Russia, or the Soviet Union before it, are the world’s most prolific maker of military helicopters. Tens of thousands of MiL helicopters have been built since the first design way back in the late 1940s, and are operated by dozens of nations the world over. Including a few you might not expect.
Cue Flickr’s Francis Bibeau, here making their TLCB debut, and these two incredible brick-built replicas of Russia’s finest rotary-wing aircraft.
The first (above) is a Mil Mi-17V-5, as leased by the Canadian military for extraction duties in Afghanistan, whilst the second (below) is a Polish Air Force Mil Mi-8T, the world’s most numerous military helicopter, depicted here on a fast-roping training exercise.
Wonderfully realistic, Francis’ models display forensic attention to detail, clever construction, and deploy custom mini-figures to great effect to bring the scenes to life.
There’s much more to see of each MIL helicopter diorama at Francis’ ‘Bird’ album, and you can hover under rotating Russian wings via the link above.
