HISTORY

The author of the article in front of the last of the special Hind markings – the anniversary paintings of No. 3369 Mi-34 chopper.

Conclusion

Hereby we finished he detailed description of the essential differences between D and V versions visible on the helicopter and therefore sufficient refence for the modelers. There are of course many more differences so even

though the aircraft are seemingly similar, but the in-depth inspection will

convince you otherwise. Vast majority of hereby described differences are

to be addressed by Eduard, either directly by conversion parts included in

the kit, notes in the instructions, or separately sold aftermarket sets so after

a while all necessary parts to build an accurate Mi-24D should be available.

Be aware though that building an accurate Mi-24 of any version from Zvezda

kit will be a challenge. While rather smooth surface of their 72nd scale model is acceptable, scaled into 1/48 its accuracy suffers a bit. The real „twenty-four“ is anything on its exterior but that smooth.

Rather prominent gaps between upper decking panels, more-less raised

screw heads, rivets, various locks, eyelets, holds, overlapping or strengthened skin, all this creates an incredible relief of surface that should be

captured in 1/48 scale. Something will be up to the modelers but there are

already commercial products available. What really doesn’t look right in my

eyes is the intake cone of the oil cooler fan. Further the modelers should

pay attention to various sensors, exterior lightning, antennas, cables, hoses,

and similar details which I did not mention in this article since they were not

subject to the version differences comparison. I suppose that anyone who

buys this limited edition kit with aftermarket detail will also arm himself with

the references, either in the printed form, and there was a plethora of them

published in our country, or from internet and my list will use as a quick

reference not to forget about something. Off course modelers building the

72nd scale D version can take advantage of this article, partially for V version

as well.

Let me point out again that I compared Czechoslovak and Czech air force

D and V versions delivered under the socialist regime. Mi-24V/35 delivered

as part of the Russian debt deblock are different from the early Hind Vs.

I hope I will tackle this interesting topic in the future article.

I did not mention the Slovak Hinds on purpose since I don’t possess the personal experience with them. However, allow me very briefly some words

about No. 0222 airframe, which is depicted in the instructions in the state

after overhaul in LOTN. Instead of SRO-2 antenna on the operator’s cockpit

frame it carries GPS antenna, there is a red strobe beacon behind the front

wheel well, same as on the tail boom, in place of the original one. The white

responder antennas on the right behind the ammunition box and on the tail

boom, there is also the white whip antenna apparently for ELT and a black

radio antenna under the tail. Logically the rear trident-shaped SRO-2 antenna is missing.

Otherwise, Ds in our air force, except of the minor upgrade of several aircraft, which included GPS installation, finished flying basically in the factory

configuration. The helicopters which undertook the overhaul in the Soviet

Union in the first half of 80th received just more saturated camouflage colors. In general, the Soviet paints were of very high quality. They did fade

over the time but remained durable. The aircraft which were overhauled in

Hungary, in the second half of 80th, were reportedly stripped of the old paint

on the exterior but apparently the Hungarians did not pay too much attention

INFO Eduard - November 2021

to the interior painting. Their strange light grey-blue paint with greenish cast,

used for example in the cargo compartment, was sprayed right on the top

of the original paint and after some time started to peel off. The same is true

about the black paint used on the pilot cockpits‘ floors. However, as far as

the airframe and all its installation is concerned the Hungarian comrades

did a good job. Since 1988 Mi-24Vs and Ds were exclusively repaired at LOK

Prague (nowadays part of LOM Pragues s.p.) if I omit the lower level maintenance within the system of prescribed jobs at the air force unit level and

one unsuccessful attempt at Revision 1 on Hind D No. 0221 in LOZ Brno in the

end of 90s.

After several lower level repairs, it was the well-known No. 4011 which in the

fall 1995 undertook so called entry repair I think, when the exterior was stripped of the paint completely and consequently, as the only D, was repainted

in the special camouflage called „Fluora“ featuring the oversized national insignia. Also, Mi-24V No. 0838 received similar camouflage. Later, sometime

in 1998 at Prerov base, with LOK participation, the problem of technical life

extension of this aircraft manufactured in 1978 was attempted to be solved

while certain problems were diagnosed, and the aircraft flew for the last

time to Kbely to have them rectified. Nowadays this legendary chopper can

be found, in rather poor condition and horrible camouflage, in a Slovak private museum. In LOK, at the beginning of 2000s, these aircraft yet undertook

so called Revision 2 almost in the extent of the general overhaul: Hind DU No.

6050 and D Nos. 0217, 0218, 0219, 0220 and 0221. But the concept of the army

did not count much with the Ds at that time, and so they were soon scrapped

with relatively low flight hours recorded since the overhauls were made.

These helicopters already received so called „NATO standard“ camouflage

which was unfortunately sprayed on the sanded Hungarian camouflage and

in the combination with the application of the unsuitable primer the paint

started to peel off soon. It can be seen on the No. 0220 airframe at Kbely

museum.

And that would be all on the topic of our air force Mi-24D. If you managed to

read up to this point congratulations and I hope that this article will help all

modelers building this fast, powerful, durable but above all beautiful helicopter which can be seen in our skies for unbelievable 43 years.

P.S. I wrote the article with dislocated and fractured right arm so as a right

handed person I really „had a blast“!

eduard

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