1/72 Esci-Ertl Mil Mi-24 Hind D

by John M Rosie

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This is my first "public" viewing of any of my kits in over 20 years of "on and off" modelling - so hope it comes at least close to the standard of kits I enjoy seeing on the site every day.

This Esci Hind obviously isn't one of the newest kits – it’s been in my pending pile now for far too many years but lack of decent references always held me back (or that was my excuse!). The quality of the kit externally seems accurate to my eyes, nicely recessed panel lines but the interior wasn't the best. The cargo area was a relatively blank canvas so I scratchbuilt some seating and wiring, built a new interior wall to correct the incorrectly sized cargo area - and created the correct opening through to the pilot's cockpit. The front cockpits were just plain wrong so I went through the self imposed torture of creating instrument panels from double layered plastic card - with appropriate holes drilled into one layer to allow the scribing of instruments into the black coated bottom later. Then came the joy of trying to mix the appropriate "bluey-green" colour for the instrument panels (Does anyone know an "off the shelf" paint for this - I mixed several Humbrol blues and greens at random til my wife thought it matched the references - the joys of me being colour blind!).

The engine exhausts were next on the "upgrade" list - the main exhausts are not deep enough - so added lengths of drinking straws inside the engine bay. The various weapons didn't escape my "work for the sake of it" approach - I separated the rocket launchers from their pylons and added minute spacers from plastic card. My proudest achievement was eventually managing to drill out the 5 barrels of the chin mounted gun.

Not content with the masochism of spending huge amounts of effort in a largely hidden interior - I then discovered a new means of torture using Klear (Future) - it was a feature new to me of this wonder product. Once the cockpit was finished, I superglued on the canopy (nicely coated with Klear (Future) for perfect transparency). All looking great - no fogging of the canopy - I merrily got on with painting the kit. So far so good. A couple of days later I thought I'd just run the kit under warm water to clean it before final painting. Whether the water was too warm I don't know - but my wonderful cockpit detail slowly faded away behind an opaque white coating inside the canopy. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth - it was obvious that Klear (Future) does not like too warm water! Has anyone else ever suffered this - is there a wonder cure? Anyway, after leaving it a day to see if it cleared (it didn't),  in an act of desperation I proceeded to drill a small hole into the floor of the front cockpit and then syringe yet more Klear (Future) through the cockpit (and out of the cargo area). Eventually it worked - white fogging disappeared but at the cost of a less than perfect canopy - but by this point I was happy to at least be able to glimpse my hard work in the cockpit.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

After adding most of the main kit parts - I finished off the painting - as usual by brush and Humbrol enamels. I have only ever brush painted - the thought of cleaning (and paying for) a decent airbrush has always proven too much for me. The money spent on the airbrush could always be better spent on adding to the 400+ "to build pile" growing in my loft!

To finish of the painting - after a quick overpainting of the "Yellow 66" decals with Humbrol 24 enamel - I decided to follow some of the hints and tips on ARC and attempt some panel line detailing with some oil paint and thinner. This was only my second kit I've ever risked "ruining" by doing this. I know its not perfect - but if anyone else out there has been modelling for years like me but has never felt "good enough" to try weathering panel lines my advice would be DO IT! It takes a lot of courage to first take the plunge with covering a lovely paint job with "burnt umber in thinners" - but the degree of depth and realism it adds to a model is worth the worry and work.

Anyway, the rest of the build was relatively uneventful - I replaced the kit's antennae with 3 and 5 amp fuse wire, added some aeriels with invisible mending thread, added the supports for the open cargo door (more fuse wire), scratchbuilt the tail support from plastic rod (as the kit one snapped) and built a new pilot's access step from fuse wire (as the kit part was too chunky).

Finally - more inspiration from ARC to create a display base - an off cut of wood from the garage, scribed with a needle in a pin vice. Humbrol 27 brush painted concrete, and Humbrol 33 wash - then the closest I come to "after market" products - some Hornby scatter grass.

So - there you have it - 7 months of occasional modelling - one Esci Hind enhanced with drinking straws, fuse wire, a lump of wood and some railway modelling grass. Hope you enjoy the end results as much as I enjoyed building it - oh - and long live ARC - my daily source of modelling inspiration!

John

Photos and text © by John M Rosie