As a Cobra pilot on the border in Germany during the cold war, the Mi-24 Hind was the boogieman. It is one big ugly and deadly helicopter. I’ve always wanted to fly one.

The Hind has sported some very colorful paint schemes, especially since the end of the cold war. Big and ugly can become somewhat beautiful when you put a nice paint scheme on them they become less ugly, kind of like putting lipstick on a pig.

The latest offering from the Hungarian company, HungAeroDecals, covers four Mi-24V Hinds in Hungarian service. The decals are printed on a 2 ½ x 4 7/8 (6.5 x 12.5cm) printed by BOA Agency so you know they are very thin, opaque and react well with setting solutions. Just make sure that you use plenty of water to slide them on. The instructions are on a single sheet of A4 paper with full color side view drawings of both sides of the four aircraft. Other than notes on the countries of the aircraft there is no other information on these aircraft or units.

The first two are similar in two shades of grey and green from the Czech Republic. They are actually the same aircraft at different times in its life. The first one is in subdued

combat markings. The next one is the same markings but this time with full color Tiger Meet markings. The aircraft number and national markings are full color and then the tail is pimped out with a yellow tail and black tiger stripes.

The third aircraft is a Hungarian aircraft in my favorite paint scheme of yellow and green. There is just something neat about a yellow and green Hind.

The fourth one is in the traditional tan and green pattern seen on Hinds. This Hungarian aircraft is what most people think of when they think of Hinds.

These decals fill a void in helicopter markings for the Hind and allows the modeler to pick some colorful options for their kit. The printing is superb and in perfect register. This is my first time seeing HADModels but it won’t be my last.

Highly recommended

Thanks to HADModels and IPMS/USA for the review copy. You can obtain your copy by contacting them directly at https://www.hadmodels.com . Let them know you heard about it here.