Looking to build a 1/32 Yak-1b

[Slim]

For my next project I'd like to build a Yak-1b as flown by Lilya Litvyak, The White Rose of Stalingrad, during the Summer of 1943 while assigned to the 73 Guards IAP. I have all the research materal and several color profiles of her aircraft, but am coming up short on options for the aircraft itself.

 

So far it looks like the only Yak-1b in 1/32 is the Montex resin kit. While the Montex kit looks nice and has some good reviews, I've never built a full resin kit before and would prefer to find something in plastic. My question is, have I overlooked an injection molded kit out there, maybe something from back in the day that's no longer in production? Any help or advice would be appreciated. Also, I'd like to hear from anyone who's built the Montex kit. I'm not totally opposed to trying that kit, but the full resin has me a little nervous.

[Kagemusha]

Don't have the kit, but this review should give you some encouragement: http://modelingmadness.com/reviews/allies/...r/tmc32yak1.htm This is the only 1/32 scale kit of the Yak 1. This might help also: http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.ph...p;hl=yak+montex

[dutik]

The only other choice beside scratchbuilding are paper kits in 1/33 scale.

 

Painting VVS aircraft of GPW is a can of worms. If we regard the search for the late war RLM colours as a proving ground, than are discussions about VVS coloration and camouflage patterns the true armageddon Best choice to learn about the real deal are russian forums (what else ). Because the larger part of the modelling community is not speaking Russian there is some help by this homepage: http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/index.html and that ARC thread: http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index....howtopic=175255

For painting the up-to-date recommendation are AKAN colours from Russia, formulated with the help of the 2 surviving examples of the russian "FS-standard" paintchip collection from 1948 (called "Albom Nakrasok" - just in case you read this name) and leftover airplane parts. In case you don't want to order from Russia there is an US importer - Linden Hill.

 

OK, now I will sit down and wait for your wip images...

 

Regards! - dutik

[TimW]

Another issue is Litvyak flew the turtleback Yak-1. Not sure she flew the bubbletop, AFAIK.

 

http://www.internetmodeler.com/1999/july/aviation/yak1.htm

 

Tim W.

[LSP_Ray]

Actually Tim, that article states she had three kills in - and was shot down and killed herself - in a Yak-1b "White 23" so Slim is correct. I don't know if I have ever seen a profile or description of what camo it carried, however. Slim, did you find more info?

[Slim]

Actually Tim, that article states she had three kills in - and was shot down and killed herself - in a Yak-1b "White 23" so Slim is correct. I don't know if I have ever seen a profile or description of what camo it carried, however. Slim, did you find more info?

 

Ray, the profile I have for Litvyak's "White 23", which by all accounts was a Yak-1b, is a speculative rendering of what the camo pattern may have been. It seems that known photo's from the time were focused on Lilya, and not her aircraft. Unless I come across some evidence I've over looked, I'll use the camo pattern from the port side profile I have now, and do some historical speculation about the starbord side and upper wings.

 

The upper camo colors were most likely some shade of Tractor Black over some shade of Tractor Green. I plan to start messing around with some color mixtures next weekend. I'm still a little up in the air about the lower surface color, but I'll make up my mind on that before I start the construction.

 

The profile that I'm using for her "White 23" can be found in a few places on the internet, including here:

http://mysite.pratt.edu/~rsilva/litvyak.htm

[dutik]

http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/colors/color-table.html

 

Just scroll down to "Camouflage paints for Soviet aircraft June 1941 – September 1943". There is also a comparision to Humbrol paint at the homepage.

 

Regards! - dutik

[LSP_Ray]

Not sure about the 'tractor green' check out the link given above, also I might be able to help with camo scheme, will post later.

 

A good source of paint is White Ensign Models, http://www.whiteensignmodels.com/acatalog/...et_Colours.html , they mixed colors based on latest research.

 

Here is another great site I would recommend highly: http://vvs.hobbyvista.com/

 

I have Eric Piwalski's book on camo schemes and colors, which I will get back to you on.

[dutik]

Pilawskiis book was not well recieved by russian researchers and modellers. Looks like he overlooked some important sources and filled some niches with paints that weren't in reality (like "Tractor Green"). So I take his book today with a grain of salt. Remenber, that the WEM colours for the russian aviation are based on Pilawskiis work. The current standard tends more to be the Akan range of paints from Russia.

 

BTW, I own both Pilawskiis and Iliad designs books about Russian ariforce camouflage, as well as some copies of M-Hobby with articles about the topic (like the "art deco" experimental camouflage), but I am still confused to sort out whats the real deal of colour and patterns for what type, location and time frame. Still waiting for the final book about that topic. That said, build and paint your model the way you feel comfortable with. We will not face some Russian acceptance comission for our hobby work

 

Happy modelling! - dutik

[LSP_Ray]

Yes, Russian colors are almost, if not more, as bad as late war Luftwaffe!!!

I was talking about Pilawskii's camo research mainly, although I still think his colors as mixed by WEM look pretty darn close, close enough for me anyway.

 

Anyway, according to Pilawskii, here is one possibility of the camo scheme for a Yak-1b, one that more or less could be similar to the profile you linked to:

Here is a link to a couple more possible schemes (ignore the white rudder of course):

http://vvs.hobbyvista.com/Camouflage/yak1/yak1-cammo.php

 

It does appear most likely to be an AMT-4/AMT-6/AMT-7 scheme.

 

And here is a link to someone else's Litya build, in 1/48th, as an FYI:

http://vvs.hobbyvista.com/ModelGallery/yak1_48.php

Scroll down to find her aircraft.

 

Hope this helps!

[Slim]

A big thank you to Ray and dutik for the great advise and the links. I was going to start messing around with mixing up and shooting some colors on primed styrene sheets this weekend, but after reviewing the info from you Gents, I think I'll place a couple of orders before I start trying to boil up a witch's brew of colors.

 

I would like to get the color and camo pattern as close to authentic as possible, but in the absence of any color photographic evidence, some of it will be historical speculation. This project will end up in my display case vice a model show, so I won't be sweating every detail, but will do the best job I can given my current skill set.

 

I'm still a little worried about working with a full resin kit....I'm old enough to know what I don't know, and I certainly don't know what gottcha's there may be in a resin kit. I have used several resin pilot figures in last few months, and the medium seems fairly easy to work with. Having said that, a full 1/32 kit is far cry from a pilot figure.

[LSP_Ray]

If you are worried about working with a resin kit, the Yak-1b is a good one to start out with. The moldings are near perfect and there is not too much in the way of over pours. The canopy is cast clear resin, not a vac, so that simplifies things. The fuselage halves nearly match that of injected plastic, as do the wings.

Yes, you need to be careful cleaning up some of the smaller parts, but they give you extras of the tiny ones just in case. Yes, there will probably be more work in fitting some of the components, for instance the way they did the wings looks like there might be some interesting seams to deal with. But I don't think it is any different than dealing with some of the short-run injected plastic kits and the detail is much better. The kit also includes decals and masks so is a complete package.

In other words, go for it! You need to at least try!

[Slim]

Thanks for the encouragement, Ray. I'm going to give it a shot.

[TimW]

Actually Tim, that article states she had three kills in - and was shot down and killed herself - in a Yak-1b "White 23" so Slim is correct. I don't know if I have ever seen a profile or description of what camo it carried, however. Slim, did you find more info?

 

Thanks for the clarification--I didn't know/had forgotten that for some reason--more familiar with "Yellow 44."

 

Not enough 1/32 Soviet models out there, IMO!

 

Tim W.