1/72
Hungarian Mil Mi-24D Hind ‘Eagle’
1.
Context: It was on the Internet that I came across a photo of this
remarkable paint scheme. I really don’t know anything about this Hind other
than it was painted for the Hungarian air display season; whether it also
coincided with a squadron anniversary, I really don’t know. Being a special
schemes ‘nut’, I was immediately struck with the need to turn out a model! I
like a challenge, and this was certainly that. In the attic I had an Italeri
Mi-24 Hind in 1/72 scale that had been sitting there for a long time just
waiting to be built.
2.
Research:
The next thing was to find more photos of this aircraft. Searches on the
net were my only resource and it took a long time before I found what I was
looking for. By the end of an evening’s searching, I had about 6 photos
downloaded, which amounted to a reasonable mini-walk-round, but unfortunately no
actual written information about the aircraft and it’s paint-scheme. ‘World
Air Power Journal’ Vol. 37 provided me with more detailed information about
the Hind in general – I needed to be sure that I could build the correct
version using the Italeri kit. According to my research it was possible, so
construction began.
3.
Building:
The Italeri kit is OK as far as I’m concerned, but the instructions for
the exhaust outlets is very confusing and I was about to embark on some
scratchbuilding before I finally figured it out! Phew – that saved some work!
As you might expect with a relatively cheap model at this scale, the cockpit
detail is limited, but there are options to model it with the cockpit doors and
windows open. I chose not to do this. There is also some basic interior detail
such as troop benches, and again the 2-part troop doors can be modelled open.
No, everything closed for me on this one. The rest slips together fairly easily.
4.
Paint
scheme:
OK, this is the tricky bit. After a lot of careful studying, I decided to split
the Hind into 4 main paint-areas:
-
The
yellow ‘beak’ section
-
Fuselage
up to the exhaust area – FS30117
-
Central
fuselage section – FS30219
-
Boom
section to tail – black
The
sections were then detailed one by one, starting from the front, with the
feathering effects for each section using varieties of mixed browns, yellows and
black and very thin brushes (note: nothing on this model is spray-painted).
The most difficult section was the central fuselage with the big ‘wing’
feathers, and to be absolutely truthful, on the finished model, I haven’t got
this quite right.
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The
only decals are the eyes, the Hungarian insignia and the number. These were
created by hand-painting onto clear decal sheet. On completion, the model was
matt-varnished.
I
am pleased with the result, the colours look right to me, and the
‘expression’ on the eagles face has been captured – one reason why it was
much better to paint the eyes onto clear decal-sheet. Building a model from
half-a-dozen reference pictures printed off the internet is always going to be
risky, but it was fun – and for me that’s what modelling is all about.
Steve
Below
are some pictures of the real chopper.
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