Yak 23 Flora

[Billydick]

Nice work... really enjoyed reading your thread !

BillyD

[Biggles87]

Me too

John

[One-Two]

Thanks John and BillyD for your kind comments.

I've been working a little bit on the wings also.

There are some problems here...first of all, I had to re-scribe the under wing area...because the ailerons and flaps were wrongly scribed.

Then, the height of the vertical walls of the wheel wells is incorrect...if you leave it as it is, it will affect the chord of the wing, making it far too thick.

What you see in the picture was shortened approx. 40%...and I still think that the wing is too thick.

The trailing edge of the wing was way too thick also. I inserted some very thin plastic rod over all the length of the trailing edge, sanding it to shape.

Now I have an acceptable thin trailing edge.

All the best,

Edited May 9, 2016 by One-Two

[Giorgio N]

Missed this when you started the thread but glad to have now noticed it. Very nice build of a lesser known but important type, will keep watching with interest

[One-Two]

Hi Guys.

While preparing to close the fuselage, I started to put in place the various subassemblies...which are only 2...namely engine intake and cockpit.

Starting from front...the engine air intake does not fit in the designed place. I was forced to completely delete the related positioning guides. Even so, the fit is not good, some gaps are forming on the interior lip of the engine intake.

I also glues some internal walls in the wing insertion area. If left like the kit was designed, one will end with a very visible open space, which was not the case on the real thing.

Soon I hope to install the cockpit also.

All the best,

[One-Two]

I installed the IP and cockpit.

The fit of the cockpit is not good. It is so wide, that is almost impossible to close the fuselage. Maybe I made some kind of mistake, but I checked and found nothing wrong with the way I assembled the cockpit.

Anyway, I had to sand really heavy on the sides of the cockpit, in order to ensure a decent fit.

Even so, closing the fuselage will not be peace of cake...

A nice w/e to you all,

[One-Two]

OK, so I closed the fuselage.

I had to do some serious sanding on the sides of the cockpit. Even so, the fit was not good at all...and an order to obtain a solid bonding and lining of the two fuselage halves, I had to glue them together in three separate stages...first the front of the fuselages, in the engine intake area (apply glue, make adjustments, apply pressure until dry) then I continued with the central fuselage/cockpit area (apply glue, align/adjust, apply pressure, let dry) and then the back of the fuselage area.

I also assembled the pieces that are forming the engine exhaust area....this subassembly must be inserted in that big hole bellow the cockpit...fit is terrible..

[Biggles87]

It looks like this is fighting you all the way, but I think you're winning.

Keep up the good work.

John

[One-Two]

Well, as you guys can see the fit of the engine exhaust was....not great, let's say.

Some plastic was stuffed into the holes and I see that some heavy grinding, filling, sanding and re-scribing is coming.

However...I think that my next project will be a Tamiya...I need a therapy or something...

[andym]

Checkout closely pics of the spent cartridge ejector ports, they are actually two different shapes on either side.:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Yakovlev_Yak-23

And no doubt you've already noticed that the nosewheel u/c is missing one of it's actuators.

HTH
Andy

Edited May 20, 2016 by andym

[Christer A]

Good show so far!

I have the Special Hobby 1/72 one in my stash which I'm itching to have a go at someday.

I'll follow this with a keen eye, taking notes

[One-Two]

Time to resurrect this baby also.

 

I installed the wings...bad fit...tons of plastic insertions, superglue filling, sanding and re-scribing...you know, quality time.

This was also true for the engine exhaust area, which was a separate insertion with very bad fit. Fun time, again.

However, these problems are solved now.

I also prepared the horizontal stabilizer...which I corrected in shape (just a little bit or room for the rudder movement) and also inserted some plastic rods in order to strengthen up the assembly when committed to glue. The corresponding holes were drilled in the vertical stabilizer.

I will glue them later, after I install the canopy.

 

Regards,

 

 

[Christer A]

It looks all nice and Luft-46:y!

[One-Two]

Hi there,

 

I worked a little bit the front wheel bay...filling some gaping holes, adding few details.

The nose wheel was much more complex in real life, comparing with the kit representation. Besides that, the kit is completely wrong in this area, and correcting these issues requires  heavy modification which is anyway impossible at this stage.

So I will only add a few details and then move forward.

 

Have a nice w/e you guys,

 

[Christer A]

That landing gear bay had plenty of opportunity for improvement!

Nice work.

[Christer A]

That landing gear bay had plenty of opportunity for improvement!

Nice work.

[One-Two]

Some work on the canopy.

Now, the Yak 23 had a quite prominent armored glass, on the inside of the windscreen. It was mounted on a massive metal frame, very visible from the outside. This detail is not represented in any way on the model, so I tried to scratch such an armored windscreen...mounted it on the inside of the canopy, glue it with future...once the canopy installed and frames painted, I hope it will look better than now.

Also made some additions to the gunsight...it was just a piece of bare plastic, no lenses, no nothing...

[One-Two]

Hi Guys,

 

Gunsight installed.

On the IP coaming and gunsight mounting bar, I didn't quite managed to get the exact shade as the rest of the cockpit, because I forgot what kind on proportions I used when I first painted the cockpit. For the cockpit colors I used a combination of RAF Interior Green and European Green, both from model Master.

Also the canopy is masked and ready to install, but I run out of time.

Fit is not very encouraging here in the canopy area, anyway..

 

Thanks for looking,

[Christer A]

That armored glass was a nice touch!

Keep up the good work.

[One-Two]

Canopy installed.

The fit was not good...there are some visible gaps, in the front of the windscreen and also at the back end of the canopy.

I'm trying to solve them with some Mr.Surfacer 500...I just applied this stuff with a fine brush all along the canopy contact area....let it dry stiff...and then I removed the excess by wiping it off with Mr. Levelling thinner. This stuff is really good, it cleans everything without affecting the plastic.

The last 2 pictures are showing the result after the first round.

I will continue until I obtain a smooth join all along the canopy edge.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

[One-Two]

Ok, I attached the horizontal stabilizers, so by now this little baby is starting to look like a plane.

 

I started working on the landing gear...it's very flimsy, I don't like at all how it was designed.

I'm still working on the landing gear covers...adding some detail and thinning some of them, because they are so thick that they look like cement boards, not aluminum sheet.

I'm still thinking on how to approach the landing gear problem...because of the weakness of the landing gear, I think it is best to use plastic cement for gluing the oleos, wheels and various covers.

But plastic cement means no paint...and attaching landing gear&accessories before painting the model would make my life very difficult with handling the model during masking and painting, etc...

 

 

[Christer A]

Not the most detailed landing gear/covers out of the box.

Keep it up! You're doing great work!

[One-Two]

Don't know if it's a good idea, but I decided to install the landing gear prior to painting stage.

Of course, this will make masking really funny, but the landing gear is so weak that I wanted a very solid bond, plastic on plastic, before committing to paint.

I also added some detail in the front wheel well...representing the front leg retraction mechanism, which was pretty complex and totally ignored by the kit.

 

Thanks and regards,

 

[One-Two]

Finally I managed to proceed with the painting stage.

Now, this is my first NMF attempt, so I don't have experience with metallic paints.

I decided to try the AK interactive Xtreme metallic range for this one. Apparently they are good metallic paints and also not so exigent with the novices.

First I documented myself a little on the issue and find out that for a good NMF, one needs a very glossy black base first.

So, I took the black base recommended for Xtreme paints (AK 471 blackbase) and turned the compressor on.

The result can be seen in the attached pictures.

From surface preparation point of view, I think there are no corrections needed.

 

But I have a couple of issues about the black base itself:

- first, I found the AK black base to have a relatively low coverage power...and consequently the consumption of this stuff is quite high. I used the pressure settings recommended by the producer;

- second, the resulted black base is far from a highly gloss black. It looks to me rather like a semi-matt black...anyway far from the glossy black base I saw in other NMF builds.

 

So my question is: I did something wrong? Should I go for another coat of black base? Or should I sand it with some fine grit, in order to make it glossier?

Or maybe should I just shoot the aluminum over the black base as it is now?

Any advice appreciated.

 

Thanks and regards,

 

 

[Christer A]

No expert in NMF finishes here, since I've never done one myself, but from what I've seen, the sheen on the black base will have an impact on the metallic layer. 

With that said, the mirrorlike finish seen on current warbirds feels a bit wrong for a russian aircraft. All pictures that I've seen shows a very dull or even matt finish and for that your semi matt black base will work fine.

Edited December 15, 2016 by Christer A