South Front Yak-1 Completed

[Seawinder]

I'll post a brief appraisal of the kit and some information about the build, but I'm being called to supper...

...Okay, supper's over. This kit has its ups and downs. On the up side, it seems generally accurate in shape, and it's quite well detailed. On the down side, the molding of many of the pieces isn't very sharp, and there are lots of heavy sprue connections that necessitate careful clean-up. The cockpit is quite well done, although the engineering isn't as user-friendly as the Accurate Miniatures kit. Speaking of which, a number of the South Front parts look like clones of the corresponding AM parts, notably the cockpit side consoles and the small clear insert pieces for the lower rudder.

The internal tube structure attaches to the cockpit sides, unlike the AM kit where it is connected to the floor. I had to cut off a bunch of the lower tubing members (which can't be seen anyway once the wing is attached) because they interfered with the wing-fuselage joint. That joint is the biggest difference in engineering between the South Front and AM kits: The South Front kit has the wing fairings as part of the wings, and the bottoms of the fuselage sides are curved to accept them. (This is pretty much the same way Zvezda engineered their recent Yak-3 kit.) The fit was less than perfect, with the fuselage sides somewhat wider than the fairings. Luckily, I was able to clamp the fuselage sides enough to get an adequate mating.

The clear parts are not bad and fit quite well. The kit gives you the earlier version of the rear clear panels as an option. However, the sliding canopy cannot be posed open because it is too thick to fit over the rear panel. For my model I used the spare vacuform piece that comes with the Alpha Flight set.

Some of the detail pieces were poor enough that I substituted corresponding parts from a spare AM kit. These included the wheels and the pitot tube. The South Front tires are half-donuts without any tread pattern (or locating pins). The hubs are separate, but must be attached from the inside before the tires are joined, which negates the painting advantage of having them separate. The pitot tube is a scrawny tube that was bent on the sprue and attached by a big blob of plastic.

As I've described in other posts, I painted the topside camouflage with the new Akan acrylic lacquers. They worked just great -- some of the nicest paints I've ever airbrushed. I used what they called 4BO for the green. The set also has a bottle labeled AMT-4 that is a bit darker and somewhat greener. I liked the look of the 4BO, but I think I may use the AMT-4 on the AM kit and see which one people like better. The undersurface color is my rendition of AII Blue. Note that the camouflage has the colors reversed from the standard scheme, apparently a not-uncommon occurrence.

The fuel gauges are the early style. I took the JPEG I had downloaded a few years ago from the old VVS modeling site, resized it to the diameter of the kit holes, printed it out on paper, cut out the circles, stuck them in the holes, and covered them with Micro Krystal Klear.

I used the kit decals, which are manufactured by Begemot. They looked questionable on the paper, but worked very well -- nice and opaque, bright, and responded well to what small amount of Micro Sol was necessary. The markings are for a plane flown by female pilot Valeriya Homyakova of the 86th IAP, early 1942.

Cheers,
Pip

[4bogreen]

Hey Pip!

Enjoy your supper  . Very nice done! Those big red stars really looking cool on this model. Good representation of used exhaust pipes. People always have the tendency to make them just as rusty as tank exhausts. I think the exhausts of airplane's were overall in good condition, not heavy rusted.

Regards,

Remco

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi Pip,
it's a good-looking model indeed. I like the effect of the camouflage, well contrasted as visible on many Yaks, and the work inside the cockpit. The trasparence of the canopy is excellent, did you use the windshield of the kit?
With the magnifying of the detail photos, one can vaguely see the struggle for fit that you describe in your report. However you managed to preserve well the fine surface detail of the model.

I have recently tested a washing technique to darken slots and panelling, that could be useful to put in evidence some important ones as the flaps and removable panels. On a base painted with acrylics, one can pass inside the slots a mix made by some black paint (Humbrol), turpentine and some Humbrol clear matt (the type in glass bottles) as stabilizer of the pigment. The mix fills the slots by capillarity. When dried, the excess can be removed by brushing with a flat brush and very very few turpentine, then one can apply decals and a flat clear layer. I'm very satisfied of the results obtained on some tanks, and I've utilized on some planes too, even if with much attention to the removal because all my planes are painted by enamels that could be damaged by the turpentine cleaning.

Regards
Massimo
 

[B_Realistic]

@Pip
Thanks for the explenation. I think that you did a good job.
@4bogreen
That's not entirely true about the exhaust pipes but over rusted is indeed not the case.
@Massimo
I've replace Turpentine with White Spirit because Turpentine has some oily substance and can have some problems when it's older.

[learstang]

Nice job on your Yak-1, Pip!  Did you use AKAN A-14 for the wheel wells?

Regards,

Jason

[Seawinder]

Nice job on your Yak-1, Pip!  Did you use AKAN A-14 for the wheel wells?

Regards,

Jason

Thanks, Jason. The A-14 I used for wheel wells, struts, cockpit, etc. is my own mix: equal parts Model Master 35237 Medium Gray and 16081 Navy Gloss Gray, lightened with some 36270 Neutral Gray. It's similar in character to the Akan version, but lighter (FWIW I think the Akan is too dark).

Cheers,
Pip

[4bogreen]

@ Massimo
A washing technique is nice, but very uniform. Have you ever conside rd the "fading technique" i use it with great success on my tanks. You make dots of oil paint, then smear it out, with a brush damped in white spirit. By going up and down on the vertical panels and circular movements on the horizontal panels, you get a "wear" look.

I thou gt the wheel wells were the undersurface color... I have some photo's of a Yak-1b with the wells in the undersurface color, but that is not a Yak-1...

[Seawinder]

I thougt the wheel wells were the undersurface color... I have some photo's of a Yak-1b with the wells in the undersurface color, but that is not a Yak-1...

Hi Remco. In the absence of hard-and-fast information, I went with the South Front call-out for A-14. FWIW, the Accurate Miniature instructions also call for the interior color, although they have that color wrong. I'm happy for any other, better info anyone has, and I suppose I can repaint the wells if necessary. OTOH, as I frequently say, I don't generally display my models upside down.

Pip

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi Remco,
my technique is not uniform. I pass my dark mix in recessed parts, then, when dried, I pass it with a clean brush to remove the parts not on recesses. The effect is to reinforce a bit the natural shadows, and the model doesn't look too flat even in indirect light. Sometimes I make some slight drybrushing with a lighter shade of the base color, while in other cases (on camouflaged uniforms in particular) I drybrush with a mix of white and yellow. I'm fairly pleased with the results.
Where can I find photos of your tanks? I'm interested to see your results.
Regards
Massimo

[4bogreen]

Massimo,
I can post some photo's of my tank(s) in the general section of this site if you like. I don't want to bump someone to the head with tank photo's on a aircraft forum (some people are very sensitive on this)

I once made a proposition on a shipmodel forum, to have a section for aircraft based on carriers. They were not pleased that i posted this on a "shipforum"

Regards,

Remco

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi Remco,
publishing some photos of tanks here is not forbidden, if they are few. Eventually, would you publish them on some other forums with a tank section? I am thinking to do this with some photos of my tanks too.
Please, let me know.
Regards
Massimo

[66misos]

Hi Pip,
a nice kit. I wish my one (still white pieces of plastic) is also in this stage
That 4BO looks interestingly in comparison to AMT-4, at least on your photos.

I used what they called 4BO for the green. The set also has a bottle labeled AMT-7 that is a bit darker and somewhat greener. I liked the look of the 4BO, but I think I may use the AMT-7 on the AM kit

I think you spoke about AMT-4 instead of AMT-7 (light blue) here.
Vacu canopy really looks much better than original kit parts.
However, didn't you want to make Baranov's plane originally?

Massimo, Remco,
I think this "It doesn't fly..." section at http://sovietwarplanes.com/board/index.php?topic=1485.0 could be the appropriate place to post also tanks here at this "aircraft page".
     66misos
 

[4bogreen]

Hi Massimo,

I Will go for 66misos idea to post my tank photo's on the general discussion Page. Good idea 66misos
The tanks are T34 type, so we don't leave the "soviet" part of this forum

When i have the time (and my laptop up and running) i Will post some.

Regards,

Remco

[Seawinder]

Hi Pip,
a nice kit. I wish my one (still white pieces of plastic) is also in this stage
That 4BO looks interestingly in comparison to AMT-4, at least on your photos.

I used what they called 4BO for the green. The set also has a bottle labeled AMT-7 that is a bit darker and somewhat greener. I liked the look of the 4BO, but I think I may use the AMT-7 on the AM kit

I think you spoke about AMT-4 instead of AMT-7 (light blue) here.
Vacu canopy really looks much better than original kit parts.
However, didn't you want to make Baranov's plane originally?

Massimo, Remco,
I think this "It doesn't fly..." section at http://sovietwarplanes.com/board/index.php?topic=1485.0 could be the appropriate place to post also tanks here at this "aircraft page".
     66misos
 

Hi Misos.
Thanks for the comments. I'm sure your Yak will look beautiful once it stops being white.    Yes, you're quite right -- I did mean AMT-4; I've edited the OP. And yes, I am going to do Baranov's plane (or at least the one in the famous photos). Those will be the markings I use with the Accurate Miniatures/Alpha Flight build that's presently being painted (this time with the Akan AMT-4, and AMT-7 on the bottom).

Cheers,
Pip

[learstang]

Nice job on your Yak-1, Pip!  Did you use AKAN A-14 for the wheel wells?

Regards,

Jason

Thanks, Jason. The A-14 I used for wheel wells, struts, cockpit, etc. is my own mix: equal parts Model Master 35237 Medium Gray and 16081 Navy Gloss Gray, lightened with some 36270 Neutral Gray. It's similar in character to the Akan version, but lighter (FWIW I think the Akan is too dark).

Cheers,
Pip

You're welcome, Pip!  And thank you for the answer on your A-14!  I occurs to me that I may have asked this question before; at any rate, I won't ask you again!  In case you're interested, I just use Testors Model Master Neutral Gray for my A-14 - it may be a bit light, but it looks about right to me.  I'm always leery of mixing colours - I suppose I'm a bit of a lazy modeller, and I know that if I have to remix the colours for repairs or touchups later, and my original mix has dried up, I'll never get the same colour.

Regards,

Jason