When I was a kid, 8 or 9 years old, I found an old Mi-24 Hind Helicopter model kit at the local drugstore. It was 1/144th scale and was like Skill Level 3, but I loved the look of the helicopter and managed to talk my mom into buying it for me. I just remember it being an abject failure as it was completely beyond me to assemble, however my love of that weird looking helicopter remained.
When deciding on the Soviets for Team Yankee the Hind was a big factor in going with them! The pictures below show off my first two M-24's. One is done in a light green with dark green blobs painted on and the other is done similar to BF's paint scheme. I really like the light green base coat and the rest of mine will be done in that manner. I haven't found much online about Soviet helicopter paint schemes in the 80's, so I just choose based on what I liked.
I will go ahead and apologize for the quality of the pictures, my light box failed me, or I failed it...
Overall I really liked this kit from Battlefront, it goes together rather well and is huge and imposing on the battlefield! My main issue with the kit are the rotors, they are a mess. The rotor blades are molded with three blades together, then you glue on two more. The five blades are very big and heavy, this is not necessarily a problem except that there is very little surface area connecting the rotor hub with the rotor mast! I ended up drilling both out and pinning them together, however I still do not feel comfortable with its sturdiness.
Otherwise there is a little wonkiness (technical term) around the cockpits but its not that bad and the rest goes together well. As I mentioned above these are huge helicopters, as they are 1/100th scale instead of 1/144th like BF's planes. I really like the size, but some have mentioned wishing they were the smaller 1/144th scale.
I did finish the flying bases and added small removable markers to show when my missile pods have been used up. Also one was assembled with the landing gear up and one with landing gear down.
Those are a couple of sweet looking Mi-24s you have there.
ReplyDeleteColour schemes during the 80s for Hinds in Soviet/Warsaw Pact service are many and varied.
Green on yellow green, brown on yellow green, green on light grey green, are just a few of the colours in the palette.
The patterns themselves vary from wavy stripes to amoeba type shapes, sometimes sparsely populated, sometimes densely populated ... it is fair to say that the choices are quite boggling.
Keep up the good work.
Happy modelling and gaming.