Kit No. 05103
I
don’t build many helicopters but when the 1:35th scale Trumpeter Hind came on
the market I could not resist purchasing it for two reasons, the first was the
good reviews, second was my attraction to this particular ‘eggbeater’. I
bought the 1:48 Monogram version some years ago but never got around to making
it. The Trumpeter kit is expensive, but not relatively, working out the hours it
took to complete the model compensates for the cost and then there is the
potential for super detailing and motorising a model this size, this alone in my
eyes made it well worth the expense.
A good part of
most modellers enjoyment when buying a new kit is the ceremony of the
opening of the box and closely examining the contents therein whilst also
seeing the model in their mind’s eye in markings and colour schemes of
different kinds and how they will approach the actual building of the
model. Most of us say to ourselves ‘This will be THE BEST model I have
EVER made! This is the spur that drives us to start work, Of course we
never achieve the perfect model and the day that we might think we have
achieved the impossible is the day to give up model making. Enough of
speculation and motivation theories, so on to how I tackled this very good
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Like most
modellers, further enjoyment of our hobby comes from the research we
undertake and the data we acquire to help us toward an accurate
representation of the ‘real thing’. I found some good references on
the external details of the Hind and the various markings it carries on
the internet, but as I intended to add a lot of internal detail a good
book on this helicopter was needed. I found it in the Verlinden ‘Lock
On’ No.16 Photofile. The information provided by the extensive
photography was more than enough for my purposes. The engine bay in
particular is accessible by way of hinged panels on the real aircraft and
would give me ample opportunity to add all the pipe work, wiring and
ancillary equipment not provided with the kit. |
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Trumpeter’s
representation of the twin 2,200 shp Izotov TV3-117V engines is good but with
the aid of the Verlinden book I could really go to town on additional detailing
in this area especially as it is quite open to view making it well worth while.
I spent some time perusing the excellent Lock On photos and deciding what areas
to work on and depict on the model. It is almost impossible to add EVERY detail
on a model and as I give myself 3 months to produce a model, hard decisions have
to be made on what to leave out.
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To represent all the
plumbing I utilize fuse and telephone wire and fine solder which is available
from Maplins, some of it I pre-paint. Instant glue with a ‘zapper’ or
accelerator is used to secure each item. The whole engine bay was given a wash
of thinned black enamel over acrylic paintwork which help to punch out the
detail and the Tamiya clear colour range to represent heat staining. It took
several nights work to bring the engine bay area to a state I was happy with.
The next section to
be worked on was the interior crew/cargo area, again the Verlinden book had good
photo data to help me and I added seat harnesses, electrical boxes, plumbing,
emergency equipment and warning notices in Russian made on the computer courtesy
of Photoshop.
The kit cockpits are quite
comprehensive and apart from a lot of detailed painting of the ‘old
technology’ dials, switches and circuit breakers and adding seat belts and
buckles I didn’t need to do further work in this area. Just behind the rear
cockpit a series of electrical boxes and radio gear is housed, these were not in
the kit so I added them although they are hard to see when the fuselage is
closed up.
The main
cockpit colour is peculiar to the Russians a sort of metallic green/blue hue!
Using the references mentioned I mixed my own paint from Tamiya acrylics
including their ‘Clear Green’. The entire cockpit is hand painted.
The major work that I embarked
upon was to motorize the main rotor, tail rotor and cooler impellor.
Since very small motors are freely available now and at an average price of £1.
80p each I keep a goodly stock of them to use in most of my projects. Above is a
photo of some of the types available with a 1p piece to give scale comparison.
Next to that I show the installation of the tail rotor motor.
All these mini-motors run on no more than 1.5 volts they have high rev rates but
low torque, this can be increased by gearing down the motor with mini gears that
modellers who are into indoor flying use to drive quite large propellers.
The motor with a clear housing containing tiny gear wheels is one that powers a
pager’s vibration action.
In the past motorising the tail rotor of helicopters meant running a long
articulated drive shaft from the main body of the aircraft and using bevel
gearing very hard to obtain in small scales.
The main
rotor’s power source is a much larger motor which drives the 19 inch
diameter blades at a reasonable speed giving plenty of torque when passed
through the home made gearbox. It took a day or two to figure out gear
ratios and hardest of all how it all would fit into the fuselage without
impinging on the cargo/seated area. The pictures below show the results. |
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All the paints used externally
were hand mixed using Humbrol enamels and an Aztec airbrush.
I chose the Russian scheme for ‘Blue 04’ from a unit based at
Berlin-Brandenburg in 1992 and used the kit decals for the majority of the
markings, however some internal and external data and warnings needed adding and
I did this by downloading the Russian alphabet from a web site and utilizing
Photoshop, compiled the missing data and printed it out onto decal paper
suitable for use with bubble-jet printers, after a couple of hours drying
time I coated the printed decals with Halfords clear lacquer.
I added a total of 13 mini bulbs to the model; these
illuminated the navigation, hazard and formation lights.
The landing light was a 3 volt krypton bulb and the flashing hazard lights were
3mm red LED’s with the flashing circuit incorporated into the bulb itself.
Below are pictures of the
completed model.
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The main and tail rotors
were further detailed with hydraulic pipe work and control rods, both
rotors are removable for transportation purposes.
Underwing stores are fully catered for and there are 42 items to choose
from complete with decals!
I was very pleased with the finished model another
feather in Trumpeter’s cap. I recommend this kit and I am sure that it
will satisfy most discriminating model makers.
Brian
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