1:35 B-13L rocket launchers (2 pcs) (Mi-8/24)

The B-13L helicopter rocket launcher in 1:35 scale

A pair of cast pods prepared for large models of helicopters of the Mi-8 and Mi-24 families. It is in this scale that the big kits of attack helicopters come out, and on them the external load is one of the first places a viewer's eyes slide to.

A heavy rocket under a helicopter pylon

The pod holds five S-13 rockets, that is ordnance considerably larger than what the usual launchers with sixteen or thirty-two tubes carry. For a helicopter that means a noticeable load on the stub wing and a corresponding limit on the rest of the armament, so the pod was usually combined with lighter stores in the inner positions. Its use was aimed at hardened targets, that is shelters, positions and structures, against which a swarm of small ordnance is ineffective. This store stayed in the armament of the Mi-8 and Mi-24 series for decades.

Building in a larger scale

The size of 1:35 reveals even what is lost on smaller models, so it pays to thin the wall down at the mouths of the tubes and suggest the internal rings. The mounting on the stub wing takes a reinforcing pin, because the casting has some weight to it. Wear tends to be pronounced on helicopters: paint chipped on the edges, dust from below and dark traces above the mouths from the rocket motors.

Which machines it suits

• large models of attack and transport helicopters
• builders of Eastern-built machines
• dioramas with a helicopter at a dispersal
• modelers for whom the pod from the basic kit is not enough

The set offers the armament only and assumes a separately obtained helicopter.