Begemot 1/72 Mi-8/17 Maintenance Stencils Decal First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Begemot Decals is an interesting decal company from Rostov-on-Don, Russia that offers a nice array of markings for Russian-built aircraft. In this release, they've hit touched on a much-overlooked subject - the Mil Mi-8/17.

This sheet provides a very thorough set of maintenance stencils and an equally thorough set of instructions to properly place them. This sheet includes the standard maintenance stenciling for the airframe with good notes to differentiate specific markings that are unique to either the Mi-8T or Mi-8MT/Mi-17.

In addition, the set provides a nice array of stencils for aircraft weapons. The armed Mi-8T is the most heavily armed helicopter in the world, carrying more weapons than even the Mi-24! This set has stencils for the BDZ-57KrV rocket pods, UB-16-57U rocket pods, UB32A-24 rocket pods, B-8V20A rocket pods, UPK-23-250 gun pods, GUV-1 gun pods, GUV-2 gun pods, KMG-U, KMGU-2, and PTB-450 stores.

The decal printing is perfectly in register. The instructions are printed on two sheets that provide not only decal placement for each aircraft, but also a nice color reference for each aircraft as well. Decals include the distinctive aircraft markings as well as appropriate national markings. Now if we could only interest Begemot to produce these in 1/35 scale for the Trumpeter kit!

For more information about this set and the other releases from Begemot Decals, visit their website at http://www.begemotdecals.ru.

My sincere thanks to Begemot Decals for this review sample!