Review - Model 1/72, M-24 Hinde, Italeri, Zveda, Matchbox, Airfix

The Mi - 24 Hinde is another one of those Soviet designs that have become Iconic symbols of the Cold War, Its distinctive and unique shape together with its extensive combat deployment by the Soviets and a myriad of client states throughout and beyond the cold war have assured its place in history.  Brought into service in 1972 and based on the Mi-8 Hip's propulsion system it has served through to the present day with the Soviet Armed forces.  Almost uniquely amongst combat helicopters it has capacity to carry dismounted troops as well as a variety of anti personal and anti tank weapon systems including 57mm FFAR, 12.7mm Gatling MG and AT6 Spiral or AT2 Swatter missiles depending on mark.

As befits such an iconic system, just about every kit manufacturer worth their salt carries one in there range. Probably the most easily accessible today being:

• Italeri
• Revell 
• Zveda 
• Hobbey Boss 
• Bilek 

The most commonly available type being the D/E variants but with a smattering of Fs.  Prices Range from £10 - £15 depending on manufacturer and older kits are readily available on Ebay.

For my Attack Helicopter Squadron I have built a clutch of Hinde attack Helicopters from a variety of manufacturers, noteably Italeri, Zedveda, Matchbox and Airfix.

All the Kits are straight forward to build, although the Italeri needs the internal cabin to be built in order to mount the engine assemblies. This raised two issues if you don't fit the internal detail then look hard to check which way round your inserting it and the engine exhaust mountings can be a bit fidily to attach, other than that all were straight forward to assemble with the matchbox kit almost being a snap assembly designed for the younger modeller which somewhat put me off it as a product. Having said this in all cases I left out all rotor assembly primarily to ease handling and storage issues for gaming.

Italeri, Zedveda, Italeri and Airfix

Of the ones I built I preferred the Italeri's certainly from the point of view of quality and surface detail although the Zveda aircraft was comparable. All the kits are considered inaccurate by the aero modelling fraternity, but look fine on the table top. All scale out well and look ok together although you inevitably end up with a mix of weapons and decal sets. Creating a consistent set of decals for the unit proved challenging and I bought an aftermarket decal set from Bergamot for the SU 27B Sea Flanker which whilst it was designed for something completely different had a lot of red stars and groups of numbers in consistent colour and style.

An analysis of colour schemes of Soviet flown aircraft from across the web left me focusing on two main choices the Sand and green scheme seen in both Europe and Afghanistan and a less pervasive Green on Green scheme. For the Mi-24s I decided to complete them all in the more wide spread sand and green, with the Attack Helicopter Squadron carrying red markings and the Divisional Support Squadron yellow.  Its not clear from my research at what organisational level consistency of colour of numbering applied.

I painted them all with Vallejo paint using:

• 977 Desert Yellow for the sand coloured base
• 924 Russian Uniform for the disruptive patterns
• 961 Sky Blue for the underside
• 819 Iraqi Sand as a mix for highlighting

all Aircraft were undercoated black then had many dilute layers of Sand and sky blue applied before adding the disruptive pattern, it would have been a lot easier to paint 25 aircraft an helicopters with an airbrush. Panel lines were picked out in the relatively new GW Agrax Earthshade (brown) although the undersides were left, these were then over washed with dilute solutions of the main colour to make them less prominent. The cockpits were painted out with black grey which was used for exhaust ports and all weapon systems less the rocket pods which were sky grey.

All aircraft were mounted at a variety of flight angles onto Coresec Engineering bases using 1" 1.5" and 3" flight stands which were attached to 40mm Diameter pre cut MDF bases from East Riding miniatures. These were then covered in white glue and sand before being painted in GW Calthan Brown (sadly OOP) before being dry brushed Vallejo Dessert Yellow and covered in a variety of basing products.

References:

FAS Mi 24
Prime portal Mi 24 photos and walk around
Review of Hind Model and Book resources
Soviet Tactical Aviation
ORBAT - Soviet Air Assault Units Part 1, Overview and Lift
FM 100-2-3 The Soviet Army Troops, Organization and Equipment

Models:

Revell 1:72 - Mil Mi-24D/E HIND - 04405
ITALERI 1:72 Aircraft No 014 MIL-24 Hind D/E Model Kit