Hello all!

This is my finished Hind from Trumpeter. It's my first helicopter (for that matter, my first aircraft of any sort). This thing is huge! I have no idea where to put it now that it's done.

I've added Eduard PE (Interior, exterior, and armament), and scratched a few parts (few details on engines, belts on troop seat, wiring for rotor, couple other small bits).

I still have a little paint and weathering to apply to the main rotors and insides of the cargo doors.

Let me know what you think, but be gentle
This is only my third finished armor subject. Thanks to the fine folks here, I've learned a lot of techniques!

BTW, there is a good chance the red X's will appear, I'm really not sure what I'm doing. Enjoy.

Voots

From what I see it looks good, though I am not an aricraft guy. Have always had a fascination with the tanks with rotors though, like the Hind. Plus, with Red Dawn on cable all the time, I always see the Hind in one of the final scenes (I know its not a real Hind) and am impressed.

Sean

No red Xs, just a fine Red Helicopter.
Thanks for posting the pictures.
First aircraft and only third armor subject? Impressive start.
Shaun

Thanks for the kind words guys. The camera hides a lot of flaws, but overal I'm pretty happy with it.

A question though, to the modeling veterens: with a camo scheme like this, on this big of a kit, what would be the best way to paint it? I did it completely freehand with a badger 150, but I got a lot of overspray that I'm pretty unhappy with. How would one go about masking something like that? Or is freehand the way to do it?

Thanks
Voots

Mike,

During my recent trip to Duxford for the MAFVA nationals, I did spend some time looking at some of the exhibits and seeing your post remembered something that sat brooding in one of the hangers.

I dont know if they will help in your weathering task. I would have loved to get more but it was crammed into a small space that you were not allowed to enter.

John

John,

Awesome pictures! I would love to see one of these beasts up close. IMO, these are one of the scariest looking birds out there. Searching the net yielded me a few pics, but none as sharp and detailed as the ones you have. These will certainly help me in the weathering process as I see some filters to mellow the camo and some slight paint chipping are in order. I hope you don't mind, I've saved these images as I see more Hinds in my future and these will be great reference. Thanks for posting these.

Voots

Your very welcome, glad to be of help and I have PMed you.

John

Hi Mike,

Great Hind!... How long did it take you to build this monster?

Frank

Great looking Hind Mike. I have always loved that ugly Soviet helo :-) .
One way of painting the camo is to use Blue Tak ( i don't know if that is what it is called in the U.S, but it is like plasticine). Spray the main colour on first then roll the BlueTak up into sausages and stick it on to the model. You can then spray the second camo colour and it gives the model a soft edge scheme. Hope that helps and makes sense :-) .
Andy

John, mail sent.

Frank, hmm, I would have to guess around 3 weeks, working a couple hours a night and about 10-14 hours on the weekends. I still have a couple more hours to put in. Most of the time was spent on the interior and the many, many bits of PE, but I feel that I rushed through some parts.

Andy, thanks for the tip, I'll have to pick some of that up. I considered using paper masks, but to be honest, laziness got the best of me. But I attribute most of the overspray to my inability to thin paint correctly.

Thanks for the comments guys
Voots