1/72 Zvezda Mil Mi-26

Gallery Article by Tom Thounaojam on Aug 15 2021

India Independence Day

 

      

The biggest production helicopter in the world and one of my favorites, I always wanted to build this helicopter but never had the space to do it. During my stay at my native place, I have enough space so I thought why not give it a go. It was a smooth build, however, there were some hard parts as well, I guess that is partly due to the plastic bending as it was kept on the shelf for many years with some kits on top of it. 

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Being at a far corner of the world and with pandemic restrictions it was quite a challenge building it. Firstly, I have run out of paints and getting from abroad was out of options. So, I bought a bunch of local paints and did some trial and error, some works some didn't, the main grey paint was a mix of blue+black and white at a ratio of 10:20:70. After a few coats of paint it came to the grey I was hoping for. The next biggest challenge was to print the decals, as the shops are closed it was a big problem, so I went to 3-4 fours places at odd hours to get it printed and apply the film on it. Well it was fun doing so designing the decal was easier than printing it for sure. First trial it was meh so I have removed it and repaint it. Eventually after a few trials it worked to my satisfaction. I am keeping it closed as most models on the internet are open.

Here in India it was operated by No. 126 and participated in many operations since her induction, however, time has come for these mighty giants to retire and it is being replaced by Chinook. 

I really enjoyed building it and even more I love seeing how she has come out, the biggest and one of my favorites in my humble collections. 

Tom Thounaojam

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Photos and text © by Tom Thounaojam