ICM Yak-9T

[Dpgsbody55]

A bit more progress on this model, though it feels slow to me.  The lefty side console is now complete.

 

 

And glued into place.  Note the busted rear frame.

 

 

The broken part was carefully glued into place.  I've also painted the tops of the flare cartridges above the console itself.  Note the tiny locating hole in the picture above.  It is only one of two such holes for the entire console/structure piece.  This is my biggest complaint with this kit so far.  The locating holes and pins are tiny and too few which makes aligning bits for fitment testing difficult, especially as the bottom of the rear fuselage is a separate piece.

 

 

With the oxygen bottle now in place, and a little touching up done.  Care needs to be taken with the positioning of this and it needs to point towards the outside of the plane.

 

 

Here's why.  If not aligned properly, the seat won't fit.  I suspect that if I hadn't broken the left side frames, then this alignment issue would have taken care of itself as the bottle mounting tab would be similarly aligned, not as shown in my picture below.  So if you're planning building one of these, be very careful with the frames.  They do break very easily.

 

 

But I've jumped ahead a bit with this pic.  As you can see, the right side console is also in place.  BTW, if anyone is building this with the Eduard etch set, the positioning of the wires from the top wheel are incorrect in their instructions.  They should be vertical as they interfere with the fitment of the IP as I've got them (per their instructions ).   I haven't tried to fix mine as I think I'll make a bigger mess of them than the job is worth.

 

 

I've also been working on the instrument panel, but it is not quite finished as it needs a couple more levers and handles first.  The top half of the panel has two layers of etch.  Firstly there's a backing piece with the outer instruments on them, over which is a second panel with the inner nine instruments.  Then a centre panel for those goes over the top of that.  Next there's two pieces for the blue oxygen dials to give that some depth, as well as the gray panel at right then another part over the top of that.

 

 

Test fitting has shown that the extra two layers on the outer edges have made seating the panel in it's troughs in the fuselage halves a poor fit.  I can't close up the centre of the fuselage in front of the IP.  So I've thinned the plastic a little and widened the troughs, but it still needs a little work.  Once I'm happy with the fit, I'll add the last few pieces.

 

The pilot's seat is attached to the plane via the radio shelf behind the cockpit.  There are three parts to this, plus three for the radio shelf.  I've also added a an etch piece for the front of the radio.  Finish the radio first, before attaching the seat back.  The alignment of this is made very simple by the excellent parts fit of this kit, and each part has a locating rib on the rear of the seat back and also in the radio shelf.

 

 

Once this dried, I attached the seat pan.  I found I had to gently file the hooks cast into the pan to get this to lay horizontal against the inclined seat back. 

 

 

The etch seat belts have also been fitted.  I opened a small belt mounting hole in the top of the seat back, as the Eduard instructions just said to glue them flat against this part, which didn't look right to me.  The Yak-3 also has the belts coming through the seat back.

 

 

The radio is also now complete.  I'd have liked to have detailed this with a couple of wires exiting the radio box, as with my Yak-3, but this is a different radio to that plane and I've been unable to find any pictures of it to give me a guide with no success.  So no extra detail here.  This next picture is one from my old Yak-3 build, and you'll see the differences in this part of the two planes.  This is a later radio as, confusingly, the Yak-3 came after the -9.

 

 

One other thing that has prevented any further detailing here is that the side consoles on the Yak-9 weren't boxed in, so I can't hide the other ends of any wires I may have wanted to add, other than to drill a hole in the radio shelf.  There's also no room to lead the wires down beside the seat on the Yak-9.  So in the absence of any pictures, I've left this area unadorned rather than just guess.

 

Back to the present project.  The seat has now been fitted into the left side of the cockpit.

 

 

It is presently drying in place with the right side fuselage taped into place for alignment purposes.  My next steps are to get the IP finished and in place, then add the firewall and tail wheel, and I'll be ready to add the right side fuselage half.  I'll be attaching each of these in that order but one at a time and letting them dry due to the difficulty in aligning all the various parts in one go.

 

I have also been doing some work on the wings, but that is for another time.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

 

PS.  I have just noticed the missing right lap seat belt in the picture above and it is sitting on my desk waiting to be re-attached. 

Edited December 3, 2022 by Dpgsbody55

[Uncarina]

Well-done Michael! That looks really good.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[R Palimaka]

Excellent work so far! Very fiddly but you're doing a great job. 

 

Thanks also for the heads up on challenging areas. I may have to get one of these now.

 

Richard

[Troy Molitor]

Nicely done Michael.  Love the lines on these late war Yaks.  

[dutik]

To be honest - the wheel wells are overall really empty:

 

 

Ignore the extra bumps and outlets below the fuselage - this one is powered by Allison.

 

UC leg:

 

 

Nice build! Watching with interest. The Eduard PE seems to be a must-have for this kit.

 

Regards

- dutik

Edited December 3, 2022 by dutik

[KiwiZac]

The -9's never been on my radar thanks to -3 warbirds here when I was growing up, so I didn't realise the size difference. How interesting! This build (and the often rabid fervour for the type on Britmodeller) is making me question my life choices.

  

On 11/27/2022 at 5:45 AM, Dpgsbody55 said:

As Colin Chapman said, "add lightness".

Now you have me fantasising about Colin doing a Reno Unlimited racer! Super modified P-51D in JPS colours, anyone?

 

3 minutes ago, dutik said:

Ignore the extra bumps and outlets below the fuselage - this one is powered by Lycoming.

*Allison!

[dutik]

8 minutes ago, KiwiZac said:

*Allison!

 

My memory said Allison or Lycoming. It was a fifty-fifty chance and the mental coin flipped to Lycomings side

 

Regards

- dutik

[Dpgsbody55]

7 hours ago, dutik said:

To be honest - the wheel wells are overall really empty:

 

 

Ignore the extra bumps and outlets below the fuselage - this one is powered by Allison.

 

UC leg:

 

 

Nice build! Watching with interest. The Eduard PE seems to be a must-have for this kit.

 

Regards

- dutik

 

Nice photos and I think they'll be useful when I get to the undercarriage.  While I think your pictures are of a Yak-3 (Yak-9's only had the carbie air intakes in the wing root, and a chin mounted oil radiator) many parts were the same so the colour guide on both pictures is very helpful.  Thanks heaps.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Dpgsbody55]

10 hours ago, R Palimaka said:

Excellent work so far! Very fiddly but you're doing a great job. 

 

Thanks also for the heads up on challenging areas. I may have to get one of these now.

 

Richard

 

The problem is that the fuselage halves only have a short gluing area on the top rear aft of the cockpit and tail fin, plus a small area on the nose for the oil cooler.  What compounds this the too small locating pins.  Once the wing is attached and the rear lower fuselage is on, it will be quite strong and the lack of seams in the canvas covered lower fuselage will be a bonus.  Thankfully, parts fit is up to ICM's usual high standards.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Dpgsbody55]

7 hours ago, KiwiZac said:

The -9's never been on my radar thanks to -3 warbirds here when I was growing up, so I didn't realise the size difference. How interesting! This build (and the often rabid fervour for the type on Britmodeller) is making me question my life choices.

  

Now you have me fantasising about Colin doing a Reno Unlimited racer! Super modified P-51D in JPS colours, anyone?

 

*Allison!

 

They are quite different.  The -9 was a heavier fighter designed largely around a heavy 37mm cannon.  The plane was primarily for ground attack and anti shipping, but one hit from that heavy cannon brought down most of the opposition.  The Yak-3 was a smaller lighter plane with a cleaner airframe to maximise performance in aerial combat.  This plane came later and used a lot of experience gained from earlier versions.  The -3 was lethal below 16,000ft, which is where most of the combat on the eastern front took place.

 

By the standards of the time, however, all the Yaks were small as the Klimov engines were designed with reverse flow heads to suit rubbish fuel available, and the consequent lack of power.  Size and weight had to be kept low.  Most other engines were crossflow and so capable of better power, and could be more highly supercharged thanks to better fuel.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Dpgsbody55]

7 hours ago, dutik said:

 

My memory said Allison or Lycoming. It was a fifty-fifty chance and the mental coin flipped to Lycomings side

 

Regards

- dutik

 

That's about typical.    A bit like the eternally red traffic lights I seem to get in my travels.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Greif8]

NIce work thus far Michael!  

 

Ernest

[dutik]

2 hours ago, Dpgsbody55 said:

 

Nice photos and I think they'll be useful when I get to the undercarriage.  While I think your pictures are of a Yak-3 (Yak-9's only had the carbie air intakes in the wing root, and a chin mounted oil radiator) many parts were the same so the colour guide on both pictures is very helpful.  Thanks heaps.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

 

It is D-FAFA, a Yak-9U (or UM). The Yak-9U was a further development of the Yak-9, omitting the chin radiator and relocating it into the wingroot, as well as moving the belly radiator further back. So it looked a bit like a Yak-3. Rule of thumb: The Yak-3 features an frameless windshield. When you see a Yak without chin radiator, but framed windshield it is a late Yak-9 variant, regardless of the paintjob.

 

Found another image of D-FAFA at Wikipedia, showing the UC bays (and featuring another paintjob):

 

 

Sadly D-FAFA has left the the warbird collection at Usedom/Germany, so I shall not be able to take more photos of it (the photos in the previous post were my own ones).

 

Regards

- dutik

[Dpgsbody55]

Forgot about the -UM.  That's a good picture too, though an unusual camo colour?  Not one I've come across before anyway.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Dpgsbody55]

I finished work getting the panel to fit, so the last three easily knocked off knobs and lever went on.  Not a lot to see from the last pic, but is is complete now.  You can (just) make out the two red knobs either side of the lower three instruments, together with the brown handled lever to the left.

 

 

So the panel was glued into place and allowed to almost set when the firewall was also glued in.  This butts up against the panel in two places and can dislodge it if you're not careful.  A little filing fixed this, then it was glued properly and the right side fuselage placed over the top for alignment only and tightly taped into place.  Also, make sure to pull the two halves of the fuselage together where they join over the top of the panel.  This helps the panel glue seam at the top pull that part of the fuselage properly into place which helps again when the fuselage halves are actually glued together.  Once dry, it looks like this.  The only thing left is the tail wheel which must go in before finally gluing the fuselage halves together.

 

 

A couple of close ups.

 

 

 

While this was drying, I finished off the tail wheel assembly, painting the leg in a lighter gray than the fuselage inners, as per the pictures posted above by dutic.  Much appreciated .  Then it was glued into the tail of the model.  There's two points on each side; one is the obvious casting in each half, but there's also an eccentric on the leg that engages a small divot in the equally small part of the lower rear fuselage in front of the tail wheel.

 

 

In the picture above, I've also painted and attached part C36 as shown in step 14.  Both sides were painted, as it fits up into the oil cooler at the back of the part.  Easier to do now than masking oil coolers later.  Here's a close up of the right side of the cockpit.

 

 

You may also notice some white plastic showing on the cockpit sides.  The canopy slide rails are rather poorly cast at this point.  I tried enlarging them but that only messed them up some more. So they were filed away completely and a section of 1.5mm L stock plastic was let in here, then a small adjustment made to the inside of the fuselage framing panels where they butt up here.  This was done before I glued the frames/tubes/consoles/whatever in place a few days ago.

 

That's it for now.  I'll be starting work on the engine next as well as continuing on with the wings, which has the cockpit floor set into it.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael