelled "cockpit") is a removable piece to allow access for the flight battery. It may be possible to detail the cockpit interior, but we'll have to see how much clearance is available with the flight battery in place.

The model is high quality and well engineered and should be very popular with the Fun-Scale crowd. These will be available in a month or two along with some other fuselage designs for Excellium 450, 480 and 500 size mechanics. I am hoping to get the first of the Bell 429 wrappers for the Excellium 500 mechanics that I am now building.

Pics that show the details follow.

Cheers - Boyd
AMA 80393
IRCHA 3355
Major USAF
Retired

I also want to become a testflier , Lucky you Boyd, looks like real nice kit!!

Cheers
Jack

Hi Boyd,

just a small tip when you will put the mechanics back into the fuse:

Add a small piece of carbon plate or plastic plate where the tail pitch linkages has it's smal 45° angle.
You can see on one of your picture that the linkage is touching the bottom of the fuselage frame in the boom.
Adding a small piece of carbon (just glue it on one side of one of the elevated tail frames) will avoid the pitch linkages to rip in the bottom of the fuse and will allow a constant correct tail control.

Reason is that with vibrations sometimes, the tailboom can move a bit up and down and then the pitch linkages can touch the fuse.

Same system on UH1 and Blackhawk 480

BEst regards,

Fabien

Originally Posted by Bricobrac

Hi Boyd,

just a small tip when you will put the mechanics back into the fuse:

Add a small piece of carbon plate or plastic plate where the tail pitch linkages has it's smal 45° angle.
You can see on one of your picture that the linkage is touching the bottom of the fuselage frame in the boom.
Adding a small piece of carbon (just glue it on one side of one of the elevated tail frames) will avoid the pitch linkages to rip in the bottom of the fuse and will allow a constant correct tail control.

Reason is that with vibrations sometimes, the tailboom can move a bit up and down and then the pitch linkages can touch the fuse.

Same system on UH1 and Blackhawk 480

BEst regards,

Fabien

Thanks for the heads up Fabien.

Maybe this head can fit !

Originally Posted by kin

Maybe this head can fit !

Now that would be sweet.

Looks like the swash on A2Pro Hind has different anti-rotation pin location; similar to Blade 400. The Typhoon head won't work. Unless, you drill a 2mm hole for the pin.

Originally Posted by sidneyw

Looks like the swash on A2Pro Hind has different anti-rotation pin location; similar to Blade 400. The Typhoon head won't work. Unless, you drill a 2mm hole for the pin.

Nothing a good drill press and fixture can't handle.

I should mention that this series of scale models in 350,450,480 and 500 sizes will be available in the USA from www.espritmodel.com as they are released by A2Pro/e-Copter. For a look at all the A2Pro offerings go here: http://www.a2pro.fr/catalogue.php?Id...t=2043&lang=En

Cheers - Boyd

Hi Boyd,

we had designed with david a small antirotation arm that fit almose anything on the market for 450 and 500 class. This one could fit Kin's rotor head but i need to check the diameter at the central hub part to see if that arm fits correctly.

BEst regards,
Fabien

Originally Posted by Bricobrac

Hi Boyd,

we had designed with david a small antirotation arm that fit almose anything on the market for 450 and 500 class. This one could fit Kin's rotor head but i need to check the diameter at the central hub part to see if that arm fits correctly.

BEst regards,
Fabien

Thanks for the assist.

Hi Fabien (Bricobrac)

Do u need people to test UH1 and Blackhawk 480? If yes, don't forget about me!

SH

Originally Posted by Super_Hornet

Hi Fabien (Bricobrac)

Do u need people to test UH1 and Blackhawk 480? If yes, don't forget about me! SH

No hitch hikers, sorry

Supplied main rotor blades are narrow chord (33mm) and only span 297mm. Anxious to see how the fly. They are wood blades with clear heat shrink covering.

[QUOTE=Hoverup]

Originally Posted by Super_Hornet

Hi Fabien (Bricobrac)

Do u need people to test UH1 and Blackhawk 480? If yes, don't forget about me!

SH[/QU

No hitch hikers, sorry

Oops! Ouch!

SH