Trumpeter Hind Build impressions. I gotta warn you, I have MADD in the worst way, so when the next shiny new thing rolls along I might (read as WILL #:-) ) get distracted...


Inital impressions are overall pretty good. I am a builder, not a river counting scale plan consulting, that should be .0047mm longer kinda guy.
But I want the right parts for the right variant to be in the box. And I want those parts to fit together with a minimum of hassle.

My first impression of the interior assembly is that I REALLY like the box and tab assemblies for the interior. The fuselage has boxes molded into the inside and the structures added to it have long flat pins to fit into those boxes. On first dryfit the interior goes in quite nicely. There are some large e-pin marks on the fuselage interior, but I can't quite tell yet where they fall and if they need be dealt with ot not.


The instructions do not call out interior colors by FS #, as some might remember, I was trying to track down the color number/name for the interior of the troop compartment.

The instructions do not give this info.

Pilot and WSO seats are good, and you get to build you own harnesses from PE buckles and paper. They do not provide the parachute (???) and the one pic I glanced at does not seem to match the pilot seat padding.
On closer look there is a harness labeled parachute in the pictures of several books. This is NOT replicated by the kit parts. Hopefully Cobra Co or another aftermarket gap-stopper will pop these pretty quickly.

From first glances in the WWP book and the 4+ volume, the instrument panel looks to be right, but remember to mask the flat map screen and the two instruments below. Those I painted with the Model Master Enamel for Soviet a/c interior. It's a little less blue than the pics I have, but passable.

I do notice that the electronics rack behind the pilots seat and before the passage into the troop comaprtment is missing, but at least the passage is there, unlike the Hasegawa and Italeri 1/72 kits.
Again, with the pics from the WWP book, nothing too hard to do. Some large boxy shapes with vertical handles.

I did build up the spare fuel tanks as a sort of a test for the 'round parts' since I did not intend to use them. I did not take too much care in getting everything lined up neatly, but it seems like with a little effort the round ordinance will be ok.

I painted the interior today with a Gunze Blueish grey.. Barley Greyt.. And found a few large e-pin marks inside the wheel bays and some small ones in the corners of the doors, nothing too terrible.
Be careful though, in the WWP book the bulged main gear doors actually HAVE a giant ejector pin mark in them !! I kid you not!


End of Day 1 & 2

Building days 3-4
Landing gear represents the shapes and most of the structures well. No wiring and no plumbing for the bays, but the structural shapes are there.
I need to double check but the cut outs through the sidewalls of the main side gear bays look off to me.

The 4-barrel mg ‘turret’ looks ok built up, but has a simplified shape. This will be one place the Eduard folks will go to town on.

Back to the hobby room.
I'll try to get some in progress pic linked in this week.

Mike

Got a bit of bench time in today, but made no real progress.

I spent the time painting the black areas behind the sections of the intrument panels that have switches and such.
After having a bit of trouble getting a bottle of slightly gummy Tamiya Black to go where I wanted, I dragged out the WN Acryllic Flow enhancer and painted the outline, recessed panel line, of the panel with the enhancer. Then I painted the black inside.
Worked like a charm.

I can see I'm going to spend a LOT of time painting dials, switches and cockpit indicator lights.

I added thin sheet styrene backs to the 41 and 42 troop compartment front walls, these are the openings on either side of the passageway into the cockpit and had large e-pin marks in them. Easier to just patch over than to try to fill and sand.

Still trying to get my hands of a digicam for pics.
Hopefully this week.

Mike

Sorry folks no update this weekend.. It's standardized testing season in 4th grade world so life is a bit stressful Mon-Fri.

And the Father in Law (read as: licensed electrician working for free...) is coming to help replace bathroom light with light/vent/heatlamp combo today.

Plus side, free bathroom upgrade

Downside no bench time.

I'll call that one even.

Maybe more Sun. eve.

Mike

Images of the build so far are in my gallery.
Hopefully I can scan some pics from the Verlinden, +4, WAPJ, and WWP books tonight for comparison purposes.

A friend with more free time than I have has all but finished his and reports the rear crew compartment doors either fit at the top or the bottom, but not both when trying to model them closed!
I'm clearly not there yet.

Enjoy.

Mike

A bit more bench time this morning, a bit more painting and fitting of the interior components. No great leaps forward.

Nothing much more to show, but that the section behind the pilots seat to the right needs that stack of 'black boxes'
I've got a stack of my son's Legos (3 'dots' long and 2 dots wide and stood up on end) ready to serve as a frame for this with sheet styrene facing.

I'm adding a couple of scans from the WWP book to my gallery as well as a couple of b/w scans from the +4 vol and two of the troop compartment from the Verlinden book.

There are about 47million individual dials, guages and switches to pick out in the cockpit.. even with the 10/0 brush and optivisor I'm having a hard time.

The backsides of the pieces behind the pilots seat and the passageway to the troop compartment walls (c41 and 42) need painting flat black (as shown in the references) but this is not called out in the instructions. And from the WWP and 4+ vols, it seems the pilots left side ( when in seat facing forward) of the tunnel needs some more work to it as well. The Trumpeter panel here look way to thin.


Mike
Who hopes to finish this thing before the flood of aftermarket hits..

yeah!! looney smiley is back ...

That does look like WORK!
BUT
the Hind is one of the coolest scariest choppers ever made.

It'll be worth it
I like the shots of the instrumentation in your gallery.
I can see why youve had your work cut out for you.
One full sprue.

That is going to be a good sized kit when youre done
Keep the faith.

No update this weekend or next.

This weekend finishing up armor for AMPS, next weekend at AMPS.

No real progress to report this week anyway.

Report cards and conferences eat up a lot of teacher/modeler time...

I'll be pulling the interior image scans later this week to make room for more new pics.

Mike

Are there parts in the box to build just the HIND D?

At this point it looks like it. I haven't really gone looking at what else is there other than the old style missiles. AT-6?
The front of the guidance pod is molded seperately, so that can be replaced easily. I'm not sure about landing lights and other D/E fittings.

There is not a fairing for the deletion of the 12.7 chin turret and replacement with the twin 23mm's.

My stuff is packed away as I finish a couple of things up for AMPS, what else am I looking for?

Mike

AT-3 Sagger. Other than what you described I think that's it. So it has the chin turret, or just the duel cannon mounted on the side of the airframe?

AT-3.. I knew that...
I've been playing the old Steel Panthers 2 on the old machine and NOT killing anything with the -6 either...

No dual cannon, just the chin turret.
I
Mike

Howdy,
just jumped into this Hind thread and let you know I'm also doing a Trumpeter build, but a 1/35 Hind A conversion from my D model. I've been detailing it on other forums, here are the links and here are two pics of my progress. I have had GREAT success with my dremel and boiling water and shaping the old cockpit into the A version with very little need for putty. Check out the photos I posted in case you're interested. LOTS of work left to do.
dry fit or die,
Higg

http://users.cablemo.net/~higg/public_html/conversionmontage.JPG
http://www.finescale.com/fsm/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=17632
http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/forums/index.php?

Just a question to those who are building the 1/35 Trumpeter Mi-24 Hind. I would like to know if the color references indicated in the instruction manual of this kit is of the Gunze Sangyo kind. And if they are, I would also like to know what Gunze color or mix ratio is indicated to paint the interior walls of the cockpit? I believe it is supposed to be Russian Interior Blue/Green.

I mainly use Gunze paints because it is what is readily available and cheap here but unfortunately Gunze doesn't offer the shade Russian Interior Blue/Green.

Please help....

That the problem I ran into living in Japan. Gunze doesn't have a match for the interior colour!!! The closest they come is close to Intermediate Blue. thier other problem is the give their color call out is in US FS numbers. This is OK, as you'll get close to the right colour for the Camo and some of the detail painting. My recommendation would be to do the same as I have to do sometimes and Ask someone in the states to send you the colour for Testors as the y have the Russian colour in their Model Master II line of enamels!!! HTH STUG

I would love to do that but that isn't the case.... and most people I know who are over there aren't into the hobby and may not have no idea what the hell I'm talking about.

Anyway, can anybody with this kit (or Hasegawa's) just please post what is stated in the manual regarding how to mix this paint using Gunze Sangyo paints? I hope it's not much of a favor.... I'm just getting desperate here....

Thanks...

Well, thats the other problem Trumpeter only list the colour as bluish green no directions on mixing the tone in the instructions, nor are there any colour call out with a specific manufacturer listed in the instructions. Now on to Hasagawa's 1/72nd scale birds, these are not any help to begin with for the shade of green needed. they list the interior of all their Eastern Block aircraft kits as Light grey (Gunze# H307) and none of the instructions list the right colour for the cockpits of any of the aircraft. On the last noe, go a head and post in the forums here that you need the paint from testors and I'm sure someone will be able to help. HTH STUG




PS a close match for the faded colour is Gunze enamel RLM 78. Please understand this is just a close match, you may want add a few drops of light interrior green to darken it a bit!

Sorry for the delay in posting.
A trip to AMPS, a road trip w my son and my dad, and now Mother's Day and graduation this weekend have kept me away from the bench.

Hopefully I'll find some bench time to pick back up after this weekend.

Still no aftermarket out there for the bird though...

Mike

Ok, so life has a way of interfering with modeling.. no progress these last 3 weeks!
I even had to pack the sub assemblies away so they did not get dusty...sigh..

I will get back into the hobby room and get some progress made today.

Update to follow.

Mike

Come on Mike. You're pointing out all the pitfalls in the kit for me! Hope to ya back at soon. STUG

I got a little more done last night.

Since I'm not ready to seal up the fuselage yet, I was poking around with subassemblies.
IR Jammer (needed the Tenax smush to remove the seam), rotorhead, de-icer intake

For now I have left the rotor blades unglued, if you carefully glue G15 and G16 the rotors can still move up and down. I hope to build up and paint the rotorhead then add the blades and then spot weld them with Tenax.
I have not yet checked the references to see how 'accurate' the rotorhead is. I do know that the pivot point just inside the fuselage looks under-detailed.

I'll let you know how it goes.

More later,
Mike

Hind cockpit update
I've been away from the Hind for a while now, but just got a little time to work on it.

I had hoped to finish up the cockpit today and get that installed but found lots of work I couldn't pass by.

Work I did get done. Lots of dial and guage painting, gloss black, flat black, white oil paint on a 3 haired brush , guards crimson, and some assorted greys.

The circuit breaker panel behind and to the right of the pilot got some Gunze Orange that looks a lot like the unlit orange/brown buttons.

The rows of switches below that have a obvious series of labels below them, more regular than I trusted myself to paint. A thin Evergreen plastic strip painted black and then scraped and picked at with an x-acto blade simulates these labels.
I'll make the light with some coiled wire and a bit of styrene rod later.

I drilled in at the front edges of the gunners footwells and added foot pegs from medium solder.

I got the white behind the instrument transparencies painted, these look great, but the instrument overlay clear parts need sanding to thin them down by more than half.

I added the pilots air vents (looking for all the world like the little personal a/c vents in a passenger plane) under the cockpit main panel as well. Styrene rod and drilled the ends slightly.

Now the simple stuff is over.

The Integrated gunsight (KPS 53 AV according to the +4 book) front and center of the gunners station needs lots of TLC.
Just inside the round outer handles( ?) is a band of red. Easy.
The back side of the unit is a mass of wiring and fittings very visable through the front glass. I've started the fitting work with punched circles a Waldron #4 circle then a smaller one with a hole punched through for a drill guide. (Waldron #1 then punched outside of that with the #3).

I still have not tackled the upper glass, but have added the optic tubes (?) on the bottom inside. Trumpeter made some simplifications here, the vertical rectangular box running the right hand side of the unit should only be present in the top half of the unit. I will probably not carve that away, but did add the optics (?) with Evergreen tube.

None of the detail below the sight unit is present either, more on this later.

The guided missile control unit is present on the gunners right, but not the sight.
The control unit needs a waldon #2 (3?) disk added to the inside face and the handles need to be painted a red brown. If I were more ambitious, I'd carve off the handles and make them beefier and add a trigger.
A quick and simple fix is to fill in the hole in the bottom of the missile control unit and mount it up off the sidewall. Then there is room to add a medium weight solder wiring wrapped around the old mounting pin. This runs along the edge of the cockpit sidewall and then back to the front of the gunsight. One pic shows it colored brown, one shows silver.

Completely missing is the optical portion of the sight. I'll put a pic of it in my gallery tonight.

Time to take the 4yr old out to play on the skateboard.

More later.

4x new pics in my gallery from the Verlinden and WWP book showing the missing detail in the kit ATGM controller and main gunners sight parts.

I'm not such a super scratchbuilder as to try to add ALL the missing wiring and especially all the stuff on the inside of the canopy. But I'll do what I can.

These pics will not stay in the gallery forever. I heartily recommend both the WWP and the Verlinden books.

I'll try to get some pics of the work in progress as well.

M

All right, so I've been away from the kit for a while.

The need to scratchbuild the ATGM guidance sight took the wind out of my sails. That and the end of the school year have kept me away from the kit and busy with other things.
I've been wrestling with how much detail to add to the kit. The conversion article to the A model is amazing and quite frankly beyond my abilities.
If I go whole hog on the bird, I'll never get it done, but I also do not want to just build an OOTB $100 helo either..

Well the kids are out for the summer, the classroom is cleaned, all the meetings and workshops are over and I've got a little 'free' time this summer to get back to it.

The school's digicam is in the tech shop getting a facelift :-)8 and I have not gotten my film pics developed yet, so sorry, no images.

Having been away from the bench for a while and to get my chops back up, I've been working on the ordianance this morning.

Most of it is very nice and lines up quite well. The drop tank ends have a little flash and the allignment there is poor.
I used my Gundam building technique of clipping off 90% of the locator pins and flooding the seam with Testors liquid cement. A quick smush and the part is glued and there is a thin line of melted plastic along the entire seam line.
Once dry, I'll shave this off with an sharp x-acto and save myself the trouble of sanding and filing the seam.

This method also works well for the larger pieces -500 lb bombs and rocket pods where the fit is good.
I have high hopes of filling the rocket pods with sharp round toothpics, they seem to be the right size for the rockets.

Some of the mid sized bombs -100 and -250 have soft detail as the part nears the edge and eventual seam line. Some of circumferential wraps would be better sanded down and replaced with evergreen strip.

Most of the bomb tail rings are overscale and quite thick. Much like their A-10 ordinance set, I suspect we will see a Hind ordinance etched set from Eduard in the near future, but I've never had great luck getting round etched parts lined up. Since many of these rings are concentric with braces between the rings, this will be quite a complicated assembly in brass.

I'm sticking with the plastic parts and will probably eventually use them as UXB's in Soviet-era Afghan or Desert Storm or OIF dios like the dio of the new Tamiya Challenger driving past the broken fuel tank.

I understand the soon to be released Mi-8/17 does not come with weapons, so some may end up there as well.

Since I had planned to use gunpods and clusterbombs in a Chechnya configuration and I am getting my chops back up here today , I have not built them yet.

For me, one motivator is to clip away and discard the empty sprue cells as I build, with lots of sub-assemblies built up now, the kit box is looking more and more empty and I feel more motivated.

Hopefully more soon.
Mike

I finally got some film pics back showing the interior work I was doing a week or so back

Here is the 'real' thing from inside and overhead


and my additions to the kit parts


The side view with the real ATGM controller and sight, mine w/o sight so far..


and mine


Finally my weakest , and unfortunately most visable work
The sight assembly from the outside looking in on the real thing


and mine


More to come, now that I know the closeup function on the camera works ok.

Mike

I'm going to pull the majority of the images from the gallery here in the next day or so, in preparation for updates.

I've managed to get a bit done lately and will have new pics to show this week.

Mike