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

Wednesday 12 December 2012

Review - Model 1/72, KP Mi-8 and Mi-8T Hip



The Mi-8 was the principal Medium lift Helicopter of the Soviet armed forces throughout the later period of the cold war, It operates in armed and unarmed models and together with the export version the Mi 17 is one of the post prolifically produced helicopters in the world.  The utility version is capable of carrying 4 UV-16-57 Rocket pods whilst the attack versions carry a mix of machine guns rocket pods and ATGWs.  Within Soviet Frontal Aviation they were deployed by the Army Attack/Assault Helicopter Regiments, The Frontal Transport Helicopter Regiment and the Divisional helicopter squadrons.  The Aircraft was introduced into the Soviet Airforce in 1964 it carries 24 passengers or 3,000kg.  It is a true multi purpose platform with many variants being produced these include: Transport, Transport/Attack, Ambulance, Command Post, EW, Mine laying, Photo Reconnaissance and Search & Rescue. All round a bit of a must have if your a cold war Soviet fanatic.



The model is quite simple particularly, if like me, you leave out the interior detail and don't bother with the rotors.  I ended up with 5 of these which i bought for £5 a piece at this price they really can't be beaten if you have to pay full price £10 ish you may want to look at some of the other options as the level of raised detail on the airframe is low compared to other versions.


The build is very straight forward I removed the locating lugs on either side of the airframe as it made alighning the airframe halves easier.  It's worth spending a bit of time on hull alignment and I used clamps on the airframe until the glue had set.


Inserting the top of the engine can be a little fun but ultimately not too frustrating and the engine nacelles can be enhanced if your not putting the external covers on by inverting said covers and sticking them inside giving an impression of some interior to the engine other than a big hole.



I added a two pence piece into the nose to ensure they sat on the undercarrage when built.  The under carrage and wing struts are a little painful as the locating points are indistinct.  For the armament outriggers I drilled a hole immediately above each fuel tank and forward of the square protrusion that sits on the upper edge of the fuel tank and this allowed the outriggers to be constructed in a fairly reliable way all the other elements were glued direct to the hull.  I built left side then right adding outriggers wheels and tail fins and left that to dry well before proceeding.



I am painting three in each of these colour schemes the armed ones using the top colour scheme and the unarmed ones using the bottom the intent being to represent aircraft of the different units.




I obtained the Bergamot Decal set for the SU 27B Sea Flanker, as it gives me enough coloured numbers to introduce some variety amongst the 6 Mi - 8s.


The base colour of the aircraft is Vallejo Iraqi sand, with a golden olive disruptive pattern, pin wash is GW Agrax Earthshade, raised detail is dry bushed with Vallejo Light Flesh and the rocket pods are Sky Grey. The underside is Vallejo Sky Blue and the windows and exhausts Grey black.  The numbers and stars come from the decal set shown above.  After the pin wash and the dry brush the aircraft has been washed in a very dilute solution of the base colours to tone down the impact of the wash. 




A nice simple model which I'm hoping it will prove effective when used on mass even without the rotor blades.

References:

Mi 8 Kits available in 1/72 
Mi 8 Development Overview

3 comments:

  1. nice work. a ready and rugged machine if you ask me. hope it will be useful in future.

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    Replies
    1. Sure it will mate, might even use it to invade one of your African countries

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  2. Hello!
    You might find interesting that russian plastic model kits manufacturer ZVEZDA has announced for year 2013 a large number of small scale kits for some wargame in cold war setting. There are infantry, AA, AT and heavy machinegun units in 1/72 scale (both soviet and american), armour in 1/100 scale and two helicopters in 1/144 scale. Moreover, a modern T-90 "Vladimir" tank in 1\72 scale is also on the way.
    Here you can find a couple of pictures from their new catalogue:
    http://vk.com/wall-29859496_117680?offset=last&f=replies
    Artem.

    ReplyDelete