Welcome to Cold War Gamer, a blog I am using to record my Cold War wargaming projects. These range from fictitious Cold War hot projects to historical conflicts that took place around the globe throughout the Cold War era, all modelled and gamed in 20mm. The blog includes links to various resources useful to the Cold War Gamer.

My current projects include: Central Front; British & Soviet. South African Border War; Angolans and South Africans. Soviet Afghan War; Soviets and Afghans

Saturday 29 September 2012

Review - Model, A Models 1/72 Mi 6 Hook



The Mi-6 entered service with the Soviet Armed forces in 1960 and set some impressive records from the moment it started flying mostly associated with being big heavy, fast and a Helicopter.  It remained the mainstay of the Aviation Heavy lift capability until the arrival of the Mi 26 in the 1980's but remains in service today.  Some 500+ were built and these were used in the Frontal Helicopter Transport Regiment.  The carrying capacity of the beast allows it to carry one BMD or a variety of light trucks and support weapons or a 70-100 men.


The model is produced by A Models a firm of Eastern European origin with the usual caveats that come with products from that space - Great models when they are built, building them can be fun and this one is no exception.  The Kit is massive measuring some 43 cm in length.  I usually leave all the internal components out of my aircraft and paint out the windows but in this case some of those internal components provide essential structural strength to the model.




Form and fit of parts was generally good, the crux of putting this kit together hinged around fitting the cabin roof, forward bulk head and the floor into the left and right side aircraft hulls and tail sections, This involved considerable pairing and filing of the roof and floor sections.  Without these components  the model would probably flex too much to stay together for any period of time.



Once you have achieved a fit the gluing of the components together needs to be done in stages.  I located the bulk head floor and ceiling to the right hull and let it cure overnight before attempting the rigerous filing and pairing to achieve fit with the left hull side.  I then glued and held the hull sections around the engines using tape and clamps and left to set before repeating the process for the nose section  and lower hull.  This approach allows the hull to be forced into a fit position as the large and relatively thin sections of the hull allow considerable flex from the natural position they are presented in.


Once you have that cracked the remainder of the assembly is straight forward, given the weight of the model it is important to give the glue time to set on the landing gear before standing the aircraft on its own feet.  I Intend to field all my Helicopters for the Soviets without rotor blades or disks as they break easily and take up a lot of space on the battlefield so I have not fitted the aircraft with any.






I have yet to find any images of aircraft other than in light Grey schemes as shown below But I am still in the process of researching this prior to painting the beast up




The end result is a great looking representation of this impressive aircraft.  I intend to use mine as part of the Front Helicopter Transport Regiment's heavy lift squadron along with a number of Mi 26s being built as I write.

References:

Global Security MI 6 Pages
Wings Palette - Mi 6 Markings
All The Worlds Rotorcraft - Mi 6

5 comments:

  1. Wow, this looks like a monster Andy. I look forward to following the build and seeing it side by side with something to get an idea of the true scale. Aye, Rusty.

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    1. Good point I'll put a pic up with something else for comparison

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  2. So it's up to me to make the comment about enormous choppers then?
    Moving swiftly on, this must be a real monster kit- I have a Mi-6 in 1/300 scale and that's quite an impressive sight!

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  3. This thing is an absolute monster. What are you going to do with it? Display model or do you now have 80 VDV Troopers to paint up with it! Mike

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    1. The VDV are mostly done, they are being adapted to represent post 85 Air Assault Units though.

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