RAMM Spatzenfalke Support Helicopter

Since Next-Gen’s database is not letting me edit the gallery, I shall make use of my blog for descriptive purposes. I think it will be nice to go into a bit more detail than I usually do.

To begin with, this MOC was built of blood and tears. Mostly tears from all the times the front end fell apart during construction and I had to rebuild it.  It was built for the RAMMtacular contest, courtesy of RAMM’s (Royal Austrian Mechanized Military, for those not in the mainstream Lego community) creator, Nick D.

The RAMM Spatzenfalke (Sparrowhawk) Helicopter is designed to be able to effectively serve multiple roles.  It can perform as a light troop transport, a tactical air assault vehicle, a mobile communications relay, an electronic warfare platform, an aerial recon vehicle, and more. It can hold its own in air-to-air combat, but is most lethal when used in air-to-ground attacks against both infantry and vehicles, and is often used to back up allied troops.

Now that the obligatory italicized description is out of the way, I’m going to talk about some of it’s more interesting aspects. I built the rotor assembly first, so I will begin with that. From the very beginning, I had decided on several features I wanted it to have; the first being folding rotor blades for easy storage (Inspired by Navy helicopters needing to park in small spaces on aircraft carriers).  That was easily accomplished with hinge plates, and the rotor retained this feature through both of the times I lengthened it, as well as when I redesigned the entire assembly.

Another of the most interesting parts of the model, as well as the most fragile, is the twin cockpits, which are inspired by those of the Hind. Originally I was going to attach the lower one via a tricky jumper plate twist (as seen in the WIP pic), but that proved to be too fragile and too difficult when it came time to build the bottom of the front, so instead I opted for a claw clip connection.  The cockpit area is the single most fragile part of the entire model, and I spent way too much time rebuilding it.  I think my favorite part of the front is actually the pointed nose, though.

There’s a lot more I could talk about, but rather than make myself seem any more egotistical, I think I’ll stop here and say that this was one of the most difficult builds I’ve attempted in a while, and I can’t wait for some competition. >:)

Actually, yes I can wait. Don’t build an entry, it’s easier.

If you have any questions/comments/responses, shoot me a flickr comment/mail.