1/48 Revell Mil Mi-24 D late

n°401, 1er Lekta Czech Air Force, 1995

by Laurent “Angus” Beauvais

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For once, something not with French roundels, but as we had chosen to make an helicopter GB on the Fighter forum, let’s go for something different. The Hind looks great, in particular in this Czech tiger paint scheme.

The Revell (ex Monongram) kit is pretty good and, if you wish to mount it straight from the box you will obtain an impressive 35 cms model.  But  what I like with helicopters is that you do have plenty of details to scratch, so let’s go to “enhance” this kit without any detail kit.

  • Image 01: seats are maybe correct for mountain trolls, but not for a human pilot, they are much too large. As they are molded with the unique cockpit part, all this is cut and seats are scratched

  • Image 02: seats are designed using an eraser and scotch aluminium.

  • Image 03: cockpit layout is completely false and is to be recreated

  • Image 04: all details are then scratched with all possible things: electrical wire, eraser, paper, etc… 

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  • Image 05 and 06: and so on to fulfil this cockpit

  • Image 07: Whereas the cockpit is completely false, the cargo zone is accurate. I just added a fire extinguisher and some tubing. All this is painted in light blue

  • Image 08 and 09: time now to prepare transparent parts. Take care not to confuse between Hnd D and F. On the D type HUD is fixed on the canopy. Note that the mirror has disappeared on the final photos, as I walked on this door, I did forget, when recreating it, to recreatd the mirror.

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  • Image 10: of course the kit has been completely re-engraved

  • Image 11: Take care when closing the fuselage, if you watch to all these photos you will see that nothing is straight on a Hind. If you want something realistic, looking from the front, the fuselage should lean on the left.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Czech-Republic--/Mil-Mi-35/1305301/L/
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Bulgaria---Air/Mil-Mi-24V/1300158/L/
http://cdn-www.airliners.net/photos/photos/9/7/9/1268979.jpg
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Czech-Republic--/Mil-Mi-24V/1218046/L/   

  • Image 12: some few problems. The engine exhaust are empty, to hide this I scratched  masks that are also giving a color touch. Small problem, the blades are to be bended. Bigger problem, the holes for the engine exhaust are of the wrong shape and are to be filled on their bottom.

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  •   Image 13 and 14: rear rotor is pretty fine but can be easily enhanced. I discovered at the very end that its diameter is 1 cm too big, it’s touching the main rotor and the rear stabilizer, but visually it does not change anything. Main rotor is pretty fine but false for some details.

  • Image 15: then you just have to paint and dry brush all this.

  • Image 16 and 17: landing gear are to be detailed, the most visible thing being the front wheels to dig. 

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  • Image 18: machine gun is particularly visible on the Hind and I recreated it using pins, aluminium scotch and electrical wire.

  • Image 19: weapons pilons are enhanced with various details.

  • Image 20: at this stage I did create the device at the top rear of the fuselage (infrared dispersal device or something like that) and suppressed the kit windows too thick. This device appears on late D Hind type. 

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  • Image 21: tail grids are redesigned and added if missing (a small one is still missing on this picture)

  • Image 22: Antennas on the tail are completely false in the kit and have, for this late D, to be recreated in this way

  • Image 23: Another thing to scratch, the flare features.

  • Image 24: bottom of the fuselage, a set of corrections is to be applied

  • a-b-c-d: different antennas and engraving

  • e: wire antenna

  • f: intake to be hollowed

  • g: connection between front antenna and fuselage has to be redesigned, and foot step to be recreated

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  • Image 25:

  • a: this exhaust is to be hollowed to look more real

  • b: exhaust to be redesigned, it’s flat on the kit

  • c: air intake have been recreated, and the turbine cone has been drilled.

  • d: lights lay out has been reviewed

  • e: added handle and a small exhaust trap door

  • f: one branch of the foot step to be added

  • Image 26: same work on the left side

Now it’s paint time:

  • Image 27: The Xtradecal transfer sheet is fine, but no way tu use this uge transfers on my kit, everything will be painted.

  • Image 28: kit is first painted in white, the masked, then light blue (Humbrol 66 + Humbrol 130), then mask, then blue (Life Color UA141 and Tamiya Royal blue X-3  

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  • Image 29: then again masking to apply again some white to correct all little defaults

  • Image 30: for the tail, first I have painted in aluminium and then applied masks to create the zipper

  • Image 31: then it is painted in black, masked and then in orange (Humbrol 154 and 81)

  • Image 32: at this stage, the blue color did not please me, so I masked again everything to paint it again.

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  • Image 33: regarding the tiger, I had, on this paint scheme, to suppress the number 20. So I did cut he transfer, filled the holes with orange transfer, and then painted manually the zebra scheme

  • Image 34: Now disaster time: I did create the exhaust traces using tamiya smoke paint, and then used the matt Pebeo varnish. Waking up in the morning I discovered that the varnish did crack the smoke paint, causing an horrible effect. After a moment hesitating to through the kit in the waste basket, I decided to paint again this zone. Supposing I did not waited enough between the smoke and the varnish, I used a lighter smoke layer, waited 24 hours and then varnished. Again the same problem, but this time quite invisible. I did compensate it by applying another light smoke layer, so at the end the exhaust traces are a little bit too dark, but not that much. The rest of the weathering was done with pastel powder.

And here it is at the end. I did suffer quite a lot, I don’t know how many meters of masking tape I have used, but despite all small faults that do exist it does please me. 

Laurent

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Photos and text © by Laurent “Angus” Beauvais