Mil Mi-2 'Hoplite' - Hobby Boss
Box art - very stylish! Ages 14 or above - I guess I am qualified. I will build a regular, unarmed liaison version from the Hungarian Air Force and not the tank-buster URN version. But thankfully most of the required parts are included and the rest are easy to scratch build. Still, this will be a relaxed and unpretentious project, mostly OOB.
Fret 1. I can already see that the panel lines going around the fuselage will be a pain to rescribe/rerivet.
Fret 2 - the rotor blades have no droop molded in. That needs to be fixed or the model will look a bit silly.
Fret 3. Here you can find the auxiliary external fuel tanks that were used for the liaison version, but not used for the tank buster version.
Fret 4 - I won't be using the rocket launchers for my helo, so this one goes to the spares box.
Fret 5 - as you can see, the entire nose section is molded in transparent plastic. I absolutely hate these solutions as they make masking so much more difficult, and also transparent plastic and opaque plastic are not easy to fuse together seamlessly.
The insides of the fuselage have a few ejector pin marks and some fitting holes for unused parts that need to be filled as they would be visible otherwise.
Smoothed with Tamiya white putty. Oops, I accidentally also filled in the holes for the external fuel tanks on the sides, so I will have to drill them open again.
The exhaust pipes are cemented in place, the gaps are filled with liquid styrene. I didn't use the resin parts as the fit was actually quite poor and they did not look as good as the kit's parts.
The Hungarian Mi-2's didn't have any onboard machine guns, so the roof cutouts are filled with styrene pieces.
I am not sure if this kit is a tail sitter or not, but just to be sure, I cemented a few flattened fishing weights under the cockpit floor. I used Gator's Grip acrylic glue to avoid risking lead corrosion with superglue.
Some weights were also added inside the dashboard console. Again, with acrylic glue.
The rear seats are not correct for the Hungarian Hoplites, at least not the one I intend to build, which had two twin passenger seats instead of the bench provided in the kit. The three seats need to be separated and the center seat discarded to the spares box.
The seats are extended in the back with styrene strips.
The seats are then equipped with a larger headrest. Now I just need to sand everything to shape.
Two seats are then joined back-to-back into a twin seat. The gaps between them are filled with styrene pieces and white putty. The shape should be more trapezoid and not rectangular, but in this build I am going for "good enough". One seat ready, let's make another one!
The cockpit is being assembled. The rear "box" is an unused part from the kit. It's not perfect but will do. Also the hole for the joystick in front of the passenger seat needs to be filled, as there was no joystick for the passenger. Do not install it as the instructions incorrectly tell you to do.
Painted with Tamiya acrylics according to my own photos, and embellished with seatbelts from the Eduard Soviet seat belt kit. I won't go crazy superdetailing the insides, hardly anything will be visible anyway through the side windows. It's a pity that no pedals are provided.
Weathered, dulled and flat coated. The gray piece on the right is the roof. Yes, the floor really was that hideous chocolate brown.
Side windows secured with superglue for a rock solid join, to avoid accidentally pushing them inside during later handling
The internal assembly is superglued into the right fuselage half. A bit crude, but still pretty nice in this scale.
Oh, let's not forget the rotor stub assembly! Superglued in place, allowing the rotors to rotate freely.
Finally, the fuselage halves are carefully joined. BTW, the Hungarians called the Mi-2 "The Flying Chicken Drumstick" - I can see why.
Some more fishing weights glued inside the engine compartment, just to be sure.
The cockpit windows of the inside of the nose section are masked off with the KV Models masks. These are intended for the outside so the fit is not perfect on the inside, but hopefully it will work anyway. Inside masking is quite tricky because of the whole part being molded in one piece, I would soooo have preferred the windows to be separate pieces.
The inside of the nose section is sprayed with gray UMP primer and then light blue (Tamiya acrylics).
Transparent nose section and the engine front cemented in place. It's starting to resemble the real thing!
Now this is super annoying... some dust seems to have found its way inside, probably through the tiny holes for the external fuel tanks, and settled on the windows on the inside. after a lot of head scratching, I resolved it by pouring distilled water onto the model, letting some of it find its way inside the cockpit and then move the model around until the water droplets washed away the dust. (Thanks Łukasz 'Woody' Gliński for the tip!)
The auxiliary fuel tanks are assembled. But boy did they ever looked this nice, except directly the factory?
This is more like how they looked: dented and bent, as the ground crew used them as platforms to stand on. I trid to reproduce it by carving away slices with a hobby knife and then sanding them slightly. If you think this is overdone, you should see the real thing, it's like somebody deliberately bashed them with a sledgehammer.
Let's do the rotor assembly next! Since the blades have no droop, I heated them under running, scorching hot water and carefully bent them slightly. Just be careful not to break them.
The drooping rotor Blades attached to the (rather simplified and flat) center hub.
Blades painted greenish gray with a drop of extra white in the middle of the sections to simulate fading.
Leading edges masked off and painted AK Xtreme Metal Steel, and the tips painted Tamiya yellow.
Center hub sprayed AK Xtreme Metal Dark Aluminium and treated with an oil wash. It looks nice, but when comparing it with photos, it does not really look like the real thing. There is a resin set that can be ordered, but, well, I won't bother.
Finally the Montex masks arrived in the mail and were applied to the transparencies. Time to load up the airbrush with some primer!
Model primed with UMP Ultimate Primer using my H&S Evolution, 0.4 mm needle. It's always nice to see the model unified ike this!
Panels preshaded with black before starting the the camo paintjob. The landing gears, handrails and antennas will be attached after the painting as they would just be in the way or be knocked off.
Underside sprayed with my mixture of Tamiya flat white with a few drops of X-23 Clear Blue.
Blue underside masked off with masking tape. Let's now do the first paint layer!
Testing out a bunch of color mixes for something that looks scale correct according to my photos. A lot of hair pulling was involved, but I think I got it. It's a mixture of Tamiya XF-78 Wooden Deck and Tamiya XF-93 Light Brown. The green is Tamiya XF-70 Dark Green 2, paled with some white.
Brown coat sprayed on. Now that was easy. Now for a more complex task!
Camo masking applied, based on my reference photos. Some artistic license was used, but since all Hungarian Mi-2's were hand sprayed resulting in a slightly different pattern on each individual airframe, I think I might be excused.
Green sprayed on.
Masking tapes removed - a few wonky lines that need to be fixed, but it pretty much worked out as planned!
Landing gears attached with superglue as they look a bit fragile. On the other hand the handrails and foot steps are thick as logs, but I cannot be bothered to try to craft my own.
Model coated with Tamiya X-22 Clear Varnish for a super high sheen for decals and weathering. It will be later towned down to a more realistic flat surface.
Dented external fuel tanks added and panel lines slightly weathered with some washes. The vertical strut for the right landing gear ended up missing under the washing machine or something, and so I had to craft something myself from spare parts, hence the slightly clumsy appearance in the photo.
Decalling is easy, just the national insignias, side numbers and a warning decal on the tail rotor boom. I used some from my spares stash too.
Coated with diluted Tamiya Clear Flat for a dull semi-gloss sheen. Now only a few more tiny details remain before I can call it a wrap!
Not perfect but the tiny grasshopper is finished. Let's now do some artistic shots!
Finished
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The ubiquitous night shot in front of the hangar.
Comments
82 1 April 2022, 12:57
Thomas KolbGentlemen, thank you for your encouragement! I will try to make this a simple and relatively quick build before tackling the more difficult helo kits in my stash, the Mi-17 and the mightly Mi-24.
2 April 2022, 09:29
Thomas KolbWelcome gentlemen. Ronan, the helicopter guru, I am honered and humbled by your presence.
3 April 2022, 13:18
RonanI don't consider myself a guru, just a source of inspiration for those wishing to build helicopters.
But if you're disturbed by my presence, I'll sit at the back of the room while waiting for the paint job.
Keep it up peacefully 😉
3 April 2022, 14:29
Thomas KolbMy dear Ronan, that's not the case at all! One of the main points of being here is to learn, to inspire and if possible teach.
3 April 2022, 15:12
RonanI agree with you Thomas 😉
That's why I'm counting on you to teach me new things
3 April 2022, 17:41
Thomas KolbA slight setback here... I just discovered that some dust has found its way inside the cockpit and settled on the windows on the inside. So annoying! Not sure how, as I was super careful cleaning the inside with pressurized air before closing up the fuselage, but I guess through the tiny holes for the external tanks? The question is what to do now. Drilling a hole through the fuselage to clean it might make it worse. I might just leave it and write it off as "shit happens".
4 April 2022, 07:09
Dietmar BogatzkiOr you can try to dive the whole copter under water (with sone drops of detergent) and then under clear water, the dust wont be seen but the windows dont look so clear..
4 April 2022, 08:15
Łukasz GlińskiHow come I missed that so far? 😠
Thomas, I sometimes inject some water into the cockpit/fuselage (only if the PVA/KristalKlear wasn't there) to wash off the dust - the biggest con being the waiting time afterwards to get it dry again 😉 Examples? Mainly my airliners 🙂
4 April 2022, 08:18
Ronanthis problem has happened to me before and I cut out a side window of the cockpit 😉
4 April 2022, 08:31
Thomas KolbLukasz, interesting idea! Didn't you end up with water stains afterwards?
Ronan, the entire nose section is one piece, so I guess it would be very difficult.
4 April 2022, 08:38
Michael KohlYou can avoid water stains by using destilled water.
Happened to me too at my glider build. I did not come up with another idea than to cut off the canopy again.
Bigger particles might be placed elsewhere by tapping/snipping at the window. But probably does not work on the small pieces. And you probably did that already. Good luck.
4 April 2022, 10:41
Thomas KolbI poured some distilled water onto the model and sure enough, some of it did find its way inside. By moving the model around, I managed to get the droplets to wash away most of the gunk from the windows. Thanks to Łukasz, Michael and Ronan for the tips!
4 April 2022, 14:28
Bernhard SchrockHello Mates. Despite you solved the problem I would share with you all my trick for fixing such a problem.
I adapted several injections needles for attaching to the compressed air "flex tube" for the airbrush. Install the flattened needle (flattened to prevent damage of the inside of the clear part) instead the airbrush, put it through a hole into the fuselage and blow the dust away.
If you don't have a hole in the needed position drill one and cover it later with a small piece of decal. You can bend the needles if it's thin enough (0,6mm). See for example pics 21-23 in this album.
Vought F8U-1 Crusader 141340 - completed. | Album by Yellowwing (1:48)
4 April 2022, 15:01
Thomas KolbCool! Thanks for the tip! Injection needles cannot be bought in Sweden without a medical prescription, but I will see if I can find something that I can attach to the compressor for future projects!
4 April 2022, 15:30
CuajeteFantastic tips from all mates!
Bernhard, Is the interior of the cockpit not affected by drilling through the fuselage?
4 April 2022, 19:35
Bernhard SchrockCuajete: it's correct. You have a small hole in the cockpit side wall but through the closed canopy it's invisible🙂
5 April 2022, 04:22
CuajeteI think I haven't ever seen green blades before. It looks great, Thomas! 👍
10 April 2022, 17:44
Łukasz GlińskiThomas, just to ensure: are you aware of the fact the OOB rotor is oversize?
10 April 2022, 18:55
Łukasz GlińskiI recall reading somewhere that it's too big and there are geometry issues.
Let me take comparison photo later today wit the resin TopGun and ResKit replacements.
11 April 2022, 09:26
Thomas KolbI know that ResKit has a replacement, but it cannot be delivered until the end of June, so I decided to skip it. The only thing I can see with the kit's own rotor is that it is a little simplified and two-dimensional. But the whole kit is in fact rather simple, although with a superb fit.
11 April 2022, 11:00
Łukasz GlińskiSorry for the slight delay 🙂
The ResKit set needs assembling first, so I gave up 😉
HB vs TopGun rotors: [img1]
12 April 2022, 07:51
Thomas KolbThanks Łukasz! It then seems that the kit's rotor is not that bad after all. The swashplate is a bit crude, but once it is all painted and weathered, it's actually pretty decent, at least in this scale.
12 April 2022, 08:41
Łukasz GlińskiI have to admit I was disappointed upon buying the resin set too, the reviews back then made you think the rotor is 1/48th 😄 But actually it's not that bad indeed.
12 April 2022, 08:44
Thomas KolbWaiting for a dozen Tamiya paint jars to arrive in the mail. Will continue soon.
20 April 2022, 07:41
Alec KThis is progressing nicely, I'll take a back seat (doorman was taking a smoke break so I sneaked in 😄 )
3 June 2022, 17:35
Thomas KolbAlec, thank you, but no need to sneak, with me, everything is like a marathon run at glacial speeds.
4 June 2022, 06:37
Thomas KolbI hereby consider this project finished. Not perfect but definitely good enough. More photos will be posted as soon as I get home after work.
10 June 2022, 07:11
Łukasz GlińskiBeautiful, makes me wanna start one 🙂 Looks great in these colours and markings 👍
10 June 2022, 09:46
Gary KitchenLovely finish Thomas. I've enjoyed following along. Everything looks so clean and controlled unlike my own chaotic process, very admirable. 👍
10 June 2022, 11:01
CuajeteBeautiful job once again, Thomas!
That paint scheme suits the Hoplite very well. Maybe do mine like this (if the version I have allows it).
Very nice result and very nice pics with the Hangar one more time. Congrats! 👍
10 June 2022, 18:03
