Hi all. This kit looks pretty darn well detailed in the box
I will do it out the box except for adding seatbelts and using AM decals for either Angolan or Mozambique Air Force.
I couldn’t find a standard interior blue /green so I mixed up some from what I had at hand (all enamels) I know it is not presicely correct, but I understand there were huge variation depending on the era the heli was made ect.
What I was aiming for…
What I ended up with …
A tad greener, but close enough I think (my first mix was 95% correct but it just looked to blue, just goes to show -never doubt a gut feel LOL!)
Any comments and advice will hbe great, especially how to droop the blades without damaging them.
When I was the the shop I actually saw the extra colour stand with the “russian interior green” but needless to say no stock !
I thought about making a template from alluminium sheet to the shape of the droop so that all blades droop the same, but how hot must the water be to do so without malting/warping the plastic?
There is a Hind A close to where I work so I can get a good idea of the correct droop.
I did see an item somewhere, i think it may be been in the reader tips of FSM, about dropping Helo blades. I think they used a curved wooden block or something.
Theuns that office looks great and at that scale even more amazing! Nicely done. For blade droop I use a large beach ball and tape the root end of the blades at a center point on the ball with them fanned out equally then gently use a hair drier on them tell they all sag them same arc.
Interesting ,I just heard that the rotor direction for the mains and the tail is in the wrong direction for the Chocktaw on the 1/72 Hobbboss kit! What a pitty
Your Hind is building-up nicely. I picked this kit up, along with the Eduard PE after reading the book Gunship Ace, The Wars of Neall Ellis, Helicopter Pilot and Mercenary by Al Venter. Along with the Hind there are a couple other helos in the book I would like to model if my Hind comes out satisfactorily as I typically build planes and AmTracs.
Watching your progress to look for any challenges that may arise when my Hind gets its turn on the hobby desk.
The only fit issue I had sofar was the top front section of the cockpit left sidewall that needed to be cut down about 0,5mm inorder to fit inside the left fuselarge. The other area was the main wheelwells that fouled against the rear cabin bulkhead. There is no real way of building it “scew” so I think it might just ba a kit thing. I just cut and filled the front section of the well to fit in behind the bulkhead, luckely the plastic there is quite thick. There are/were a number of ex South African Air crew flying Mils up in Siera Leone aswell. Ironic as the same crews were flying against Angolan AF Mils back in the 70’s and late 80’s LOL! Theuns
