Good lord people, what are we going to have to do for a DECENT 1/72 Mi-8-17 family of kits?

Hobby boss (Horror Boss or Hobby Beast, that your pick) does some nice work, on parts of the kit. Open APU exhausts, molded in probes/antennae (easily damaged in handling) fine scribing on the external fuel tanks. Blade tip lights. The molding on the tail rotor is sublime...


But, I'm no aeronautical engineer, but I'm PRETTY sure panel lines and even entire PANELS cross the center line of the kit and exist on BOTH fuselage halves. One fuselage half is smooth the other has an odd pebbled texture, and as evidenced by the putty in the WIP shot, the fuselage half fit is poor at best. Even WITHOUT the interior installed.

At this point, it'll be a six-footer. Worlds better than the Zvezda kit, but that's like saying shoveling dog poop is better than stepping in it. True, but...

Not holding my breath for a better kit anytime soon.
Less gruntled than I'd like to be,
Mike

yes, its a shame that "horror-boss" as well as any other company still have yet to make a satisfying model of the Hip. but this time, the hobbyboss kit will have to do.

Just think of it as a challenge to your modeling skills...
LOL

Can it be any worse than the KM from 1640BC? I have all three PE sets for that kit and it gets attention every so often so I feel your pain and ask the same question about a decent kit.

The rotor head builds up nicely and I am impressed with the molding on blade tip lights.



Shame the panel lines on the tail and even whole panels don't carry across.

I've got another in the stash and some etch, aftermarket decals but this one is just a fun little weekender so I am not going to rescribe the tail.

I would make the best kit as you can.

It would interesting to see what Tamiya could do if they ever decided to produce a helicopter. I wouldn't mind a 1/48th scale SH-60 with Tamiya's nice fit.

After only two weeks of stay tha eff at home, I finally managed to drag this one kicking and screaming across the finish line.

It's not bad from six feet.
Up close.. warts appear.




Really wishing for a well tooled kit.

This one is odd.. the panel latch mechanism there between and below the 2nd and 3rd windows has the latching handle molded in place with the accurate push button and handle mechanism.. but the panels for the locator lights on the tail boom are only present on half the fuselage... fine molded mesh there on the upper fuselage annnddddd a giant seamline running all along one fuselage half (but not the other..)

Weird kit.. like Team Rt fuselage barely talked to Team Left fuselage..

It looks pretty nice to me. Do you have more pics of it?

Don't worry, on the very day you finish this model, ICM will release a completely new tool, hyper accurate Mi-8 and all of its variants. So the sooner you finish the better will it be for all others wanting to have a correct Hip

It's in the display case now.. you are all welcome! -grin-
Now.... where is that 'new kit' announcement...??

I may come back to take more pictures of it later. Right now, I'm just happy it is off my bench and done taunting me.