Minihobby Mil Mi24 Hind F in 1/48 scale

[yak face]

Heres one Ive been itching to get stuck into - the Minihobby (early incarnation of Trumpeter) 1/48 Mi 24 Hind Russian helicopter gunship. I got this off ebay from China for £10.60 free postage!! When it came it was very squashed but apart from one piece was intact. The piece in question however was the canopy, the front section of which had cracked and come off. For a tenner though Im not worrying and ive stuck it back together with liquid cement and a bit of strengthening so im going to see what it looks like polished up.

Anyway back to the kit . Like a few early trumpeter efforts its copied from other moulds with a bit of alteration, this kit being a copy of the Monogram moulds but with recessed rivets and panel lines and a few bits added or modified to allow the F version to be built .This mainly involves the blanking off of the chin turret (which has to be cut out if doing the D version) and parts for the twin cannon mounted on the port fuselage under the cockpit side windows plus a few later stores for the stub wings.
The main problem with this kit is the totally inaccurate cockpit ,identical to the monogram one and something ive got to sort as its so visible under the big canopy. After looking at a lot of pics I think the main issues are - front cockpit floor too high (as a result of the housing for the chin turret , which I dont need as I'm doing the F version) , seats very poor ,and just generally wrong shapes on side panels and missing a lot of detail. heres a few pics to get this thread started. cheers tony

 

[Deleted member 7181]

I'm in for this. Can't wait to see what you do with it.

 

[yak face]

Cheers andy , im doing the F version (Mi 24 P) same as your excellent zvezda one , its going to be challenging but i'm looking forward to it, cheers tony

 

[papa 695]

Nice one Tony, I’ve just pulled up a chair

 

[stillp]

I'm watching - I have the Revell 1/72 Hind E in the stash.
Pete

 

[Allen Dewire]

I'm in Tony, I like a whoopty whoopty thing too. I love the seats in the cockpit. They remind me of the bucket seats in a '68 Plymouth Duster. Bring it on sir!!!

Prost
Allen

 

[yak face]

Nice one Tony, I’ve just pulled up a chair

Hope its as comfy as the ones in the kit look!

I'm in Tony, I like a whoopty whoopty thing too. I love the seats in the cockpit. They remind me of the bucket seats in a '68 Plymouth Duster. Bring it on sir!!!

Prost
Allen

cheers Allen , yes they do look very car like , hopefully by the time I’ve finished chopping things about they should look a bit more like the real ones ! Cheers tony

 

[yak face]

First off I thought I’d try and tackle the canopy . The glued crack was sanded and polished and didn’t quite disappear as much as I hoped ,plus I managed to catch the edge of the canopy while enthusiastically polishing and cracked it again in a different place ! Upshot of all this effort is I managed to totally balls it up so after weighing up my options ( try and fix it or nothing ) I decided to try and fix it. The only way I could see to resolve this was to cut out the damaged section and crash mould a replacement then try and fasten all the sections together when the canopy is fitted to the build. So, piece of clear plastic sheet and hot air gun in hand off I went and here’s where I am so far , it’ll be cut out later then I can see if it fits and if this experiment is going to work!

 

[Deleted member 7181]

You're a brave man tackling that Tony, but I guess you don't have a lot of other options. Hope it works out ok.

 

[yak face]

Well I’ve got the replacement pane cut out more or less to the right shape , hopefully when all the separate pieces of the canopy go together it will look ok. I’m still undecided as to whether the canopies are going to be fixed open or not , it depends on how good I can make the cockpits look. The butchery has begun on the cockpits , the seats being cut out and the WSO ’s cockpit floor being cut off and deepened with plastic card. Loads more scratching to do yet , the kit WSO cockpit is not only simplified its based on the mi24 hind d which is quite different to the hind f I’m doing. After looking at hundreds of pics online there are at least three different styles of seat but the one Ive seen on a great hind f walk around is similar to the kit seats tuck and roll style so that’s what I’m going to go for. The kit seats are about a scale thirty inches wide so needless to say they’re getting chopped about too !

 

[papa 695]

Some really good work Tony. The canopy looks good from what I can see.

 

[yak face]

More chopping , sawing ,cutting and power tools today . I’ve been altering the cockpits and sorting the seats . The seats have been reduced in width and had the base and sides added along with a pair of folding armrests on the WSO s seat. I’ve drilled a slot where the belts come through , the moulded belts on the base cushion will be covered up when the etched belts are fitted. Here’s a pic of the first one done beside the original kit offering! I’ve cut the rear of the pilots cockpit to give the impression that there is a passage through to the troop compartment , when the seats fitted you won’t be able to see the small piece at the bottom. Once I’ve got the basic architecture of the cockpits done I’ve then got to figure out how to replicate the many instrument and switch panels.

 

[Deleted member 7181]

A massive improvement on the kit seat Tony.

 

[scottie3158]

Tony,
Great work so far. if that was me I would have given up with the canopy and this would have been back in the cupboard so kudos for coming up with the repair.

 

[BigGreg]

l always liked the "Hind".... very interested to this one going.. is there a free seat in the front for me???

 

[yak face]

Been looking at the rudimentary engines provided today. The kit allows the engine access panels to be open but the engines themselves are really simplified and I don’t usually go for too many open panels anyway . So it closed panels but the large exhausts are still very visible and lacking a prominent feature. The Klimov turboshafts fitted to the hind have the driveshaft exiting through the back of the engine and thus straight through the middle of the exhaust outlets . This isn’t represented at all so I got some sprue and styrene tube and cut holes in the engines and exhausts . I’ve added six vanes at the end of the engine section too. Once these shafts are fitted and the engine halves glued together then it’s a tricky filling job to get rid of the seams

 

[scottie3158]

Tony,
You are adding some great additions.

 

[BigGreg]

as Scottie said you additions are great...

 

[yak face]

Cheers Greg and Scottie , it looks a bit ropey at the minute but it should be ok once I’ve fettled it , cheers tony

 

[rtfoe]

Tony, good on you to try and save the canopy with a vacuum punch version. Hope it turns out well. The office seats looking good as well.

Cheers,
Richard