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Paula & Dan · Last edited by Paula & Dan on Fri 08 Feb 2008 09:43 am; edited 2 times in total

Progress of Dan's build will be reported here,

Paula
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Paula & Dan · Posted: Mon 29 Oct 2007 09:14 am Post subject:

I have to say I have not a single iota as to what I'm going to build yet!

We have loads of whirly-gigs in the stach, though, so have plenty of options!

Dan
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Paula & Dan · Posted: Thu 08 Nov 2007 12:14 pm Post subject:

I'm thinking I may have a crack at the Hind-D but it was an e-bay purchase and came with no transparencies. I have an Italeri Hind-D in the stash as well and am thinking that I may, therefore, have a crack at modding the Italeri transparencies and grafting them onto the Airfix kit. I'll have a look into that over the weekend to see if it seems feasible or if I need to go onto the "open market" and try to find some genuine Airfix transparencies (I did try on the "Wanted" forum here but no joy!)

This is my Hind-D.

Dan
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Paula & Dan · Posted: Tue 13 Nov 2007 08:17 am Post subject:

I had a fiddle with the transparencies from the Italeri Hind-D last night and it really seems to be a no-go

The cockpit tub on both kits is different with a different aperture and therefore a, presumably, a totally different set of transparencies. It looks like I'll just have to go out and buy myself a helicopter for this GB.... now what to choose, that's the question!

Still, flipping e-bay purchases from buyers who claim it's complete and haven't bothered to check, huh?!

Dan
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Airbusians.

Heinkel51 · Posted: Wed 14 Nov 2007 02:40 am Post subject:

Dan,

Since we have alittle time before this GB kicks off I'm happy to have a shot at moulding a canopy for the Hind D using the one from my kit as a master. Will check my spares bin as well.

Peter

Paula & Dan · Posted: Mon 19 Nov 2007 08:12 am Post subject:

Hi Peter,

I'm sorry, I wasn't being rude

- I only just found this message

That would be absolutely great if you can manage it

Many thanks!

Dan
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Heinkel51 · Posted: Tue 20 Nov 2007 02:13 am Post subject:

Tis OK Dan, no offence taken. I should have pointed out it will be plunge moulding and or the old clear nail varish technique if that's OK.

Paula & Dan · Posted: Tue 20 Nov 2007 10:12 am Post subject:

Yep, that'd be brill - it is certainly better than the void I have at the mo!

Went in to my LMS on Saturday and found a Heller Hind A/D (though didn't buy it - it was a bit steep for what it was). I'm guessing this is a reboxed version of the Airfix kit?

Dan
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Airbusians.

sanzoku · Black Star Joined: 11 Sep 2007 Posts: 29 Location: Japan

Can I just ask, what is "the old clear nail varish technique" that Mr Heinkel51 spoke of.
It sounds mysterious and some what "Maxwell Smart". How does it work?

Paula & Dan · Posted: Wed 19 Dec 2007 10:21 am Post subject:

Well now I may have too much choice - I just put an order in with Kingkit for an HH-53, a Westland Scout and another Mil 24 Hind... Hopefully they'll arrive in time! Mmm, decisions, decisions!

Dan
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Airbusians.

Paula & Dan · Posted: Fri 21 Dec 2007 15:43 pm Post subject:

Well, the kingkit order pitched up this morning so I guess that's that! One of the kits, as I said, is another Hind - but this has parts for both a Hind-A and a Hind-D. This means that I can also complete my other Hind, with the missing transparencies. So, finally, I will definitely be building 2 Mi-24s for this group build - both the -A and the -D version.

Dan
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Airbusians.

Paula & Dan · Posted: Thu 17 Jan 2008 10:33 am Post subject:

I thumbed throught the boxes earlier (no photos yet but will get to it) and have my first gripe...

The Hind-A/D has an additional half sprue for the -A version compared to the earlier boxing with just the -D in it. The Hind-A has the tail rotor on the starboard side and the -D on the port side, which means that in the -A/D boxing, there are two diffeent vertical stabilisers in which the tail rotor is inserted, with a pin in each side.

The trouble is that Airfix have duplicated the part numbers, so there are two part number 50 (one has no opening for the rotor, the other does) and two part number 51 (again, one without a rotor opening and one with!). And they are different - depending on which version you build. This doesn't seem very sensible to me as it means you could quite easily build the tail rotor assembly the wrong way round...

not too clever!

Of course, we all read every detail every step of the way before we start building don't we

At least I've been a good boy scout and I'm prepared!

My Hind-D is an e-bay purchase that someone has started by applying some black, badly, inside, so I have a bit of work to do to tidy that up first...

In all likelihood I'll get onto it tomorrow night.

Dan
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Airbusians.

Paula & Dan · Posted: Sun 20 Jan 2008 19:08 pm Post subject:

Eyes down! So, as I said I'll be running two parallel builds of the Hind, one a -D version and one an -A version. I'll make separate posts for each.

First up, the -D as this will be my lead build, with the -A trailing slightly behind. One thing that this build will do is show up the ageing effect and deterioration of the moulds. My -D has pretty much no flash and only a few ejector pin marks, largely on the interiro seats. The -A is not so fortunate!

As stated previosuly, this was an e-bay purchase and a few little bits have been painted before I got my hands on it. I hadn't noticed but also the seats had been glued to the cockpit. The plastic is the usual 1980s grey, rigid stuff and detail is quite subtle - no great trenches or masses of rivets in here!

This is how the kit was as I got it... box first, 1980s photobox (actually, BAC, you may like to change the photo we already provided for this one as it's better!!!)

Then the instructions, 1980s blue stylee:

And then the sprues with decals set to one side note the half sized sprue with below the fuselage halves in the first pic and then look at the second post I'll make with the Hind-A pics.

Also note the missing transparencies, along with a couple of other bits.

Since these pics, I've made a bit of a start, recovering the black arear, laying down H27 on the seats plus a few other bits & pieces that I'll try to report on tomorrow night.

Dan
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Airbusians.

Paula & Dan · Posted: Sun 20 Jan 2008 19:25 pm Post subject:

...and now for the A/D version. The kit is essentially the same as the -D only version but there's an extra half sprue attached to the interior floor and engine compnents section (from the set of pics above) that contains the revised cockpit tub and cockpit components for the -A along with the tail rotor assy (as mentioned previously, the -A has the tail rotor on the opposite side to the -D). Plastic is virtually identical to the 1980s vintage -D boxing but it has a bit of flash - not too serious but it is there, notably around the wheels.

First up again is the box, this time the 1990s style and picturing the Hind-A in the boxart:

Instructions are the newer black version:

Then it's the sprue shots. The top sprue of the first photo is the one modified to hold the Hind-A components. The second photo shows the complete transparencies, of which the double-bubble canopy for the -D will be robbed to complete the "lead" model.

Finally the decals which are only for Soviet versions - we've lost the Czech option.

Next update during the week.

Dan
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Airbusians.

Paula & Dan · Posted: Mon 21 Jan 2008 20:11 pm Post subject:

Well yesterday evening was one of those evenings where I get to do the fun bit - modelling. Tonight's the bit where I do the more boring bit (for me, anyway, due to our slow dial-up connection!) and tell you all about what I did, which wasn't really that much but means I'm getting out of the modelling doldrums.

All of my effort was spent on the -D to get it running well before I spend a lot of time on the -A, though, of course, some of each will end up being the same.

First up, I built the rotor. The Hind has a 5-bladed main rotor whihch is not straightforward to put together as the actuators on each blade have to mesh together whilst getting the blades themselves to sit in the hub. The fit of the blades to the hub is just fine, and when you have the actuators meshing properly, they give the correct separation and therefore angle between blades. I actually superglued these all in position and laid them down on our newspaper covered modelling table to ensure that the joins between the blades and the hub were flat - that was a mistake as the glue ran through and stuck the rotor assy to the newspaper... So, after picking and filing bits of last June 5th's Times off of the rotor hub, I went on to add the "spider", which is actually supposed to rpresent the pushrods that change the blade incidence. This is the result:

Nest up, I attached the cockpit components into the tub itself. The fit here was excellent with no trouble at all. The front, lower cockpit slides into a wall which has a slot for the rear, upper cockpit to slide into. The rear cockpit then has a wall with another slot that forms the rear, armoured wall of the cockpit "bathtub". This is that assembly:

The seats need a bit of a touch up as does a little of the black where a dribble of glue escaped but, other than that, quite neat. There's also a bit of free space for me to locate some weight which I'm certain will be needed to hold the nose down.

Next up is the tail rotor assembly. A pin through the tailfin is supposed to hold the rotor and let it spin - no chance! I have glued the tail rotor in place. The rotor has had one coat of H27 and will need at least one more. The white-red-white stripes on the tip are decals, which I intend to use rather than paint them myself. The pin was far too tight inside the fin, but the two halves of the fin went together with no problema nd only a minor seam.

Finally, three little bits - the cabin with its four double seats - again another coat of H27 is needed; The chain gun assembly, which contains the chain gun and the chin turret that it sits in (gun not glued) - this has a big seam that will need sanding and filling before paint stage; and the exhaust assembly which also has a major seam that requires work.

I may get to a bit more tonight but I probably will leave this until tomorrow now.

Dan
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Airbusians.

Heinkel51 · Posted: Wed 23 Jan 2008 01:57 am Post subject:

Very nice Dan, Coming along well.

Paula & Dan · Posted: Wed 23 Jan 2008 08:39 am Post subject:

Thanks Heinkel...

I've spent a bit of time getting the -A to almost the same state as the -D. The cockpit components are together - but I'd missed out painting the cockpit seats, so that still needs doing.

When that's done, I'll post a few pics of that - but not of the duplicate parts as there's no point!

Dan
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Airbusians.

Paula & Dan · Posted: Fri 25 Jan 2008 19:47 pm Post subject:

A quick update before I disappear for a week and all work stops again. As usual, first up is my lead build, the Hind-D.

I have painted the upper surfaces of the rotors and the rotor head with 2 coats of H27, as per the destructions. As well as that, I filed down the exhaust assembles, glued them to the mounting plate and painted them in Humbrol gun metal. This now needs a coat of H33 on the mounting plate to complete this small section:

The cockpit tub is now together. The cockpit components went together just fine in the previous step (photos above). I added weights (several flat washers and a couple of large nuts) and fitted the two cockpit halves together. It was a perfect fit and went together first attempt. As the halves go together, the chain gun is trapped between the two halves, allowing it to swivel. the flat end needed a bit of filing down to allow it to clear the bottom of the cockpit floor, but no breat problem. The chain gun mounting itself had to have a bit of sanding, but again nothing major. There's quite a seam that's going to need a bit of work and a sink mark on the top of the cockpit that'll need attention, too, and the edges of the dividing wall need a quick seeing to with H33:

Then there's the Hind-A, still trailing.

The rotors are in the same state as the Hind-D:

The cockpit is slightly behind. I have put the side windows in place and the floors and cockpit compnents are all in place. This all now needs a bit of touching up with H33 and H27 to get a reasonable appearance inside before I add the weights and the second half.

And the exhausts are a tiny bit further on than the Hind-D as I have got the H33 in place on the exhaust mounting plate:

Now for a week away from home and a complete standstill on my Hinds!

Dan
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Airbusians.

Paula & Dan · Posted: Sat 02 Feb 2008 22:53 pm Post subject:

So now that I'm back in the country and having had all of today to do some modelling, time for an update on what I've managed to get done. Firstly I touched up all of the black in the cockpits of both Hinds to get a good appearance all over. Then I put together the Hind A cockpit, bringing it to the same state that the Hind-D was at about a week ago. The fit was just fine - there's a bit of a seam and there are some sink marks on the top but that doesn't really matter as they are covered up by the main fuselage section when it's assembled. Here are the two cockpit sections, firstly side on and then head on, giving an idea of the two different nose profiles we'll end up with.

Then came the main fuselage section of both helicopters. I tackled the Hind-D first as I knew this was going to be a pain to do due to missing transparencies. In the end I took some clear plastic and cut it down to size for a strip on both sides, gluing them in place. Next, the plate with the engine exhausts was mounted in place before I put the "cabin" interior in. Finally I put the two halves of the fuselage together and set it aside to dry whilst I repeated the process for the Hind-A. Again, in both cases fit was no issue, but the -A had a bit of a problem with flash around the front walls. Here's the -D but the -A is identical:

Next step, I mated the forward fuse of the -D to the main fuse section. There is going to be a bit of filing, sanding and filling needed to get a reasonable fit here due to the big step between the two sections the whole way around - this is a poor fit resulting form a not too hot design. Then I put the tail section in place. This again took a bit of work until the tail sat correctly in place. Here's the result of that:

Then I did precisely the same job on the -A, with exactly the same resulting problems:

Finally a shot to show the contrasts between the two aircraft. The devil's always in the details - firstly there's the two different nose sections, of course, but then there's the tail - note that as I mentioned earlier the tail rotors are on opposited sides of the tail section for the -D and -A:

The result is that the whole thing is starting to really come together and I feel I've made good progress today. In other areas, not photographed, I Kleared the cockpit glazing for both machines, I've put the main bodies of the rocket pods for both together though I think one of the rocket pack heads is missing from the -D, and I've put together the stub wings that the weapons hang off for both helicopters, too. It's nice to move these on a bit and tomorrow I think we'll progress again but with sadning and filling rather than anything so dramatic as today!

Dan
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Airbusians.

Paula & Dan · Posted: Sun 03 Feb 2008 21:25 pm Post subject:

Another day of mixed results. Today I filled and sanded the areas that needed it on both builds, then added the engine intakes. Hmm, should have put those in first as they pushed the fuselage apart, only very slightly, which in turn craked the filler on both sides of the -D. Funnily enough, no problems at all with the fit ont he -A. So I've now re-filled the -D and will sand it down later. I did more assembly of the under "wing" stores, finding the missing rocket pod in the process

and then fitted the stub wings and the horizontal stabiliser on the tail section. Not very exciting, but they now at least look like Hinds. Photos later in the week I guess.

Dan
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Airbusians.