YAK-3 1/32 Special Hobby

[mc65]

hi all, 

having seen new Furie's discussion with his YAK-9, I can't help but open this discussion!

in fact, having stopped since this summer, I wanted a relatively simple kit to get back to grips with, and I was thinking of starting the Special Hobby YAK-3 with the colors of the Normndie Niemen group, except that this started a spiral of meaningless complications: I didn't find the version with the French decals, nor the decals alone, so I started working on a customized decal sheet to remedy this, but I wasn't satisfied. then I started to study the possibility of getting a cutting plotter, which I finally did, it arrived a couple of days ago. but now I have to learn to use it.. and now the styrene is moving further and further away!

 

so, I decided to make this kit as Soviet using the box's decal, wich are cartograf, by the way, and peace.

 

obviously having had it for a while I saved up a bit of aftermarket:

 

and some documentation, of course. searching on the books and the web, i found that the kit has some bugs and shortcut, so I took into account a series of modifications to make: obviously opening the seat of the flaps, having the Eduard ones to install. then open the coolant radiator flap, and perhaps also the two oil radiators. modify the wing root vents, completely wrong in the kit. and then the canonical ones: improving the Cockpit, the undercarriage compartments, the muzzles of the weapons, etc.

 

and thank goodness it was supposed to be a simple kit to get back to grips with and get back into the mood... I started with the front air intakes, the most unpleasant problem, it seems to me.

looking at the photos and then the drawings it is clear that these are not angled, almost parallel to the contiguous part of the wing leading edge, but almost orthogonal with the fuselage.

 

here perhaps you can understand better, having only cut the upper part.

 

essentially it involves bringing the mouths of the air intakes to an angle of around 15°

 

and so far we are. now it's a matter of thinning the edges in the thickness of the material, and reconstructing at least the initial part of the internal ducts.

 

since I was a low butcher I immediately opened the radiator flap.

 

as you can see, the kit includes significant thicknesses of the material. here I started to thin the left wall (at the top of the photo) so that I could then reinstall the flap in a believable way.

 

and here is also the seat of the flaps open and ready to welcome the PE. I have to decide whether to open the two little oil radiator flaps, which are rather inconvenient, and the ailerons, I would save it if I could.

 

and that's enough for today, in the next few I think I'll work on the landing gear wells so I can glue the two valves of the wing.

cheers, Paolo

Edited December 17, 2023 by mc65

[Furie]

2 WIP of Yak at the same time, I feel that vodka will flow!

I feel a little frustrated because I received the Cameo but I am forbidden to use it before Christmas, and I received the painting and all the sets of improvements to start this kit...
…I received everything except the ICM kit!
How cruel this world is!

 

Tell me, Paolo, are you going to use MRP paints or another paint brand?

Edited December 17, 2023 by Furie

[mc65]

Oh! I got a Silhouette 3, now I spend hours watching tutorials without understanding half of it...

as for the colors, I have the AK Real Colors set dedicated to fighters, I have yet to try them, but it seems they are quite faithful in tone.

Edited December 17, 2023 by mc65

[mozart]

Well done Paolo, another interesting build to watch though not the “easy shake n’bake” that perhaps you thought it might be! Such is life. Let me know if you need any advice about your Silhouette machine, only too happy to help.

[Borsos]

Hmmm, 2nd Yak to watch 

[Biggles87]

Me too.

I have the same kit, so I will be watching closely and making notes.

 

John

[dennismcc]

Nice to see Soviet subjects being built, years ago I was really excited about Soviet subjects and I built the resin Aeropoxy Yak 3, not the easiest of builds but at the time the only game in town.

I built it as a NN subject and got custom paint masks for the markings from Mal at Miracle Paint Masks, these worked well.

I also have one of these kits in the stash so I will follow and see the improvements that can be made.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[mc65]

wow, I didn't think this kit would arouse so much interest! I will try to honor him, even if I started off with a heavy hand, I think.

Mozart, thanks for the offer of help, for the moment I'm trying to understand how to name the files (!) and how to copy elements in the same file to duplicate them (!!). in fact I think I'm at the paleolithic level, with IT, even the most basic. we'll talk about it in the next few days on the dedicated forum, if that's okay with you. 

 

well, we understand that it will be a bloody construction: there will still be a lot of slaughter to do, I think...

after opening the flaps compartments, I thought it smart to try them in place, when it was still easy to use a blade and file, and to do that I had to assemble them. the Eduard flaps for this kit were evidently designed by a mind that likes to dare: in fact the compartment, flap and ribs of the flap itself are printed in a single PE, which requires a series of very risky folds and twists. only the ribs of the compartment are designed separately, but joined together by truly tiny stringers. here are the two main parts during assembly.

 

and here's a complete one. However, I decided to keep the compartment rib groups separate until after the installation of the compartments themselves in the wing, to avoid unnecessary risks.

 

or at least that's the idea, present time. however, if they go there, it will be necessary to work on the wing thickness once the two shells have been glued, there is a risk of causing the compartments to collapse or worse, leaving them partially exposed, as I understand it. I would have decided to give up on opening the two oil radiator flaps, too much effort for a result that was all in all not very visible.

 

as regards the setting of the flaps, you will have to rely on the system visible at the base of the wing. it goes without saying that if you play with it too much it will break, which is another reason to put these things aside until the end of the general assembly, if possible. and no, that on the adhesive tape is not color, but the usual sacrifice to the new #11 blade, a classic.

 

Well. Having understood this, I can move on to the landing gear compartments, a rather infernal thing, each made up of 4 parts and no certain gluing points or reference number with respect to the instructions, useful for assembly. furthermore, when assembled from the box, there is a gap right where the LG leg will be installed, I found it necessary to add a piece of plasticard to stiffen the compartments and provide a support for the leg. with three other pieces of plasticard I closed the bottom of the air ducts to avoid the risk of seeing light once the model will be assembled, and created the vertical walls that divide the ducts. nice blurry photo, bravo.

 

after one hundred thousand strokes of sanding file I understood that the best way to glue the two shells that make up the wing was the one already used by an undisputed master:

 

four stitches and off we go!

 

SH styrene is quite soft and reactive to glue, pinching it would have left marks on the surface, and using adhesive tape would have easily brought the glue everywhere due to capillarity. instead, once the joint is dry, all you need to do is remove the stitches and fill the relevant holes. Perhaps.

while it dries, a first round of black cyanacrylate to fill and round the vents.

 

You've now understood that I aim for quick assembly to get to the colours. the kit includes ribs to be inserted in the landing gear compartments, of an exaggerated thickness, so I used them to cut more credible ones in plasticard. the pipes are the usual solder wire.

 

despite the apparent crudeness of the kit, some details are well printed and unexpectedly accurate, such as the retaining hooks of the LG legs in the retracted position. other details raise doubts, such as the supports that will have to house the legs in position, here the small square visible on the bulkhead at the top in the photo.

 

and that's all for today too, see you soon with the cockpit and fuselage, I hope. cheers, Paolo

 

[Alain Gadbois]

Great start on the project!

The PE flaps are very impressive and excellent work on detailing the wheel wells.

 

Alain

[Furie]

This is the first time I see this method to assemble the wings!
Long live the fluorocarbon wire!  

Bravo for your stubbornness Paolo, you are full of resources in the face of adversity!

Edited December 18, 2023 by Furie

[mozart]

Well THAT was a fascinating instalment Paolo, and you spilled blood in the line of duty! I’ve never seen kits stitched together before….just Wow! 

[Biggles87]

29 minutes ago, mozart said:

XI’ve never seen kits stitched together before….just Wow! 

Me neither.

I like what you’ve done with the intakes, I have seen a much more complicated arrangement in another build ( can’t remember where ) but I think that’s yours is the one that I will follow.

 

John

[MikeMaben]

48 minutes ago, mozart said:

Well THAT was a fascinating instalment Paolo, and you spilled blood in the line of duty! I’ve never seen kits stitched together before….just Wow! 

 We're going to have to call him Doctor Paolo from now on 

 

 

 

[Dpgsbody55]

A very innovative way to join wing halves.  It looks effective too.  I like the extra wheel well details as well. 

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[mc65]

pals, what can I tell you, other than "it    could    work!"? 

 

this escamotage comes in handy when it comes to holding reluctant parts in place, or parts that need a bit of twisting to stay in place.

in this case, I think I didn't say it, there is no confirmation for the gluing of the parts, since the Special Hobbies are a sort of short run. do you remember those pretty pins and their coupling hole that we normally find in kits? Well, they don't exist here.

let's add that for the same reason the thickness of the parts is important, and if nothing is done you will have wing surfaces with a trailing edge 3 cm thick (in scale) and here the parts, if they ever matched before, now they don't they want to know, and it takes a little brute force to convince them.

the good news is that the styrene used by SH is nice and soft and responds well to MEK! for the same reason (the thickness of the trailing edge) I decided to cut off the ailerons, amen.

 

well, we've sorted out the wing, let's take a look at the cockpit, starting from...the wing: the cockpit floor is actually the part inside the fuselage of the extrados, as in real life. I just added some cheese foil as walkable parts and drilled holes for the brake lines connected to the cloche.

 

the detail is not bad at all, but the embossed details are affected by the limitations of the print.

 

so I swept everything away with four strokes of the scalpel and drilled where I will need to insert slightly more defined details.

 

a spray of aluminum from a can which will serve both as a primer and as a base for the chipping...

 

and off to Braille! small aside: I had gotten the English-derived Sutton harness from HGW, very well made, but for some reason they decided that the YAK-3 only had two holes in the straps. Sifting through the documentation it turned out that the Soviet Sutton harness had 5 or 6 holes... so I ordered an RB set and did a mix between the two.

 

and here we are: details from ANYZ and scratch built for the side consoles, belts in place (the shoulder harness would now be a hindrance) some chipping near the pedals. note the decentralized position of the radio foot, which I cut away in preparation for installing the resin one.

 

the Yahu panel is fine as it is, it's just missing the oxygen regulator, which was in the kit, but it was poorly printed, so I remade it from scratch, and the details protruding from the panel, which I will fix when the cockpit is finished: magnetos control switch; landing gear lever and handles for cocking the two machine guns in the nose.

 

good, everything in progress, but the dimensions match, at the moment I'm interested in this.

I added the oxygen bottle, which is only visible in the aircraft manual. From this angle you can't see it, and I'm afraid you won't even see it with the fuselage closed, never mind.

 

oh, speaking of the fuselage, while I was assembling the flaps I discarded two pieces that were used to form a box with a square base. I refused to try to use them, and replaced them with two evergreen squares of the same size.

also because it seemed to me that if appropriately modified, they could act very well as tracks for the sliding cockpit canopy: no sooner said than done. cut the fourth side and trimmed to size, they will implement this very poor area of the kit.

 

Having taken the measurement (twice) I traced the cuts to make..

 

and then I continued to saw.

 

that's it. better, I would say.

 

the kit is supplied with two canopies, open and closed. whichever one I choose, but I imagine open, the profile that will fit into the track will be glued to it.

 

and for today I would say enough.

coming soon... I don't know, I should close the fuselage, but I see a series of things to fix first... I'm studying it, see you soon, I hope.

cheers, Paolo

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by mc65