Special Hobby's 1/48 Mi-1 Hare

By Chris Banyai-Riepl

History

The Mi-1 (NATO Codename: HARE) was the result of a 1946 challenge to develop a communications helicopter within a 12 month timeframe. It was also the first major helicopter design of Mikhail Leonovich Mil and his fledging design bureau. The Mi-1 featured a single three-bladed main rotor, which was in major contrast to the standard dual-rotor designs of Kamov, Bratukhina, and Yakovlev. Mil's design survived the test of time - Yakovlev stuck to fixed-wing aircraft, Bratukhina faded out of existence, and while Kamov continues their dual rotor designs even today, they have not been produced in anywhere near the quantities of Mil's designs.

The HARE first flew in 1949, and reportedly entered Soviet service in 1951. In all, around 800 Mi-1s were produced before it was replaced by the turbine-powered Mi-2 HOPLITE in the early 1960s. In 1956, Poland also began producing the Mi-1 under license as the SM-1. The HARE served in a variety of roles, including trainer, liaison, and casualty evacuation missions.

The Kit

Special Hobby has made a name for itself in 1/72 scale kits with such releases as the Lockheed Electra 10A and Dornier Do317V-1. Now they're making a move into the 1/48^th arena with this kit of the Mi-1 Hare helicopter. With a growing interest in helicopter models, this is an excellent choice for a first step into the larger 1/48 scale, and the kit continues in the same line of quality as their 1/72 line.

The kit comes molded in a light gray plastic, with a resin interior, photoetched details, and a vacuformed canopy. Starting with the interior, it's a good thing they did this in resin, as you'll be able to see quite a bit through that large canopy. The interior is made up of a resin floorboard, a rear bulkhead with two seats attached, a separate front seat, an instrument panel, and the usual cyclic and collective control sticks. The seats have both cushions and seat belts molded into them and will look superb once they're painted up.

The interior is trapped between two plastic fuselage halves that feature recessed panel lines and fairly crisp detailing. The only downside to the fuselage moldings is the side louvres, which aren't open at the rear. This would be near impossible to do with the limited run injection process used here, so Special Hobby really can't be held to task over this. I believe that all of those louvres fall behind the cockpit section, so it shouldn't be too hard to grind out the inside plastic and hollow them out anyway.

The main rotor blades are molded separately from the hub, and with the size of these guys and the delicate hub, some care will be needed here to make sure that they're firmly attached. Special Hobby has done a great job at making the hub look to-scale here, but that means some pretty fine plastic pieces holding some pretty heavy blades. The tail rotor doesn't suffer as much from this as the main rotor, but it still is a very delicate-looking assembly. Once finished, it should really look the part.

The decals are printed by Propagteam, which means they're very thin and in perfect register. They didn't skimp on the choices, either, with a couple Czech, a couple East German, and a Soviet option all included. All of them look interesting, so you'd better dig out that decision coin and start flipping it.

Conclusion

Special Hobby is a company that seems to be growing in leaps and bounds, both in kit quality and breadth of product line. This new entry into the 1/48 world is an excellent first start, and with the large number of Mi-1s built there will be plenty of marking choices outside of the box. While there is resin and brass in this set, the manner in which it is used makes it an excellent kit for someone who wants to break into using these different media. All in all, a great effort and a welcome addition to any Soviet collection.