I have seen this done before...and enjoyed it...so I went along the same lines...stylized after the early comics.

Dino Explorers Helicopter
DTC Hisstank











I added Havoc Missiles...dremeled out the slots for them to fit in. Added a chin gun...it is of some chap mei origin. Modded the DTC Hiss tank in that I eliminated the turret so that the hook of the heli fits in that area...and dremeled out the holes for the turret missile launchers to fit on the sides of the tank...almost makes it look "Bat-Manish" (if that is a term. lol)



Made a pilot composed of a 25th officer and a viper's legs....just to make him a little different, helmet is BBI from the Apache crew.

Of note...the heli does hold the tank in mid air (my son holding the heli):


Critiques and comments welcome as always.

Great job !!

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Oh my, that is one sweet Heli and Tank. I think it fits real well.

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I like what youve done- paint is crisp and the HISS sits well.

That said, i bought one of those choppers for the very same custom and have several ideas to make it more like the comic one.

This is purely my opinion, but they would turn a good custom into a great one.

First- wheel buckets. the wheels need buckets over them. I had planned on using deodorant stick tops, my ffriend doing the same project planned on using 1 1/8 Harley wheel covers.

The scaffolding should also be covered with styrene.

The cockpit- I do like the black, but I would paint it the same blue as the rest and it definately needs the sharks' teeth decals at the front.

The rotor assembly- IMO, the whole thing looks cheap and nasty- I had planned to remove it all and replace it with an old NACs rotor assembly- also get rid of that spine.

The rudder- this is one of teh main reasons Ive put this project on the back burner.
IMO it needs a lot of modification, likely with styrene to emulate the comic version.

I dont know if youve kept the cage (which is also cheap and nasty) but I had planned on converting that, again with styrene into a troop compartment- with an APCs seats inside.

As I said, thats purely my opinion but if you do want to make any mods to this lmk- Ive got about a dozen pics of thye chopper somewhere.

Thanks for the feedback!!




Thanks for the comments. I only had seen one pic from the early comics...and since posting this I have gotten more and different pics that I had not seen emailed to me....so I'll most likely be visiting this custom again in the workshop.

Thanks for the tips on the wheel buckets...I think the deodarant caps is a great idea!

I did keep the cage and thought about doing the same thing - converting it into a troop carrier, still may do so as I didn't have to mod the hook assembly for the tank, - so the cage should still work well with the heli. My main focus at the beginning was to finally have a heli that could drop a tank into combat.

Thanks again for your comments and tips!!

Great job! A lot of us got these copters when they went on clearance and I commend you for getting a custom completed. I havn't been able to pry mine back out of my three-year-olds possession long enough to take it apart. Bigtattoo's comments are useful for my own plans too, but I would add one thing. The picture from the comic that I was able to locate (someone had shown in on this site) shows a prominant chin gun. I myself plan on mounting twin guns on the chin that came from those FANG type Chap Mei units. Any easy addition you may want to consider.

But again, nice job.

I'm not personally a stickler for 100% comic accuracy, unless that was your targeted goal. So I think this is very cool as is.

The mods to the hiss turned out really well, especially as they were necessary to complete the functional component of it. And the function makes this a big win.

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