1/72 Italeri Mi-24 Hind-s 

by Tamás Skriba

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  Hungarian Holiday

 

The Mi-24 variants started their service in the Hungarian Air Force in 1978. at the Szentkirályszabadja Air Force Base, at first with the D variants, wich was followed by the V, and later with some of the P variants (from the ex-DDR arzenal). On 12th April 2001. two helicopters (bort number 579 Mi-24D and bort number 715 Mi-24V) from the 87. BAKONY Tactical Helicopter Wing collided and crashed during a training sortie. Two personel where killed by the accident. My diorama shows these two helicopters.

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Both kits are from Italeri, but unfortunately there are a lot of mistakes regarding the variant. The D variants guided air to surface missile was the Falanga with special trails, and it carried UB-32 unguided rocket pods. By the later V variant the Falanga was changed to the 9M114 Sturm (AT-6 Spiral) missile with a new missile control system, and it carried the B8V20 rocket pods. This details has to be changed by the original kit, depending on it, which model you want to build. Apart from this the Italeri kit is a very nice one, and it was easy to build.

The Hinds wear the standard Hungarian camouflage. The decals are from the HAD accessories, pilots and the soldiers from ESCI.

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In the last years the Hungarian Air Force had a lot of changes. The earlier mentioned wing doesn't exist anymore and the base was also closed. The helicopters where relocated to Szolnok.

Tamás

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Photos and text © by Tamás Skriba