ICM Yak-9T

[Uncarina]

Nice progress Michael!

 

Cheers,  Tom

[Greif8]

The IP looks great Michael, excellent progess overall!

 

Ernest

[Dpgsbody55]

The engine is now built as far as I can go at the moment, though there are still more parts to go in when I install it into the fuselage.  I won't be doing so right now as I want to paint it first, then install the exhausts then engine during the final assembly stage.  This makes both painting masking easier.

 

So here's the partial engine which, according to the instructions, is as far as you should go if you want to close it up and glue the cowlings in place.  As, pointed out earlier, it's an either/or situation according to the instructions.  But I want both.  Fussy, ain't I .

 

 

As you can see, it's just the crankcase, heads and prop reduction gear with a dirty great cannon added.  No rocker covers, magnetos, supercharger, intake or any pipes of any sort.  The back of the cannon goes into that triangular shaped indentation in the firewall, so it's a must.  The gold bit you can see on the bottom of the crankcase, is where I daubed a contrasting colour to see where the front of the engine mounts or touches the front fuselage.  I had trouble even fitting the cowlings at this stage as the front of the motor stood up too high and didn't appear to connect to anything.  Here's where it does connect.

 

 

 

It's a tight fit, so I've filled a little off the cannon where it butts into that triangular hole to get it to sit back a little further and better engage that "divot" in the lower fuselage piece (part C36).  When you first see it, you might be tempted to fill it.  Don't, or you'll just make life harder.  This is how it should sit in the model.

 

 

After this, I gradually added more bits to see if it was possible to build it with removable cowlings, and the answer is mostly.  Here it is fitted with everything.

 

 

At this point, the cowlings still fit, but I've had to do some grinding to get the front cowl on, and I've still a little grinding to get the rear cowl on in two places where the magneto outer edges hit, but it will be OK.  I've also had to mount the rocker cover on to the engine with the front of each slightly offset towards the middle, or I'd have had to grind them too which would have looked obvious.  Incidentally, regarding that gunmetal painted part (D16) you can see mounted against the left cylinder bank, don't mount that when the instructions say to if you display your engine as it gets in the way of two pipes added later.  Here's a few pics of the engine outside of the plane.

 

Right side, with supercharger and right intake manifold.

 

Left side, similar to above.  You can also see where I've filed the end of the cannon a little.  The raised parts of the cylinder head below the rocker cover are the exhaust ports - one single port, two sets of siamesed ports, the another single port.  This is why you'll see the four middle exhaust pipes on the exterior in two pairs of two pipes.

 

Top view.

 

You can see those two pipes I mentioned earlier exiting from part of the supercharger below the left magneto.  Once these were in place, I re-attached that gunmetal piece D16.  The engine was not that easy to build as the locating holes and indents are not that obvious especially after it's painted, and even just not there, so lots of head scratching.  It's also not Tamiya level of detail either.  Those baseball bat-like intakes running up either side of the engine should have three carburettors mounted on each.  However, in ICM's defense, there's no way they'd be seen other than where they exit the supercharger, unless you cut away more of the engine cowlings and then you'd also have to make engine mounts and framing etc.  The instructions give you a choice of paint colour for the crankcase and supercharger, either light gray or bare steel, which is what I've gone with.  Here's a couple of pictures of the Klimov VK-105 V12.

 

 

 

By the standards of the day, it looks a generation older than other V12's like the Merlin or V-1710, or the German inverted V12's, and it only produced between initially1200 and later 1360hp at 2700rpm from it's 35 litres.  It drew heavily in it's design on the Hispano-Suiza 12Y.  The supercharger is small, though it's a two speed affair, and the gas flow through the engine is not crossflow but reverse flow, a bit like a car engine from 1960 such a Ford Falcon six cylinder and both have siamesed ports which also doesn't help power production.  See how narrow those rocker covers are?  No opposed inlet and exhaust valves here.  But it's an interesting looking thing showing the difference between different countries aviation technology, so I wanted to show it as best the model allows.  It was also produced in big numbers and powered many aircraft including the early LaGG-1 and -3, the Yak serie sand Petlyakov Pe-2 and -3.  It also found it's way into some P-39's and P-40's.

 

That's it for now.  With luck, I'll have the wings on next time, and I'm half way there now.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

Edited December 9, 2022 by Dpgsbody55

[Greif8]

The engine looks good Mike and thank you for the historical info.  I have built a few of the Eduard and Wing Tech 109s and they have the same fit issues if you construct the entire engine.

 

Ernest

[Dpgsbody55]

On 12/10/2022 at 2:28 PM, Greif8 said:

The engine looks good Mike and thank you for the historical info.  I have built a few of the Eduard and Wing Tech 109s and they have the same fit issues if you construct the entire engine.

 

Ernest

 

As one who has an interest in engines and mechanical stuff in general, it interested me to see how the russians coped in WW2 given their apparent lack of technology and resources.  I guess the answer is pretty well.  You make the best of what you've got.  This also explains the heavy reliance on steel and wood in their aircraft, as they had very little light alloys to hand.

 

As to the engine fit, in my case it's because I want to display an engine, as well as cover it up and the kit isn't designed like this.  I haven't built the Eduard or Wing Tech 109s so can't speak to them.  I like to make these kits work as I want them, which again speaks to my interests.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

Edited December 11, 2022 by Dpgsbody55

[Dpgsbody55]

And so to the wings, which I've alluded to on a couple of occasions.  Readers may recall that one of the first things I did was to attach some etch pieces to the wing spar.  This was a mistake.  Here's the picture again.

 

 

The etch pieces at the top of the picture (lower edge of the spar when installed) are in the wrong position as the spar sits in a groove cast into the lower wing.  So this now nicely painted part would no longer fit.  So these were removed and got destroyed on the process, of course.

 

 

In reality, this is not much of an issue as they fit on the lower edge of the spar within the wing and can barely be seen once the wing is assembled.  No such problems with the etch pieces at the top of the spar thankfully, especially as they can be seen when the wing is assembled.

 

There's a black tank that has to be glued to the spar before attachment.  I'd guess it's either a coolant tank or an oil tank.  The undercarriage hydraulics also need to go on at the outer ends and then this can be glued into the lower wing.  I immediately then glued the other wheel well parts into place so there would be no alignment issues later.  Lastly, you fit the two carburettor air intakes.  Here's the result.  This happened a couple of weeks ago, btw.

 

 

More recently, I finished them off and the next pieces to go in are some more tanks.  No idea what they're for, but the lack of bullet ejector holes might suggest they're to collect spent cartridge shells.  Not sure, so hopefully an expert on Yaks can help here.  There's a big one at the front of the spar that fits into the two ribs you can see above.  Be sure of how they're mounted as the cockpit frames go either side of these boxes and butt up against the forward side of the wing spar.

 

 

And there's a second smaller one that goes behind the spar (part E30).  It doesn't look at all like the drawing and it's fitment is a little puzzling.  This is how it should sit.

 

 

That the back of it is open is not an issue as it will be covered by the cockpit floor piece.  Next up is more Eduard etch in the top wing.  This is fitted so that it aligns with the undercarriage latch on the outside of each wheel well.  The attachment is the bit that is pointing up in the next picture.

 

 

Then the wing can go together.

 

 

Before the wing can go onto the plane, the undercarriage floor has to be built up.  The kit part is a little inaccurate in that the floor is completely flat, and the rudder pedal foot runners are sloping up then down.  Eduard provide etch parts for this, but they're painful to put together as the sides are separate to the runners and have to be glued edge to edge.  Yeah.....  right......  I glued stock white plastic strips inside the foot runners to give the sides something to glue to, then glued these down to the floor piece.  There's also etch foot straps to go onto the rudder pedals themselves, so these were attached and the pedals glued into place, as was the control column.  There's also a pistol to glue to the floor at the side, so this was painted gunmetal with a black handle and glued into place.

 

 

The whole lot can then be glued to the wing.

 

 

Now the wing can go on.  This is a good fit but I found it was best to engage the left side first before the right.  With the engine not in place, a little compression of the fuselage sides helped too.  I also had to pull it forward as it didn't initially want to fit up against the lower engine cowling.  Then the rear edge wast taped down.

 

 

Lastly, I've fitted the tail planes.  These are a simple butt fit against the casting in the tail of the model.  Care needs to exercised while the glue dries to get the alignment right, but there will be a gap in either the top or bottom joint if you get it wrong.  Tape was used to hold everything in place as I did one at a time.

 

 

Rudder and elevators are together but not yet on the plane as I prefer to attach the tail planes first and let them dry before adding the elevators.  They will go on tomorrow, along with a few other parts.

 

Cheers,

Michael

 

Edited December 12, 2022 by Dpgsbody55
Mucking up picture posts......

[MikeMaben]

[Greif8]

Nice progress Michael!  The wheel wells look quite good.

 

Ernest

[Dpgsbody55]

7 hours ago, MikeMaben said:

 

Not quite .  When I took the clamps off, I found a bit of a faux pas at the back of the wing.  Details and pictures soon.  It's fixed, now.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

Edited December 12, 2022 by Dpgsbody55

[Dpgsbody55]

7 hours ago, Greif8 said:

Nice progress Michael!  The wheel wells look quite good.

 

Ernest

 

Thanks, despite my earlier mess up

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[dennismcc]

It's taking on a Yak shape now, nice work.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Thunnus]

Very nice work, Michael!  Some interesting differences that these Russian fighters have in layout and construction.  

[MikeMaben]

15 hours ago, Dpgsbody55 said:

Not quite .  When I took the clamps off, I found a bit of a faux pas at the back of the wing.  Details and pictures soon.  It's fixed, now.

 

Normal , just part of the process 

[Dpgsbody55]

21 hours ago, dennismcc said:

It's taking on a Yak shape now, nice work.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

Yes, It's definitely looking recognisable now.  An enjoyable build too.

 

18 hours ago, Thunnus said:

Very nice work, Michael!  Some interesting differences that these Russian fighters have in layout and construction.  

 

Thanks.  Yes, they were definitely a bit different.  Some might say crude, but I think you do the best you can with what you've got.  It's interesting to see how their planes evolved too, as well as their bureaucratic stuff ups.  Same as every other country!!  I'm hoping we'll see more VVS aircraft in the not too distant future too, especially a Lavotchkin.

 

8 hours ago, MikeMaben said:

 

Normal , just part of the process 

 

Too true.  I seem to be better at blunders than getting it right.   Sometimes, I'm just in too much of a hurry.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Dpgsbody55]

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, once I got all the wing clamps and tape off, I found that there was a problem with the way the wing root fitted against the fuselage at the trailing edge.  You can see in the following image that the wing is not properly seated against the fuselage sides and the wing overlaps the sides.  Perhaps I pulled the tape too tight.  This probelm will cause problems fitting the lower rear fuselage too.

 

 

So it has to come apart.  A little Tamiya thin glue applied in the join helped get this apart without any great damage.  Then a piece of sprue was cut and trimmed to make a spreader bar. 

 

 

Once placed properly, that spreader moved the fuselage out enough to properly join the wing trailing edge to the fuselage.  Then the lower fuselage was also set in place to get proper alignment.  A little filing after the tape war removed and I had a perfect joint between the three sides of the fuselage.  A little more filing aaround the rear wing root had that joint cleaned up well too.

 

 

My thinking is that this problem would never have happened if I'd not followed the instructions, and instead glued the lower rear fuselage into place first, then put the wing on.  The parts are a tight fit, which is what we want, so possibly the wing would need careful trial fitting first, but I think this suggestion is the best way to go here.

 

My next task was to add control surfaces and the radiator.  There's three parts to the rad - front, back and radiator duct.  I painted the rad parts in neutral gray, then picked out the radiator matrix with flat black and dry brushed silver paint, the same as for the oil cooler under the chin.

 

 

In place in the next shot.  The wing surface that the radiator mounts on to was first painted Russian underside blue, then I drilled two 0.5mm holes at the back for the radiator cooling flap actuators.  Lastly, I've found it best on this model to gently chamfer the edges of the radiator duct as it fits into grooves cast into the lower wing.  This helps it slot home a little more easily.

 

 

 

As you can see, the control surfaces are also on.  So here's a shot of the model as it is now.  The engine is fitted, but not glued, and the cowlings fitted over the top.  As I wanted at the start of this project .  I've begun cleaning up joints too.  Almost no work was needed around the tail planes, and the wing/fuselage joint has only needed a couple of treatments with Mr Surfacer.  The sanding around the cockpit is a clean up of some gouging that occurred when I was trying to open up the canopy rails, before I filed them off as a hopeless cause and made my own.

 

 

Next picture.  Cowlings removed.  There is more to go into the engine bay, but these parts can't be fitted until I finally glue the engine into place.

 

 

Engine out too, showing what is visible from the work so far.

 

 

And some gratuitous cockpit shots.

 

 

 

 

So at this point, I will have to suspend this build for the moment.  Again.  This is becoming a habit, if you followed my H2K 109E build.    However, the reason this time is not related to this kit at all.  I'm getting close to paint now.  This time the interruption was caused by a surprise email I received earlier this week from a gentleman asking me to build him a Tamiya Spitfire Mk.XVI.  So this will be my focus for a while as I find if I try building two models at once, neither come out well.  Then all I've got to do is try to send the Spitfire to the US in one piece.  I see my woodwork skills also being put to use .  And a heavy box.

 

Hopefully, I'll get this build back up and running in time to finish it so I can then join the Turning Japanese GB.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael