Yak-9T – René CHALLE – Régiment Normandie-Niemen – ICM 1/32

[Furie]

Thanks Matt and Spyrosjzmichos for your messages, I hope you enjoy the sequel!

 

Today, my red stars are under the wings.
Well, not quite red, because they're red and white, as we'll see.
The ICM instruction manual (from Ukraine) doesn't show the position of these red stars...
Who knows why?
So he's going to get the information from somewhere else.

 

Step 1: cut the Oramask 810 masks with the Cameo.

I had to do this several times because the masks were too big.

 

 

Step 2: once cut, place the masks on Frisket (transparent vinyl with low adhesion).

 

 

Step 3: Place the masks on the wings.

This is the largest mask, which defines the outer limit of the star.

Of course, I've drawn markers in pencil to ensure that the star branches are parallel to the wing.

 

 

 

Step 4: Paint with white MRP paint, undiluted, at low air pressure and as perpendicular to the mask as possible.

 

 

Step 5: I now need to mask the white paint, and this is really the most difficult part, as there's a thin red border on the outside of these stars.

It's about 0.6mm and of course the final beauty of these stars depends on this border.

It has to be even on each branch of the star and all the edging has to be identical.

Now I have to thank MikeMaben who, some time ago, advised me to brush the model with water + washing-up liquid.

That's what I did, and so I was able to move the mask slightly and "slide" it into a good position.

And I let it dry for a few minutes.

Thanks a lot Mike!

 

 

 

Step 6: I paint with the red paint and remove the masks. 

 

 

 

 

The result is okay, but not perfect, especially on the star on the right with its red border, which isn't quite perfect, but I'm happy with it.
And thanks also to Max, who previously gave me a lot of help and advice on using the Silhouette and cutting the masks.

 

As you can see, it's extremely time-consuming to make, and very difficult to position correctly, but the final look of these stars more than makes up for the investment in time/patience/and other howls.

 

 

 

Edited March 28 by Furie

[mozart]

Well done Denis, those stars look very good indeed and are far from easy to get right…..but you’ve done it chum! 

[scvrobeson]

They look great painted on!

 

 

 

Matt 

[LSP_Kevin]

Excellent work, Denis!

 

Kev

[Martinnfb]

Clean and precise. Joy to follow 

 

Cheers

Martin

[MikeMaben]

On 3/28/2024 at 9:50 AM, Furie said:

   Now I have to thank MikeMaben who, some time ago, advised me to brush the model with water + washing-up liquid.

Glad it helped Denis, It was a case of necessity being the mother of invention.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 31 by MikeMaben

[Borsos]

Getting better and better!

these stars came out lovely (although I completely understand ICM‘s unwillingness to portray them).

[Furie]

@mozart + @scvrobeson + @LSP_Kevin + @Martinnfb + @MikeMaben + @Borsos : 

 

Thank you all for your messages.
Indeed, the final result seems quite correct and once again, I'm shooting myself in the foot by choosing to paint these stars with masks rather than using ICM decals.
I won't change anymore, it's too late (as my wife would say...).

 

C'est la vie !   

 

Propeller:

-I painted it entirely in Dark Alu/MRP 146.
-Then for the base color, I mixed 50/50 MRP LPB black and MRP 173 Tyre Rubber. This gave me a black that wasn't quite black, which wouldn't be too credible and flashy.
-I painted a light veil of Tyre Rubber along the height of the propeller blades, which will be the lightest shade on this propeller.
- And to finish off with the paint, I painted a light line of pure black MRP LPB along the width of the propeller blades, which is the darkest of the 3 shades.
-I "wore down" these blades with micromesh + water to bring out the dark aluminum on the leading and trailing edges. 
And to finish off, I used aluminum and light gray pencil to draw in some of the wear and impact marks.
All protected with a semi-matt varnish.

 

 

 

 

 

[Shoggz]

Excellent stuff Denis..

[fab]

Hello

 

You become a "4 stars" modeller Denis!

 

Amities

 

Fab

[Furie]

Thank you Richard and Fab for your messages.
I don't know if I've become a modeler with 4 "stars" but I'm trying to improve at every stage of my Yak.
Painting canopies...
I don't know about you, but for me this is the stage I dread the most: if you break a plastic part of the model, well, you can always glue it back together, or even rebuild it.
But when it comes to the transparent parts, there's no room for error, and of course I take great care.
So I completely masked the inside and outside of the canopies and the 2 transparent shields.
I painted them with A14/MRP021 and then glued them with AK Crystal magic glue, specially designed for transparent parts.
As there was still a small, unattractive joint between the canopies and the fuselage, I added a little Deluxe perfect plastic putty, which smoothes out with a damp cotton bud.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the camouflage of the Yak at the rear is very dependent on the position of the red star on the fuselage (this star is flush with the AMT12 paintwork from edge to edge), I created a mask of this star, which I then placed in its correct position, thus delimiting the 2 AMT11 and 12 paintworks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And last but not least, I drew all the boundaries of the 2 AMT 11 and 12 camouflage shades with a pencil, so I could cut the masks to size.

Edited April 7 by Furie

[mc65]

smart move, to define where the stars will go on the fuselage to delimit the two colors of the camouflage! 

[monthebiff]

Absolutely fantastic work Denis! The finish of your undersides is superb, looking forward to more updates.

 

Regards  Andy 

[Furie]

Thanks Paolo and Andy.
Indeed, I quickly realized that the position of this star would determine the limits of the camouflage on the fuselage, and rather than mess around, I preferred to take my time and plan everything well in advance, so as to get an acceptable result.

 

So off I went with AMT 11/MRP19, the lightest shade of gray (similar to RLM 75).
Of course, I first drew the contours of this paint with a pencil on the model.

 

I protected the cockpit with Tamiya tape, but also all the AMT 7/MRP 18 boundaries (wings and fuselage) to avoid painting grey everywhere. As this will create a very (too) sharp delimitation, I'll have to come back to it later to make the delimitation a little softer.

I diluted the MRP19 with 30% Mr.Hobby T-108 Leveling Thinner, again to make very fine veils of paint and thus control my work and the transparency of the BB'ing.
You don't need to be very precise with the airbrush here, just work methodically:

 

-for the wings and back of the fuselage: in the fore-and-aft direction.

 

-for the front of the fuselage and the vertical and horizontal tail, without taking any particular precautions.

 

 

 

 

The result is better than with my previous tests, because the BB'ing of the wings is really well dosed.
At least, in my eyes!

 

Tomorrow, it's AMT 12/MRP 20 and it's another kettle of fish! 

 

 

Edited April 9 by Furie

[mozart]

Fascinating watching all this develop Denis, I admire your pioneering spirit!