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"Alien Tiger" Trumpeter 1/35 Mil-24V Hind


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This was one heck of a project. It's the Mil-35 Hind of the Czech Air Force from this year's tiger meet in Spain, known as the 'Alien Tiger'.

The kit is built OOB except for the addition of some wiring/plumbing on the main rotor mechanism; and all the markings are hand-painted except for the tiger's head, the side door, the small 'alien tiger' logo on the left side of the tail, and the Mil-35/24V titling. The Czech roundels and numbers are from the kit/spares.

I used Halfords rattle cans for the basic black/grey background and then a combination of acrylics and enamels with a variety of small brushes for the alien designs. I found the fit to be pretty good which is just as well, as I departed from normal practice and completed much of the artwork before assembling the model - including the fuselage halves. I'm happy to answer any questions and receive your comments & critiques; but for now, here it is.

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Not a fan of choppers either civil or military but that is a bloody good model!

Can't believe that is hand painted, especially as it's done with the 3D effect as per the real thing, something I'm not sure I could do!

A work of art you should be proud of :thumbsup:

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Beautiful. Did you have to do a lot of touch up when you joined the pieces, especially since you painted them first.. Absolute masterpiece and something to be very proud of. You have all the bragging rights on this one..

Dave

U.S🇺🇸

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Here are a couple more photos of my 'Alien Tiger'. Thanks for the very kind comments :)

DDELK, I was lucky in that I didn't have a great deal of touching up to do when I put the main pieces together. The wings/tanks were painted, varnished and assembled as separate substructures before gluing to the main body, as were the gun and turret and the under-nose substructure. The canopy section was also completed and painted prior to fitting. The two fuselage halves, however, required some additional paintwork after a little putty and sanding across the top and the boom; and the detail painting along the centre section was done after joining in order to achieve symmetry. The entire helicopter was finished before I started working on the main rotor, which can be removed.

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a very impressive model!

looks like the artist of the real one himself just did it again in smaller scale!

where did you have all the necessary reference from? I 've not yet seen too many clear photos of this one!

interesting way of how you did it ! an thanks for the additional photos! more always welcome ;)

:thumbsup:

Edited by exdraken
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where did you have all the necessary reference from? I 've not yet seen too many clear photos of this one!

There are a lot of photos out there on the web if you search around; plus I had the advantage of a friend, who went to the tiger meet, sending me some high quality close-ups. :)

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You are certainly talented that is a superb Hind.

Great work.

Guy

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I have this same kit in the stash so how did you find the build experience overall?

I'd read about there being some major fit issues, but I didn't have any of those. You need to study the instructions carefully as they're not very clear diagrams, and make sure that all the components for the interior substructure are properly trimmed and securely in place as the joining of the outside main body around the internal section is by far the trickiest part. The locator pins are almost like a snaptite model and once everything is connected up, getting it apart again is really difficult, so do plenty of dry-fitting and practicing - especially around the engine exhausts.

That being said, I enjoyed the build and didn't find any major problems and I was particularly pleased with the fit of the canopy.

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