LEM 1/35 Mi-4AV Hound Armament Set First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

There I was rummaging through eBay one evening and I happened across a listing for a 1/35 Mi-8/Mi-17 Armament set in resin. I looked at the images, looked at the seller's feedback, and looked at the price - $35 USD (nobody was bidding on this). I decided to take a risk and bought the set. The seller is from Kiev in the Ukraine, so there is a very good chance that the details were going to be as good as the images. You may recall that I had previously purchased a 1/32 MiG-27M Flogger J kit from this same chap and I am still pleased with the purchase.

A week later, a box arrived from the Ukraine inside a huge envelope smothered in stamps. My detail set had arrived. The first thing I was curious about was the company that was producing this kit. The company is called LEM and they sell their kits and detail sets on eBay under the name of ruporator.

Here we are with one of two armament sets for the Trumpeter 1/35 Mi-4 Hound kit. One has a smaller pair of external racks to carry a total of four UB-16-57 16-shot rocket pods. This set however is the most heavily armed Mi-4 I've seen with larger racks for six UB-16-57 rocket pods plus four launch rails for a total of four Malyutka (AT-3 Sagger) anti-tank guided missiles. The most heavily armed helicopter is a variant of the Mi-8 Hip which has the same number of rocket pods and AT-3 missiles, but the Hip variant steps up the rocket pods to the 32-shot UB-32-57 pods.

The kit is packed in a box with all of the parts safely wrapped in bubblewrap and stored inside a large zip-lock bag. Everything arrived safe and sound. Among the features of the set:

• Six complete UB-16-57 rocket pods
• Two triple-pylon fuselage racks
• Six pylons
• Four launch rails
• Four Malyutka missiles
• Fuselage suspension braces

As with the previously reviewed Mi-8 set, this armament set is nicely engineered with integral brass wires in the resin mounts and braces to provide some essential strength to the weapons assemblies.

If you have one of Trumpeter's beautiful Mi-4 kits or perhaps have wanted to build one in other than a utility aircraft configuration, here is one of the armament options from LEM that will make your build stand out on the contest table. This Mi-4AV is the most heavily armed configuration I've seen for this aircraft and will definitely be an eye-catcher!

It is amazing some of the kits and detail sets that are coming through the market place from unusual places. I've done business with this company a few times now and I still don't even know their product line name. If you want one of your own, the only place I can find this kit is on eBay from seller ruporator.