Unfortunately, I have not had much time at all to work on the hind but I did get some work done!
Straight to it, the Canopy work has been the hardest but I have managed to remove the front glass without destroying the whole canopy now I have to simply insert new glass which I have already bought, and cap the outside with a new piece of styrene that will sandwich the glass between the inner and out rings.
Unfortunately, the inner ring did slip a bit but I can fix it. Some glue did leak a bit as well but nothing serious or unfixable. The rest should be smooth sailing.
The cockpit itself had everything torn out and now it is getting rebuilt with styrene to correct the shape. Most of the work is done in the gunner seat and I have finished most of the major shapes. Now it’s mostly instruments, wires, and panels with rivets.
Once the canopy is done I can do a lot more work on the pilot area and you will see why later.
This small update is to show what my plan is and where I am heading with this.
Both the pilot door and gunner door have a thick rim with inflatable rubber hoops around them that seal the cockpit when filled with air. While the gunner’s rim is only touching the canopy the Pilot door is a huge one-piece that connects to the hull so I had a challenge of how to represent it.
Here is my solution. Have the piece shaped in the door frame attach to the canopy itself and then simply slide into the rest of the hull with the gaps being hidden behind the instruments.
I have just started a monogram 1/48 and am following your build closely.So much detail [in yours]. I coudnt work out an easy way for the tail twist so I,m just going with no change best of luck.
Thank you as @HeavyArty and @Tank_1812 have pointed out its the entire fuselage which honestly, I might have tried if I didn’t rush through the build at the start to try and get it done for a show.
I mainly have been working on some 3D designs so not much progress on the canopy so far. other than squaring off the shape. Now I have to add a lip with the three inflatable rubber rings which will be pretty easy.
Most of my 3D prints are prototypes and don’t have details on them yet, but I have reworked and completed the HUB that includes the Pilots collective and some other controls. I Left out some of the areas where I will sculpt fabric covers for the Collective and knobs.
Hi Vstobinskii,
an amazing work you did. I recently “unearthed” my Trumpeter kit to build an NVA “Hind D”. I have Verlinden cockpit set and Master Model Gatling gun. I build the “D” chin sensor from scratch. I only wish that someone will release a late NVA Hind F kit.
I heard an interesting story about NVA Hind use. About 50 km from here in Thuringia, there was a radar installation from Luftstreitkräfte/Luftverteidigung. But someday in the 1980´s, a sports glider from the West Germany flew to Thuringia by accident and landed on the radar site ground. Hence NVA based a HIND D from Basepohl AB on site to prevent such an event in the future.
I have been working mainly on 3D designs and prototypes but I have finally finished the Flex sight for the gunner and this thing was sooo much work. There is still a bit of cleanup from the glue and the glass missing but here it is.
Now here is some bad-ish news. I will be taking a small pause/working on a different kit at the same time. I am getting an itch to actually paint and work on something very simple so I got myself a 3D printed kit of a mech from Titanfall 2.
