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1/72 Hobby Boss Mi-24V Hind-E in-box review


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So, I took the plunge and ordered the new Hobby Boss Hindsight unseen. Given Hobby Boss’ track record in helicopter kits (:rolleyes: ), I was a bit apprehensive and didn’t order one at first, as I expected a cheap Italeri knock-off. But when it became clear the new Mi-8/-17 Hip would be a scale-down of the 1/35 Trumpeter Hip, I went ahead and bought the Hind, now expecting another scale-down. And it is indeed a scale-down of the Trumpeter 1/35 Hind-E.

Without further ado, here is what comes in the box.

Box-art:

HindHBReview01.jpg

Sprue A:

Fuselage halves with nicely engraved detail.

HindHBReview02.jpg

Sprue B:

Rotors and cockpit/troop compartment. The cockpit looks exceptionally nice and the troop compartment has a well-detailed roof.

HindHBReview03.jpg

Sprue C:

Stub wings, troop compartment doors, undercarriage and parts of the weaponry.

HindHBReview04.jpg

Sprue D (included twice):

Weaponry

HindHBReview05.jpg

You get...

9M17 Falanga (AT-2 Swatter) ATGM (x4),

9M114 Shturm (AT-6 Sprial) ATGM (x4),

B-8-20 80mm unguided rocket pods (x4) (with only twelve tubes :blink:)

UB-32-57 57mm unguided rocket pods (x2),

FAB-50, -100, -250 and ZB-500 free-fall bombs (two each),

KMGU-2 cluster bombs (x2),

auxiliary fuel tanks (x2),

UPK-23 twin 23mm cannon pods (x2) and

GUV-8700 cannon pods with two 7.62mm machine guns Gatlings plus either a 12.7mm Gatling or a 30mm grenade launcher (x2, with parts for both the Gatling and the grenade launcher).

There’s also a diagram explaining which weapons can go on which hardpoint.

Transparencies:

Note that there’s just a single canopy piece – no open canopy on this one!

HindHBReview06.jpg

To make it worse, the canopy parts are badly scratched and distort a lot. :(

HindHBReview07.jpg

The decals:

The colours are okay. My camera brightened up the red and toned down the green. While the red seems to be the right shade, the green is pretty loud in the Iraqi roundels, though. :lol:

HindHBReview10.jpg

Marking options:

An Iraqi Mi-24 from 1984

HindHBReview08.jpg

A Russian Mi-24 from 2000 based at Kalinovskaya, Chechnya, with a cool shark nose-art.

HindHBReview09.jpg

Hobby Boss identifies this Hind as “White 03”, but the bort number on the tail boom has been painted out for operations. If you want to make a diorama, you could place a little paper sign with the number inside the pilot’s window. Because of the tempo of operations, maintenance was limited to mechanical problems only. So all helos were soon covered in grime. With the painted out bort numbers, it was soon all but impossible to distinguish certain machines. According to my source, the shark was carried in December 1999. Because the crew chief messed up the shark’s proportions this Hind was dubbed “Pregnant Shark”. :lol: My source (an article in a German magazine, based on Russian Mir Aviazii magazines) indicates this one was actually a Mi-24P with the cheek-mounted dual 30mm cannons. The colours also seem to be wrong. Hinds in Chechnya all carried the standard camo of pale green on grey.

Sorties were flown in pairs, with a Mi-24P (fixed twin 30mm) leading and a Mi-24 V (flexible 12.7mm Gatling) flying wing.

Edited by ChernayaAkula
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Some detail shots of the cockpit:

HindHBReview11.jpg

HindHBReview12.jpg

Probably one of the nicest OOB helo cockpits so far!

A first summary:

The kit looks exceptional in the box. Panel line detail is nicely recessed. Trumpeter’s “Mad Riveter” wasn’t hired out to Hobby Boss. Other detail parts look great with crisp moulding. The cockpit blows away anything I’ve seen in 1/72 scale helos. The troop compartment has a roof, something which many manufacturers forget in their kits. The range of available weaponry is enormous. It seems every weapon cleared for use on the Hind is included in the kit.

There are, however, some things that aren’t so great. The scratched canopy that can’t be displayed open. The lack of any form of flare dispensers. The completely straight rotor blades.

Then there are some “luxury”problems. There are AT-2 Swatters provided in the kit, but their guidance installation is missing. The very prominent exhaust IR signature dampeners also aren’t included.

The way it seems the Hobby Boss Mi-24V is now the kit to get if you want to build a 12.7mm Gatling-equipped Hind.

----

Now for some comparisons of the other Hinds in the scale. The other two contenders are Italeri and Hasegawa. I take it these two are the major kits in the scale.

I have compared them to drawings downloaded from airwar.ru. Because I was unable to print the at exactly 1/72 I had to calculate a lot.

Comparing the kits directly, the Hasegawa Hind is the shortest. It is about 0.5cm shorter than the Italeri and a full cm shorter than the Hobby Boss, while the Hobby Boss kits seems to be about right in length (give or take a two or three millimetres).

Main rotor (should be turning clock-wise when seen from above):

HB: nice detail and right shape, but completely straight, best rotor hub, overdone "ribs"

HS: right shape and “sagged”, but no detail

Italeri: wrong shape, rotor turning in wrong direction

Cockpit:

HB: fantastic detail, but no open doors, scratched canopy, gunner’s sight missing

HS: no detail at all, but crew figures, no open doors

Italeri: good detail, doors can be opened

Troop compartment:

HB: great detail, door hinges, well-detailed roof

HS: there’s no troop compartment to speak of, four soldiers

Italeri: almost as nice as HB, but just not quite

Weapons:

HB: vast array, accurate (save for B-8-20 with too few tubes)

HS: UB-32-57 (x4) + AT-2 Swatter/AT-6 Spiral (x4 each, less detailed than HB)

Italeri: pods (mix??? x4) integral with pylons + AT-6 Spiral (x4, less detailed than HB)

Tail boom:

HB: fin has correct airfoil shape, great tail rotor shape and detail

HS: also has airfoil shape

Italeri: no airfoil shape, good tail rotor, counter-measure launchers, fin not angled back enough

One thing that no manufacturer got right is the Hind’s lean (2°30’) to the right when on the ground. This is especially notable when viewed from head-on, looking at the stub wing ATGM launchers. The one on the right sits noticeably closer to the ground.

Hasegawa and Italeri both supply IR dampeners for the exhausts, though. Best thing to do is scrounge these and stick them on the Hobby Boss Hind.

EDIT: (repeated from a post below to keep the review up-to-date and consistent)

A bit of additional info. A user over on Flugzeugforum.de (where I posted a German version of this review) asked whether a different canopy might fit. Well, Hasegawa's doesn't. It's too short, besides also not offering open hatches. But the Italeri canopy seems to fit perfectly. The length and contours of the canopy match the Hobby Boss fuselage. Even the panel lines for the door matches the cut-out on the Italeri canopy. Maybe the width is different, though. I didn't take the parts out of the sprues for this quick test fit. It seems you can just cut out the pilot's door on the Hobby Boss fuselage and use the door and canopy from the Italeri kit.

END OF EDIT

And that’s about it.

Hobby Boss has the edge in almost all respects. The detail level of small parts is in most cases better than that of Hasegawa or Italeri.

Now we'll wait for a Hind-F! :rolleyes:

Edited by ChernayaAkula
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Moritz,

YOU ARE THE MAN! Excellent review and thank you for the comparisons with the other Hind kits. The HB kit looks fantastic and look at the stores! :rolleyes: The Mi-24 and Mi-17/8 are officially at the top of my "gotta have it" list!

Thanks again for the very in-depth review! :blink:

Cheers,

Alby

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Great review - much appreciated.

What a mixed bag the Hobby Boss line is, ranging from rubbish, to copies (that are more expensive than the originals) through to very nice kits. At least it appears as if they have done the more important subjects justice i.e. the Mi-8 and Mi-24. I truely hope that their promised Lynx is equally as good. We really need a decent 1/72nd Lynx.

Don't forget that the Hasegawa Hinds (apart from the A model) are actually unusable for anything other that spare parts (i.e. early 'cuffed- root' blades, IR exhausts) due to an inaccurate fuselage where the cockpit meets the cabin (no 'crease' line).

Poor Zvezda. I wonder how advanced they are with their Hind? I feel a little sorry for them. Their KA-50 is an exceptionally good kit - a sign of great things to come. Then they followed that up with a very much delayed but rather nice Mi-8 in which they totally screwed up the 'canopy'. Becasue of this the kit probably won't sell now in the face of the Hobby Boss kit. Then Zvezda announced a 1/72nd Mi-26. Fantastic. Who would have thought we would have an injection-molded Halo! Oh, but then South Front beat them to the market. Then Zvezda announced a forthcoming Hind. Great! Oh, but now Hobby Boss have apparently released quite a good one.

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Poor Zvezda. I wonder how advanced they are with their Hind? I feel a little sorry for them. Their KA-50 is an exceptionally good kit - a sign of great things to come. Then they followed that up with a very much delayed but rather nice Mi-8 in which they totally screwed up the 'canopy'. Becasue of this the kit probably won't sell now in the face of the Hobby Boss kit. Then Zvezda announced a 1/72nd Mi-26. Fantastic. Who would have thought we would have an injection-molded Halo! Oh, but then South Front beat them to the market. Then Zvezda announced a forthcoming Hind. Great! Oh, but now Hobby Boss have apparently released quite a good one.

Oh don't worry about Zvezda! Plastic models are the very minor part of their production line. It is the biggest TOY company in Russia. They started with DOLLS and PUPPETS! LOL

The fact that they have re-released some of old Italeri molded plastic kits - its just a bonus to what they allready had. Besides as it was pointed out by the company's representatives - their primary goal is to mass-produce cheap, affordable kits of popular subjects for CHILDREN. Mind you, the price of an average 1/72 Zvezda plastic kit in Moscow is about $8.00! Belive me they dont really care of how accurate, we (modellers), would like that kit to be! We (modellers) are not their major customers! Kids are! and kids dont count rivets!

If an average Russian kid walks in the store willing to by a "cool" Mi-24 helicopter and he sees 2 kits on the shelf - Zvezda for 8$ and HobbyBoss for 30$, guess wich one he is going to buy?

Andy

Edited by Intruder_bass
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Thanks for the kind words, guys! Much appreciated! :doh:

A bit of additional info. A user over on Flugzeugforum.de (where I posted a German version of this review) asked whether a different canopy might fit. Well, Hasegawa's doesn't. It's too short, besides also not offering open hatches. But the Italeri canopy seems to fit perfectly. The length and contours of the canopy match the Hobby Boss fuselage. Even the panel lines for the door matches the cut-out on the Italeri canopy. Maybe the width is different, though. I didn't take the parts out of the sprues for this quick test fit. It seems you can just cut out the pilot's door on the Hobby Boss fuselage and use the door and canopy from the Italeri kit.

Edited by ChernayaAkula
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Thanks for the kind words, guys! Much appreciated! :thumbsup:

A bit of additional info. A user over on Flugzeugforum.de (where I posted a German version of this review) asked whether a different canopy might fit. Well, Hasegawa's doesn't. It's too short, besides also not offering open hatches. But the Italeri canopy seems to fit perfectly. The length and contours of the canopy match the Hobby Boss fuselage. Even the panel lines for the door matches the cut-out on the Italeri canopy. Maybe the width is different, though. I didn't take the parts out of the sprues for this quick test fit. It seems you can just cut out the pilot's door on the Hobby Boss fuselage and use the door and canopy from the Italeri kit.

Hello,

I've tested mentioned combination. In my opinion, this is really feasible solution... See attached pictures and judge by yourself :) .

Motas, thank you for letting me borrow this Italeri canopy :woot.gif: .

Pavol

2638338951_da4d330828_o.jpg

2638337343_2720d87caf_o.jpg

2638337535_2bfb638de7_o.jpg

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Thanks Moritz! And thanks to pavolSK to show how that canopy is fitting. My first thought after reading that hobby boss had a bad canopy was "kit bash" with italeri. I just hope it will be availible within two weeks here in Russia. (i am currently in russia)

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Thanks, guys! :trolls:

Hello,

I've tested mentioned combination. In my opinion, this is really feasible solution... See attached pictures and judge by yourself ;) .

<...>

Ah, I see. So it fits on one side but not on the other, right? It seems the Italeri canopy is too wide to fit the Hobby Boss fuselage.

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Thanks, guys! :cheers:

Ah, I see. So it fits on one side but not on the other, right? It seems the Italeri canopy is too wide to fit the Hobby Boss fuselage.

No, it fits on both sides accurately. I had only problem with the correct "dry fixation" of the tested canopy! I can confirm that your information about using Italeri canopy is right! :thumbsup:

Right! Italeri canopy is a little bit wider than original HB canopy, BUT from my point of view it's possitive matter. See pictures e.g. here or here.

I'm going to buy 1 piece of Italeri Hind next week :D.

Pavol

Edited by pavolSK
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  • 2 weeks later...

^ Looking at the sprue shots of the Zhengdefu kit on eBay, I'd say it is indeed a copy of the Italeri kit. They seem to have re-arranged the moulds (both fuselage halves on one sprue now), but the parts have the same break-down.

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Cheers, Gene! :rolleyes:

<...> This jet guy will now try a helicopter kit (not sure whether to say thanks or not <...>)!

Hehe! :cheers: Always happy to further all things Mi-24! Now comes the hard part - deciding on a scheme. There's literally dozens of interesting schemes.

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Sorry for pump the thread up,but just wondering that the Kitech(Zhengdefu) kit is the poor copy of Italeri kit?

If so,Kitech kit will be more economic for kit-bashing.

OMG, what are you planning to do next? Where is your big Flanker? :thumbsup:

And amazing preview here, I never expected that the cockpit could be detailed OOB that far.

Edited by newca96
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