MOD: Medevac helicopter from 4429 Helicopter Rescue

[polarscribe]

LEGO has always given the EMS side of emergency services short-shrift in set availability and design. Unfortunately, last year's new 4429 Helicopter Rescue is no exception - while it represents a big improvement from the previous hospital (which, in turn, was the first hospital released since 1987!), its design falls short of greatness or even mediocrity in a number of well-documented ways. The hospital building is absurdly small, much of the space was wasted on a garage and the helicopter looks like it got cut in half by a Sawzall. Don't even get me started on the "helipad"

I decided to rectify these problems as best I can, starting with the helicopter. Because I'm an AFOL just coming out of my Dark Ages and my childhood collection is still in storage, I have no spare parts... so I simply bought two copies of 4429 and started bashing. Here's the first result - an expanded helicopter and proper-looking helipad:

Ahh, proportion! What a concept. I stretched the fuselage by four studs, using the handy-dandy extra aircraft window panels. What a difference four studs makes.

Pop the nose off and HEY! there's actually room for two people. There's a pilot, of course, but also a rearward-facing seat for a flight paramedic to monitor and treat the patient. The curved bricks bump the roof just enough to clear the helmet.

Rear 3/4 view, showing the doubled-up 1x12 plates for blades - the original just uses single 1x12s, which look way too short and thin. (I plan to replace them with BrickLinked blade elements at some point, but these work for now.) Also, you can see the engine exhaust gratings and panoply of trans-elements. Because can an emergency vehicle ever have too many blinky things?

The stretcher fits comfortably, with plenty of room to spare for this crim. The trans-yellow cheese serves as a "latch" to keep the gurney in place.

The new helipad - complete with wheel chocks, plenty of landing lights and a walkway to the hospital.

I'm in the process of rebuilding the hospital building into something properly realistic and useful - will post pics when I'm satisfied with the results. :)

I hope this inspires folks to jump in and try their hands at MOD/MOCing - all it takes is an extra batch of parts and a little thinking to render one of the more disastrously-designed City sets of 2012 into something worth looking at!

[LEGO Guy Bri]

Nice job extending the copter polarscribe. I always thought the original was a bit squatty

[lightningtiger]

Not bad at all 'polarscribe', nice extension to that copter indeed.

Brick On Rescue On !