Its not a PUMA

Today I was talking to a fellow Flames of War player about my Team Yankee Pile of Shame and off the cuff he said, in light of current events, ‘it all felt a bit too real just now’. Which brought us around to Battle Fronts announcement of Red Dawn and how it was maybe a good way of not ‘crossing the streams’ so to speak.

Which reminded me an old project of mine now a decade old.

Over the years my gaming hobby has waxed and waned through its focus and settled on many topics. At times its been all about being a player be it RPG’s, board games or wargaming. And for periods of time its settled on world building or game design or miniature painting.  Many moons ago I moved to new city , had no one to directly game with, and my hobby energy found itself directed at the binary side of gaming. The internet was already a ‘thing’ and as a fan of the mil sim computer game ‘Operation Flashpoint’ I eventualy got hooked into modding the series of mil sim games now known as ‘ArmA’. The culmination of my modding was the creation of a Mi-24 Hind A Krokadil for ArmA2 which has since been revived thanks to others and ported from ArmA 2 to ArmA 3 here on Steam (yes a shameless plug) https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1440194894

I had always remembered as kid that one of the key points of interest for military aficionados watching original Red Dawn was the true nature of that helicopter. The helicopter shown in the movie Red Dawn was a  French SA 330 Puma dressed up to resemble the first version of what we know in the west to be the ‘Hind’, The Mi-24A, before it was upgraded to the ‘D’ version and received the now iconic bubble canopies for the gunner and pilots positions. It was something that had fascinated me as a kid. Then when I saw the abomination of its representation in ‘Call of Duty- Vietnam’ I had to do something. Thus begun my research into the Hind Mi-24 A, and expanding my knowledge of the ins and outs of creating game assets. Game assets isn’t something I do anymore but my work lives on in the ArmA Steam Workshop and I think I would like to see it go a little further.

I’m guessing that Battle front will probably not create a Hind A to match the original movie and simply bring the time line forward a little and use its current model. Its fair I suppose, but its not the same for sentimental old farts like me. ( I haven’t seen the new movie remake so can’t comment on that)

Since recent projects have had me revive a few modeling skills in ‘Blender’ I think it best to make the most of it and rebirth the ‘Mi-24A Krokadil’ yet again, but this time as an STL file for folks to print at 1/100 scale for Team Yankee.

I have a few targets set that I will endeavor to reach but admit this project may take some time.

1. Create a fuselage stl file compatible with existing plastic Mi-24’s from Battlefront for that little touch of refinement
2. Create wings, blades, and weapon racks suitable for FDM machines (sorry I don’t own a resin yet but will hope it works out)
3. Create a range of modifications ie munition types, and landing gear for customisation.