I gave the whole airframe a coat of the Light Stone and then checked for consistency of coverage. When this had dried I gave the whole model a buffing with a length of panty hose (tights material). It has a spiral weave and acts like a scouring pad, removing all the dust paint and imperfections. It also imparts a slight sheen to the model. I chose to free hand spray the black-grey, which in hindsight I should have masked using ‘Prestik’, (Bluetak) it may have taken longer but would have saved me painting the light stone for a second time.

Completed model - National Markings, see text

 Again once dry the whole model was again buffed with panty hose. After this a coat of gloss coat was sprayed in the areas where the decals were to be positioned. The decals are thin but pre-clear coated, careful cutting with scissors to remove each image from the sheet. Please note that the wing roundels have the green portion to the right, when viewed from the rear and not as I placed them, to the left!! Once all the decals have been applied the whole model was given a coat of satin clear-coat. The cockpit masking was then removed. 

 On the sensor turret the top optic glass was painted silver the others gloss black. They were then covered with Micro Crystal Clear. On the Scaleworx cannon I cut off the barrel and replaced it with a length of trace wire and fashioned a new flash eliminator. I was fortunately given a copy of the magazine Helitac, which has an excellent article on the helo, with many images for extra detail. Unfortunately the magazine is printed in New Zealand, so until we are able to publish local images you will have to wait patiently.

Bottom view of painted model

After the clear-coat had dried - I left the model alone for two days. I then started to add the small and detail parts, the pitot tube, the wheels and the two crew access steps. Then the two antenna wires from two posts just aft of the APU exhaust to the tips of the horizontal stabilisers. Then a cross piece to join the two together, these were made from fine stretched sprue. The Ingwe missiles were painted Light Stone and added to their racks and attached to the weapons pylons.

 I chose to drill the ends out the ends of each missile tube to represent a ship unarmed. The mounting pins on the lower face of the two in-board pylons were removed and the pylons attached to the stub-wings. The main rotors blades leading edges were painted aluminium after I had removed the joint strips as they were over-scale. The upper and lower surfaces were painted dark grey the tail rotor was painted the same plus the tops picked out with gloss red. New pitch change push rods were add once the rotor blades had been attached to the main rotorhead. I used plastic rod of 0.6mm diameter.

 My thanks to Scaleworx for providing the kit for which I am grateful, it was accurate and easy to use. It is available from good local hobby stores. The Hobby Boss kit was easy to assemble, accurate and very well detailed. It’s a pity we have had to wait such a long time for a well detailed Hind.

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Super Hind Mk III detail .

Super Hind Mk III in Algerian markings . Gallery registration required. Registration is free.