I have a mild obsession with the Hind, this is the third one I've built and myself being Hungarian it was a bit of a prestige build. It's been in the works for a very long time, sat in my closet half finished for at least a couple of years, picked it up a few weeks ago. I used HAD decal set for insignia and full maintenance markings, also had an Eduard photo-etch kit that I only used a couple of small bits from (my first time with a PE kit). I've built an Italeri and a Zvezda kit before, so have a good comparison, the Zvezda kit is more detailed and accurate but the HB was easier and more rewarding to build. The Zvezda sometimes felt overcomplicated and I don't know if it's just me but the styrene it's made of is really weird, brittle, doesn't like to stick and every time I have to touch or move the completed model something falls off for sure.
The main drawback of the HB kit is the canopy, it's one piece with a huge ugly seam right in the middle which I tried to sand and polish out but didn't really manage to make it clear. The canopy is the only piece I'm not happy with on this build. The armament of the HB kit is great, but the B8V20 blocks are incorrect, thankfully I used the UB32 ones for this. I used Humbrol flat clear to finish and it gave a horrible milky frosting, so I sprayed it with Tamiya clear gloss, then switched to Tamiya flat clear only to find the frosting again. So Tamiya clear gloss again, then a spraycan of GW varnish. That seemed to do the trick, but if you look very close you can see that there's a thick layer of lacquer on it. No idea why both matts gave that frosting, never happened before and my compressor has a moisture trap, maybe the decal solutions or the wash left some residue.
What I've learned from this build:
- Using canopy masks is a must whenever available
- Not a fan of photo-etch, surfaces are often too thin to stick and cyanoacrylate is less than a reliable glue for me
- Camo can easily be sprayed using masking tape in this scale, no need for the blutack masking as the edges should look sharp in 1/72
- Clean the model before clearcoat to remova all grease and residue
Overall happy with it and was a good build. I have another couple of Hind kits on the shelf, so more to come.
The original bird
And a moment of silence please for the nozzle and needle of my trusty H&S airbrush that I managed to drop while cleaning it...😪