Zvezda 1/72 MI-24P Hind

[Guest]

Made a start on this one today. There's some great detail in the parts and the mouldings look nice and crisp. Lovely box art of a completed model showing what's possible when you know what you're doing.

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Started putting the cockpit together and began to wonder why on earth I'd picked 1/72

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Had a jiggle about and I can just get the crew in afterwards to make painting easier. The instructions say to paint them first and fit now as the guy in the rear is holding both controls, but a couple of times in and out and I think I'll be ok. Figures have been outsourced to my first born as that's his thing.

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But I didn't get much further. Cockpit is full of decals with not much room to apply them so I'll have to splash some paint around, get those done, then finish putting it together.

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[Dave Ward]

Andy,
267 parts! - there look like a whole load of tiny bits - are you going to build it build it with cowlings open? I've never made a Zvezda 1/72 model - yet - just 1/48 & 1/35. Their later models have really come up to Far East standards, short of adding PE..........
Dave

[Guest]

I think it would be a shame to hide all of that detail Dave so almost certainly having the cowlings open. I'd considered one side open, the other closed, but I think that might look odd.

With all of those small parts I get the feeling this will keep me busy for a while!

[scottie3158]

Andy,
Chair pulled up always liked this daddy of attack helicopters.

[Si Benson]

Hi Andy,
Another kit I’d like to build at some point (I say that far too often:smiling5. Look forward to this.

[Guest]

I'd considered one side open, the other closed, but I think that might look odd.

Not if you put a figure of a mechanic on top of the machine, near the open cowling Of course, that pretty much precludes having the crew in the cockpit.

[Guest]

Welcome aboard guys, I hope I can do this one justice.

Jakko, it's going to look a bit strange with the crew in and cowlings open I know, but I'll try and come up with a Ron/Spanner style scenario to justify it.

Maybe they have jumped into the cockpit after a hearty lunch, ready for that afternoons exercise, but the groundcrew are running a little late after their local football teams match ran into extra time. I'm sure they'll be along soon to button her up ready for flight, before taking a celebratory beer after a last minute winner.

[scottie3158]

It could be the crew are loading up their favourite CD's in the autochanger while the ground crew are checking the oil.

[Guest]

Or trying to get Google maps to load their flight plan....

[JR]

Oh boy the Rabble are out in force to night.
Yes Andy I had the same thought with several 1/72 builds, have retired from even thinking about it now. Looks good clean mouldings so should be more fun.

[Guest]

Good of you to pop in John.

Laid a bit of black primer down in the office. Instructions call for it to be all black but it just swallowed all of the details so I added a thickish wash of dark grey later to lighten things up a bit. Instrument panels needed to be Humbrol Emerald under the decals but I didn't have any of that so Mr Color Gloss Green was used instead. (sorry for the blurry picture)

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Then onto the decals. I splashed out and bought the dynamic duo from microscale and found it so much easier to work with than the Vallejo I'd used previously. Also started a bit of detail painting, guessing at what colour "duck egg blue" was, and failing. Will rectify that tomorrow.

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[JR]

Nothing amiss there Andy

[Guest]

Nothing wrong with 1/72. Small enough to store, big enough for decent detail.

[Guest]

Cockpit done, with (basecoated) crew in place for a test fit

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I managed to lose the silver joystick somewhere in the process so remade one out of wire. These super zoomed in photos don't do me any favours :smiling5:

[Guest]

9 separate pieces made up the main gearbox.

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After a splash of black surfacer to create shadows (hopefully) it got a few light coats of a home-brew duck egg blue. A bit of dry brushing, some detail painting and it got placed in the engine compartment, which, along with the interior had been painted light gull grey and given a dirty grey wash. 'Box isn't glued into place as there's a small margin for error on the angle, so I'm waiting until the engines are ready and it'll all go together as one. Might add a bit of grime as it's looking a bit too clean

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