1/48 Minihobbymodels Mil-mi24 Hind

[Tomcat RIO]

ah yes, the venerable Mil Mi-24 hind.. scourge of the Mujahideen during the 1st Afghan war, feared by Nato's armoured divisions, and famously chased and got bazooka-ed by sylvester stallone in Rambo First Blood.

this is the minihobbymodels kit, and the mould is originally monogram.

i got this kit from a friend. It was lying around thrashed and abandoned for at least a few years now at the LHS, sometimes i saw it on the counter crushed by books, sometimes underneath the table squeezed by paint, and also stacked in the 'other people's' portion. Other shop regulars told me who it belongs to and its very likely he doesnt want it anymore.

so i decided to challenge myself and do a horrendous kit, that will hopefully slow down my blitz speed..

the crumpled box, smells of cigarette haha.

the previous user had sealed the doors and puttied up the door with tamiya puty.

so first job, sand it down!

next, the 2 halves went together, not much of a probelm as i sanded the joints a bit. only some seams, and uneven at the main rotor.

after mounting the intake shrouds i realise the horror of panel lines that look like trench

[Tomcat RIO]

putty up the seams and gaps in the morining before school and work, so that the putty has enough time to dry and cure and i can sand at night.

i stuck a piece of sprue to make the cockpit centralised from front view

so after sanding and cleaning with thinner swipe. i primed in tamiya grey

the cockpit is quite bare. needs some details

[Tomcat RIO]

the lack of a cockpit, and the big greenhouse canopy makes the interior quite visible, so i added some random sized placard, instrument panels from my spares box for the WSO in the front seat, and painted out the details for the pilot in the rear.. i added wiring, piping and whatever interesting bits using references from ARC gallery.. this cockpit is therefore, 0% accurate except for the joystick being where it should be.

mask the canopy

after a coat of turqoise green and then some black, and white+red detail

the missing nose gun is being scratchbuild, stage 1 is to add the housing, which i grafted a Gundam HG 1/144 Z'gok leg.. lol.

[Tomcat RIO]

added seatbelts..

then close the cockpit and sealed with epoxy putty follow by tamiya, yes, the gaps are that big..

after a round of sanding..

the fusleage/engine intake fairing needed some work to blend in smoothly

and lastly casted a piece of the main rotor joint section which was missing

[Tomcat RIO]

the gun barrel was added, epoxy. not yet sanded

the hideous FLIR requires more sanding

the landing gear bay is mildly detailed, will add more post production

canopy-fuselage joint requires some polishing up of the putty

[Tomcat RIO]

major seams were filled with tamiya and epoxy putty again and sanded, again and again..

engine intakes required the spokes to be cut in order for filter to fit.

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[Tomcat RIO]

and things are finally smooth.

next nightmare? sanding smooth the ball turret

after reworking the white patch on the nose area, i sprayed the yellows and browns. beginning to take shape now.

the next step will be most tedious.. 16 colours of brown tone coloured pencils.. test my art shading to the limit.(wish i paid more attention in art class last time)

[Tomcat RIO]

coffee and 12 hours later.

first the prop was sprayed, yellow bits were masked off at equal intervals.

took out my colouring pencils( my sister's)

so what do you get when an insane modeller uses colour pencils to draw??!!

adding the eyes

now doing the middle feathers

[Tomcat RIO]

hungarian insgina airbrushed

added placard top antenna

missile rails added

windscreen wipers

and bottom landing gear bay airbrushed with russian turqoiuse

[RKic]

You're doing some amazing work on a not so good model. Keep it up. Your pencil work is just magnificent. Does the pencil finish smudge easily?

[JohnS]

Wow, lots of patience needed for this model.

She's looking great, though. Can't wait to see the finished product.

[rom]

awesome!!

impressive job! :)

[dragan_mig31]

great job.you are trully insane :D i am wondering about one thing though.i have never seen any mi-24 that had cockpit painted in that russian green,and also i have never seen any mi-24 with green wheel wells.