discussion Minihobby Mil Mi24 Hind F in 1/48 scale

[papa 695]

Looking good Tony.

 

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Just latched onto this build Tony. Looking great

 

[yak face]

Bit more progress on the hind . Ive got the wheels on and they’re just setting , so while I can’t do anything with the main airframe I started on the pilots door . The kit supplied door is just a thin featureless piece , although the kit does supply a latch handle and the gas strut . The door should be quite chunky with a lip round the edge , two storage pockets and a demisting tube running under the window . See pics . So it had some plastic strip round the edges , a piece of scrap for the half door and some wine foil bent to shape for the pockets. I used the kit latch handle but cut it down a bit and the bent wire for the demister bar will be fitted after I’ve painted the door .

 

[yak face]

Bit of paint on the door , matt black for the door and gloss for the elasticated pockets - this looks too shiny so will be knocked back a bit. The door on the Hind F has a mirror attached ( I presume for the pilot to check his make up and hair ?) so it was out with my trusty nail art gems again , the rear face of these is a mirror like silver , a rectangular one being selected and mounted on a brass wire arm . Theres just the demister bar to fit and paint to touch up then the doors ready for fitting last off .

 

[yak face]

The door has now had the demister bar added and pockets matted down a bit so is done . I’ve also been addressing the stores . No Hind looks properly dressed unless it’s packing some heat so the two different types of unguided rocket launchers were selected . The pylons had the home made sway braces fixed to the rear mounting point before the stores were fitted . The at6 shturm anti tank missiles were chosen for the stores position on the end of the stub wings and were painted in a brown orange colour . Looking at pics of these on the web shows them to have eight black lines round them so how to sort this ?
Quick tip time , most decal sheets have a thin black outline running all round the sheet, the trick is to look and see if it’s also got a carrier film over it , if it has save it in the spare decal box , it comes in handy for things like this or wing walkways . The one I used was from an Airfix 1/48 Sepecat Jaguar , Airfix seem to be a good source of these black lines . Anyhoo the 32 little decal strips were put on and they look better for it .

 

[spanner570]

Some neat work there, old lad.

 

[yak face]

Some neat work there, old lad.

Cheers mucker , it’s got to the stage now where it’s all just fiddly little bits and the more bits I stick on the more difficult it is to handle without breaking em off again! I’ve already had to re attach one of the main rotors and one of the tail rotors with brass pins !

 

[flyjoe180]

Looking great Tony, your usual hig hstandard of scratching brings it to life

 

[yak face]

Well after a final push I’m calling this done . The last few furlongs have been a bit of a bugger , all tiny bits that needed adding and each one making it harder and harder to handle without breaking bits off.The WSOs cockpit has been finished off by gluing in the cooling fan and the sighting rig I made earlier and the cockpit doors have been stuck on with demister bars being added to both doors from fuse wire . The prominent pitot on the front of the canopy had to be sorted as the kit one only had two vertical vanes whereas the actual one has four - two vertical and two horizontal . Luckily the kit provides two , one with a blade aerial and one with the odd rods IFF aerials so I just cut off the front of the spare one and stuck it onto the one I’m using .Other last minute additions are the windscreen wipers, cabin doors , cannon and louvred cover , aerial wires ,and the nav lights on the wings and fuselage top -once again the nail art gems coming out!. I’m happy with how the canopy turned out , considering how fubar it was at the beginning .

To sum this kit up ,it’s a bit of a mixed bag really . Its obviously a copy of the Monogram kit but with a few alterations to make the F version . Some details are great but others are simplified or non existent .The cockpit is poor to say the least and is for the D version only so has to be addressed if you want a F. The sloping exhausts are for an early D - on the F they were straight , I decided to overlook this as it was too much hassle to scratch new ones ! If you want to build a D version though there is hope . A resin replacement D version cockpit is available from aires , which I have bought for the next one I’m doing , which will be a Czech Air Force machine and this time I’m doing it in flight so all doors closed ,pilots in and it should be an easier build .
Im just off now to take some more pics for a completed thread , thanks for anyone who’s still following ( I know it’s been a drag !) cheers tony

 

[papa 695]

Great work throughout Tony, it’s been a pleasure to watch coming together. Looking forward to seeing the completed photos.