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Hip, Hip hooray!! Hobby Boss' Mi-8 made to actually look like one.


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After a great deal of thinking about which of my (many) Soviet aircraft to build for this GB I decided to do something a little smaller than my current project, ICM's Mig-25, I have finally settled on Hobby Boss' Mil Mi-8. As the topic says you cannot build a straight Mi-8 T from the box despite what Hobby Boss say, you can build an Mi-8 MT/Mi-17 and the kit is nicely detailed and accurate for such, just not a straight Mi-8. The problem lies with the engine housing on the top of the fuselage, as that (as well as the tail rotor location) is the main difference between the 2, fortunately Pavla make a correction set so i will be using one of these.

Here is the ubiquitous box top shot.

DSC05187_zpsji56omce.jpg

 

And the contents.

DSC05188_zpsdox80pso.jpg

 

And the Pavla correction set.

DSC05189_zpsacxzkv8c.jpg

 

And a nice decal sheet from Begemot.

DSC05190_zpsdcr7unzs.jpg

 

And the scheme I have chosen.

DSC05191_zps7qtynv4r.jpg

 

The black and white picture doesn't quite do it justice so here's a picture of one in the same scheme, sunglasses at the ready!

150188_zps3ph9kvy1.jpg

 

I plan to do her on a similar small diorama, snow too!

Well at least it's smaller than the Foxbat!

 

Thanks for looking in.

 

Craig.

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Just now, modelling minion said:

Thanks mate, I will try not to disappoint. 

You won't if you MiG 25 is anything to go by. Box art is dramatic too. Will be following you closely again.

i fancy some Russian/Czech helicopter action at some point

 

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Well i am surprised hobby boss makes an error who'd have believed it,  the new resin parts look quality ,i am partial to the odd whirly bird build myself craig, look forward to this ,nice scheme too, will you be having the doors open?

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18 hours ago, Valkyrie said:

You won't if you MiG 25 is anything to go by. Box art is dramatic too. Will be following you closely again.

i fancy some Russian/Czech helicopter action at some point

 

Thanks mate, in my opinion you can't go wrong with a Russian helicopter and if you fancy a no nonsense build then do one of these but as it comes from the box as an Mi-8 MT/Mi-17 or how about a Hind?

14 hours ago, Basilisk said:

I love the colour scheme you have chosen for your Mil Mi 8 build. Begemot certainly makes it hard to chose with so many schemes on their sheets :wall:

 

Cheers, Peter

Thanks Peter, and thanks for hosting this fantastic GB. There are some nice schemes on the sheet, so nice that I might have to get more Mi-8's (later) to build them.

10 hours ago, Hewy said:

Well i am surprised hobby boss makes an error who'd have believed it,  the new resin parts look quality ,i am partial to the odd whirly bird build myself craig, look forward to this ,nice scheme too, will you be having the doors open?

The kit isn't bad if you want to build an Mi-8MT/Mi-17, it's far and away the most accurate out there, but it's not an Mi-8T as advertised. In fact the sprues are identical in their Mi-8MT/Mi-17 boxing. And yes Glynn I do hope to build her with her back doors open (oooh err!), just need to try and find some shots of the interior of one of these polar beasts as I'm sure they carry an extra fuel tank in their somewhere.

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31 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

Thanks mate, in my opinion you can't go wrong with a Russian helicopter and if you fancy a no nonsense build then do one of these but as it comes from the box as an Mi-8 MT/Mi-17 or how about a Hind?

I made a Westland Scout a Kamen and Dauphin? When I was young 9-12 and mucked them all up. I remember the choppers on Rambo when I was wee and they had wings with missiles looked outrageous and deadly, so now I am a touch older and a tad more experienced I defo want a crack at soviet/Czech choppers. I've got my eye on the Eduard double czech service boxing and want a Russian camo one. This build looks complicated but it's going to be great watching you put it together so if I'm brave after you've started I may plump for one....

 

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On ‎26‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 2:25 AM, Basilisk said:

I love the colour scheme you have chosen for your Mil Mi 8 build. Begemot certainly makes it hard to chose with so many schemes on their sheets :wall:

 

Cheers, Peter

 

No they don't, you just need to buy more kits ;) 

 

Looking forward to this one..

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On 4/29/2017 at 11:28 AM, mirageiv said:

Great choice Craig, the colour scheme is excellent, look forward to see it progress and how you tackle the diorama too!

 

David

Thanks David,

I've been having a good look at this and may have underestimated the work involved, especially if I want to open up the rear doors as the detailing is rather weak to put it mildly, probably just need to bite the bullet and get on with it! There are similarly coloured alternatives available from the decal sheet, including an Aeroflot one which could be used for an Mi-8MT which would need no converting at all. Hmmm, decisions decisions! Feel free to post your opinions.

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2 hours ago, modelling minion said:

Thanks David,

I've been having a good look at this and may have underestimated the work involved, especially if I want to open up the rear doors as the detailing is rather weak to put it mildly, probably just need to bite the bullet and get on with it! There are similarly coloured alternatives available from the decal sheet, including an Aeroflot one which could be used for an Mi-8MT which would need no converting at all. Hmmm, decisions decisions! Feel free to post your opinions.

 

No decisions just get some more to build. Whichever one you decide to build the scheme will be something different.

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Well I've decided to just "man up" and get on with it!

As I've said I really want this helicopter done in this scheme and have done for a while so time to get on with it. I have done the major surgery required on one half and left the other untouched to give you all some idea of just how much of the original plastic needs to be removed.

DSC05217_zpsot3yccmh.jpg

 

No prizes for guessing which is which! As you can see the engine section is a big chunk  of what needs removing but I have also decided to go the whole hog and remove the clamshell doors.

DSC05216_zpsytgbpxye.jpg

 

You can also see that I have had to remove the Box for the doppler gear as this is rarely seen on civil Mi-8's and this one is no exception, it's left a nice hole which will need filling.

Talking of filling there are some lovely ejection pin marks which need filling on the inside, this picture should give you some idea of the inside of the fuselage, which does actually have some nice rib detailing.

DSC05214_zpsbrqqxcft.jpg

 

Thats it for today's update, off to chop up the other fuselage half now!

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Craig.

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Major surgery really doesn't describe what you've done there craig, there isnt a lot of the hobby boss original kit left,  did you scribe down panel lines to make the cuts,or go at it witha razor saw, very brave but you may as well get these alterations out of the way early on, good work though very interesting, I'm intrigued 

Glynn

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Precise work Craig, that is a pretty serious chunk out of it! I'm glad you went with the version you wanted to do too, despite more work, in that scheme it will be worth it in the end!

 

 

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Thanks David, yes I must keep my eyes on the prize so to speak as there is more to fix with the kit than I thought. All that nice ribbed detail on the interior that you can see in the earlier pictures, guess what? It shouldn't be there! The interior of the Mi-8 has got panels covering the entire surfaces so I have been doing a serious amount of filling this week trying to get it to look something like the real thing, there are also quite a few detail parts which need to be scratch built for areas which are going to be visible, hopefully I will get some pictures up of the progress (or lack of it) over the weekend. There are moments I wish I had chosen a nice simple 1/48 Mig-21!

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Cheers guys, as promised here is a bit of an update.

As I said the filling and then re-filling as the stuff keeps shrinking of the interior over the nice but completely wrong interior ribbing has taken quite a while and is, to be honest, still a bit of a mess as you can see below.

DSC05224_zpsjvnslldx.jpg

 

The other half of the fuselage looks much the same, I need to do a bit of cleaning up around the cabin windows but I'm hoping that after I apply some paint it will start to look a bit better.

One area which does look better after a bit of additional detailing is the bulkhead that separates the cabin from the cockpit, working from some good photos this is what I've come up with so far.

DSC05225_zpscdvr8w6s.jpg

 

There's a little more to do yet, including a fire extinguisher, but this bit is just about ready for a coat of paint.

The only thing done to the interior of the clamshell doors is to add the seats which fit to them.

DSC05226_zpso6t8ni4p.jpg

A bit of detailing to scratch build yet and add to both halves, also think I might need to cut a small section from each door but that will need some more investigation before I start cutting.

Off to do some more now.

Thanks for looking and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

 

Craig. 

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