Mil Mi-2 'Hoplite' - Hobby Boss

Robert Podkoński
Watching with pleasure and interest, of course!

Zsolt Czegle
Following....

Michael Kohl
Me too

Cuajete
Me 4!
Those interiors and the scratch looks great, Thomas 👍

Harry Eder
Count me in!

Villiers de Vos
Very nice.

Robert Podkoński
Poles call Mi-2 "kettle" 😉

Thomas Kolb Autor
Gentlemen, 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.

Taylor Durbon
Fast and nice progress. Well done!

Ekki
Watching.

Ronan
Following too 😉

Thomas Kolb Autor
Welcome gentlemen. Ronan, the helicopter guru, I am honered and humbled by your presence.

Ronan
I 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 😉

Juergen Klinglhuber
Being part of this one too,....

Thomas Kolb Autor
My 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.

Ronan
I agree with you Thomas 😉
That's why I'm counting on you to teach me new things

Thomas Kolb Autor
A 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".

Dietmar Bogatzki
Or 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..

Łukasz Gliński
How 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 🙂

Ronan
this problem has happened to me before and I cut out a side window of the cockpit 😉

Thomas Kolb Autor
Lukasz, 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.

Łukasz Gliński
Well, nope, but it was 1/144 mainly 🙂

Michael Kohl
You 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.

Thomas Kolb Autor
I 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!

Bernhard Schrock
Hello 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)

Łukasz Gliński
That's a cool trick! Thx Bernhard 🙂

Thomas Kolb Autor
Cool! 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!

Cuajete
Fantastic tips from all mates!
Bernhard, Is the interior of the cockpit not affected by drilling through the fuselage?

Bernhard Schrock
Cuajete: it's correct. You have a small hole in the cockpit side wall but through the closed canopy it's invisible🙂

Cuajete
Thx, Bernhard 👍

Dietmar Bogatzki
Thanks for the tip, Bernhard 👍

Cuajete
I think I haven't ever seen green blades before. It looks great, Thomas! 👍

Łukasz Gliński
Thomas, just to ensure: are you aware of the fact the OOB rotor is oversize?

Thomas Kolb Autor
Lukasz, no I wasn't... would you please care to explain?

Łukasz Gliński
I 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.

Thomas Kolb Autor
I 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.

Łukasz Gliński
Sorry for the slight delay 🙂
The ResKit set needs assembling first, so I gave up 😉
HB vs TopGun rotors: [img1]

Thomas Kolb Autor
Thanks 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.

Łukasz Gliński
I 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.

Thomas Kolb Autor
Waiting for a dozen Tamiya paint jars to arrive in the mail. Will continue soon.

Alec K
This is progressing nicely, I'll take a back seat (doorman was taking a smoke break so I sneaked in 😄 )

Thomas Kolb Autor
Alec, thank you, but no need to sneak, with me, everything is like a marathon run at glacial speeds.

Alec K
Thomas, I have you beat in the glacial speed marathon for sure 👍 😄

Cuajete
Camo looks very nice 👍

Łukasz Gliński
It does indeed, perfect shading 👍

Taylor Durbon
Nice paintjob👌

Thomas Kolb Autor
I hereby consider this project finished. Not perfect but definitely good enough. More photos will be posted as soon as I get home after work.

Raphael Bernecole
Very nice painting and work on your Hoplite ! Well done 🙂

Robert Podkoński
Fantastic work, Thomas! (as usual 😉 ) Congrats!

bughunter
Great paint job 👍

Finn
Well done Thomas!

Ronan
Great job 👍

Neuling
Very beautiful result! And good photos no. 51 and 52! 👍

Łukasz Gliński
Beautiful, makes me wanna start one 🙂 Looks great in these colours and markings 👍

David R. Meizoso
Turned out great, congrats!

Harry Eder
Very nice Hoplite! 👍

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Turned out beautiful, Thomas. 👍

Gary Kitchen
Lovely finish Thomas. I've enjoyed following along. Everything looks so clean and controlled unlike my own chaotic process, very admirable. 👍

Alec K
Superb job indeed. The hangar pics are just excellent 👍

Thomas Kolb Autor
Thank you all for your kind words of appreciation!

Zsolt Czegle
Great work (and a great Hungarian grasshopper again) 👍

Villiers de Vos
Fantastic work.

Cuajete
Beautiful 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! 👍

Taylor Durbon
Neat little outcome of this chopper. Well done!

Villiers de Vos
A beautiful little gem.

Juergen Klinglhuber
Well done 👍 👍

Tibor Szilvai
Fantastic work! 👍

Rui S
Great clean work 👍

Marius
It looks great Thomas! Very beautiful model!

Ekki
Great job!