Begemot Decals Mi-24 Hind Family (48-042 for Zvezda/Revell)

[Mike]

Mi-24 Hind Family (48-042 for Zvezda/Revell)

1:48 Begemot Decals

 

 

Zvezda’s new Hind kit is great news for this modeller, and Andrey at Begemot is a mind-reader.  He must be, because I’ve been staring at my old Hokum kit, and out pops a decal set for it that I reviewed a couple of weeks ago here.  Now I’m drooling over the Zvezda kit and ping! Another set of decals that give a modeller lots of choices.  I’ve just finished perusing the instructions, and I think I’m going to need a few more kits.

 

This decal set arrives in an unassuming ziplok bag, with four A3 sheets of glossy paper folded in half for the instructions, three sheets of decals split between two for the individual markings, and a third for the stencils.  The instructions are large due to the fact that there are a staggering 36 decal options, and a half side is also dedicated to the stencils for the airframe as well as another page for the munitions that the Hind was capable of carrying.  From the sheets you can build the following:

 

1. Mi-24V United Aviation Group of the Russian Federal Forces at Caucasus, Kalinovskaya Airfield, Chechen Republic, mid 2000s
2. Mi-35 s/n 280854 presumably belonged to the 1st Helicopter Sqn. Libyan Air Force, Misurata Air Base, Winter 2011
3. Mi-35 s/n 280854 after overthrow of Gaddafi regime Spring 2011
4. Mi-24V s/n 410740 Separate Group of Aviation Support, Polish Army Group “White Eagle”, Gazni Air Base, Afghanistan, 2010
5. Mi-24V s/n 3532421420127 201st Anti-tank Helicopter Sqn. of the Macedonian Air Force, 2001
6. Mi-24V s/n 3532421420127 201st Anti-tank Helicopter Sqn. of the Macedonian Air Force, 2009
7. Mi-24V 201st Anti-tank Helicopter Sqn. of the Macedonian Air Force, 2012
8. Mi-24V Sudanese Air Force, El Geneina Airport, Darfur, 2010
9. Mi-35 s/n 110943 104th Helicopter Sqn Indian Air Force, end of 1990s
10. Mi-24V 440th Separate Combat Helicopter Regiment, USSR Army Aviation, Stendal Air Base, GDR, end of 1980s
11. Mi-24V Mongolian Air Force, 2015
12. Mi-24V 1st Combat Helicopter Sqn Croatian Air Force, Vucovar, end of 1990s
13. Mi-24V 685th Separate Mixed Aerial Regiment from Aviation of the Russian National Guard, Rostov-Central Air Base, 2010s
14. Mi-24V 23rd Separate Aviation Regiment USSR KGB Border Guard Aviation, Dushanbe Air Base, 1988
15. Mi-24V Ivory Coast (Côte D’ivoire) Air Force, Yamoussoukro Airport, end of 2002 (shark mouth)
16. Mi-24V 607th Airbase of Kazakhstan Aerial Self-Defence Force, Ucharal Airbase, 2010
17. Mi-24V 626th Retraining Helicopter Regiment of the RuAF, Syzran Military Helicopter Pilot University, Pugachev Airfield, Saratov region, 2009
18. Mi-24V s/n 3532321622429 9th Sqn Shri-Lankan Air Force, Minneria Airport, 1996
19. Mi-24V Helicopter Sqn Georgian Air Force, Alexeevka (Tblisi) Airbase, August 2008
20. Mi-24V s/n 730927 Helicopter Wing Air Force of the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic, Prešov Airbase, 2005
21. Mi-24V Helicopter Sqn Azerbaijan Air Force, 2008
22. Mi-35 s/n 220720 88th Helicopter Base Hungarian Air Force, Szolnok Airbase, 2019
23. Mi-24V s/n 730816 Afghanistan Air Force, 2011
24. Mi-24VP United Aviation Group Federal Russian Forces at Caucasus, Khankala Airbase, Grozniy, 2002
25. Mi-24VP s/n 3532584910259 7th Separate Regiment Ukranian Army Aviation, Kalinov Airfield, 2008
26. Mi-24VP s/n 353258910259 7th Separate Regiment Ukrainian Army Aviation, Kramatorsk Airfield, 2014
27. Mi-24VP 125th Separate Helicopter Sqn Russian Naval Aviation, Chkalovsk Airfield, Kaliningrad region, 2013
28. Mi-24VP 125th Separate Helicopter Sqn Russian Naval Aviation, Chkalovsk Airfield, Kaliningrad region, 2013
29. Mi-24VP 125th Separate Helicopter Sqn Russian Naval Aviation, Chkalovsk Airfield, Kaliningrad region, 2015
30. Mi-24VP s/n 3532584910287 16th Brigade Ukrainian Army Aviation, Brody Airfield, 2014
31. Mi-24R 440th Separate Helicopter Regiment USSR Army Aviation, Stendal Airfield, GDR Territory, end of 1980s
32. Mi-24R 3534624611809 113th Separate Mixed Aviation Squadron USSR Air Force, Sperenberg Airfield, ex-GDR Territory, May 1994
33. Mi-24R Armenian Air Force, Erevan Airbase, 2012
34. Mi-24R 484th Training Helicopter Regiment Russian Air Force, Syzran Airfield 2006
35. Mi-24K s/n 3532014611318 439th Separate Helicopter Regiment of Combat Control USSR Air Force Army Aviation, Parkhim Airbase, ex-GDR territory, May 1992
36. Mi-24K 178th Separate Helicopter Regiment Combat Control USSR Air Force Army Aviation, Borstel Airbase, ex-GDR territory, end of 1980s

 

Note that the Mi-35 is the export variant of the Mi-24V.  You can see all the colour profiles by visiting the two pages of instructions below at Begemot’s site:

 

http://www.begemotdecals.ru/doc/48-042 Mi-24 instr p1.pdf

http://www.begemotdecals.ru/doc/48-042 Mi-24 instr p2.pdf

 

 

 

As mentioned earlier, the penultimate page of the instructions devotes half a page to the stencils on the fuselage and rotor blades, with small drawings here and there showing stencils inside bay doors etc.  Over the page the weapons with their designations above each one, and the bottom of the page shows where all the stencils on the fuselage are sited.  There are plenty of these, and as I always say it’s the stencils that make a better model, increasing the level of visual detail immensely.

 

we’ve come to expect from Begemot the printing is first rate, with good register, colour density and sharpness, with the little blue hippo logo in the bottom right.  You can buy these directly from Begemot by using the contact page on their site, or from your local stockist, which you can also find a list of on the site here.

 

Very Highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of

 

 

[kotey]

Some conspiracy theorists say there is a cartel agreement between Zvezda and the Behemot to increase model sales.