The build.
Gunner's station. The good thing is that you don't really need to sand anything - it's so bare! 3D decals improve it a bit.
Main cockpit. The other nice thing of the 3D decals is that they don't require playing with any other colour than black. And it starts to look quite good.
Corridor to the rear. Really not much will be visible in the cargo compartment anyway.
Nice thing is that all those decals simply fit into place. No surgery required.
And the engine deck covers all the details in darkness...
Seats added. 3D cushions and nice Eduard's seatbelts look better than simple PE parts included in the kit.
Cargo comp. Enough for a viewing angle from 4 tiny windows per side.
Time for first tests with 3D rivets. As you can see tail stabilizers are good but quite bare...
But gain significant amount of details after applying the decals!
One side was painted with a straight coat of Gunze C58 to maintain some shading and variation effect.
Other was - as per instructions - firstly sprayed with Finishing Surfacer 1500 and then covered with this colour.
One layer of gloss varnish later I also laid down the respective decals and the effect is... better than I imagined!
Time for a big operation! As you can see the fuselage is ready. Primed with a Finishing Surfacer 1500 with some gloss varnish to - simply put - make a nice single coat surface for the river decals.
Knowing how Eduard will lay out the decal parts I would put the model together less - left out the wings, pylons, some other structural details... But I have to manage! No room for error as there are no spares on the sheets!
Which are substantial! And all those rivets are printed on a single film (remember the old days!) so each shape, protruding detail and whatnot has to be taken into consideration while cutting it. Better to make some scores and cuts now because when it becomes wet...
And on a sidenote - stabilizers and wheel bay covers. Stabilizers were washed and turned nice. Covers are simply painted.
First decals are down and look quite nicely!
And they add a ton of details in a single part applied! Unfortunately the film is so thin and stretchy that one rivet line is skewed. Nothing really to do with it as they also affix themselves to the surface of the model well!
After an evening with soapy water and NO DECAL SOLUTIONS AT ALL - a nice piece of work is done! Really - resist the temptation to use any decal solutions as they will make the decal even more stretchy and harder to move. And you will be moving large chunks of a fragile film with a thin rivet lines...
And the other side. Careful placement and smar cutting of the film and it all goes almost hassle free.
Underside also is quite detailed now. I have my doubts about the black fittings/strengthening plates, but we'll see how it will turn out under paint.
And finally, one side is done! It looks impressive even with some small imperfections. I still wonder how much will be hidden under the primer and paint later on. Now the work continues on smaller parts to glue as the surface id ready.
Slowly getting there - although it's not an easy a pleasant way unfortunately. I might have still to work on the exhaust stain as I think it turned out a little sub-par.
I like much more the other side. Unfortunately, as with all those modern constructions with a long probe on the nose - you have to put extra 200% care while handling this thing.
Still the armament needs finishing and figuring out how it's best to hang it.
As you already might have noticed - in 1/48 it's such a large kit that it barely fits the booth. And there's no way I can photo it here with the rotor on...
I'm not 100% happy with the Eduard's rivets though. In the big picture they might look stunning but it's those tiny details where they lack. Like quite visible film edges. Though to be perfectly honest - it might be a little of my fault by choosing probably the most unforgiving painting scheme this helo ever flew in.
Komentáře
37 18 October 2022, 21:22
Wojciech Kucza@John - to be honest they are REALLY costly. And with the amount of work and no room for error Eduard was right to say that it's aimed only at those really committed modellers 😉 But I wanted to try them and would probably won't make another model with them 😉
18 October 2022, 21:46
JohnThey look great, but I understand because for me, I'd be afraid I would mess up the application and there goes lots of money.
18 October 2022, 21:48
Melf BoyensThis is an amazing built…period! 🙂 way beyond any skill I could possibly achieve, so I take a front row seat to watch this hind until it is ready to fly! Real professional work Wojciech
19 October 2022, 19:56
Wojciech Kucza@Melf thank you very much! As always I'm trying my best 🙂 I hope to finish it quite soon as there is one last small model show I'm attending and it would be good to go with something new there 🙂
20 October 2022, 07:37
JohnTurned out great, seriously. That is for sure an unforgiving scheme but very cool. I think the rivets look great. I can't see the film edge myself. Although they definitely add to the model, at 1/48 scale they might almost be "too much" which I can't quite put my finger on.
9 January 2023, 01:04
Wojciech Kucza@John thanks a lot! I'm also somewhere in between regarding those rivets... Honestly - the amount of work with them is not entirely justified by the end effect. But I wanted to try as otherwise this model is so bare it hurts 😉
9 January 2023, 07:45
JohnI completely agree with you. I just got the -P version from a mate here and it is really bare, it certainly needs "something" as the Hind is anything but smooth. Maybe a riveting tool will be used, now I just need to find some prints showing the pattern!
9 January 2023, 12:29
CaptGPFThis one really slick build! The riveting and the decal placement is very well done!
15 August 2023, 16:42
Album info
I missed on this release, when Eduard put it on the market in 1/72 scale (with virtually the same model from Zvezda as it turned out...). Although I have this Mi-24 in this painting scheme from Revell/Italeri but went with it too deep with upgrading preparations...
And it's my second venture into the 1/48 section as I have way too few model kits...
I chose to check out on some new solutions here, so I swapped the included PE set for a 3D printed details and decided to go all out with the new positive rivet set (although for a V variant when I was getting it). Other then that I decided to make only necessary alterations, to keep it buildable in less than a decade.
Although truth be said - this kit is a nice base for detailing as it tries not to stand in a modeller's way. Sometimes simply making a larger copy of a smaller kit won't do, even if in 1/72 it was impressively detailed!
