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Red Shield at Night, Brezhnev's Delight (1/72 Amodel Я́ковлев Як-28П)


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" Сами не летаем – другим не дадим." ["Don't fly – don't let anyone else."]

 

-- Unofficial motto of the Войска ПВО СССР, Soviet Voyska-PVO -- the branch of the armed forces which operated interceptors and SAMs for home defense.

 

 

"The Soviet estimate of their own effectiveness against high altitude penetrators must have been high... planning factors for the probability-of-kill of SA-2s (given launch inside engagement parameters) were 0.8. Similarly, the handbook probability-of-kill of the air-to-air missiles on Victor Belenko's MiG-25 was 0.86. These are end-game probabilities of kill in Western analytic jargon. If the PVO command and control system could enforce at least two end-game engagements for each penetrator, the bomber attrition would have been estimated as above 0.95."

 

-- "SOVIET STRATEGIC AIR DEFENSE: A LONG PAST AND AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE", James T. Quinlivan, RAND Corporation, September 1989

 

 

"The other attack option available to pilots was ramming- -a much celebrated tactic used in the Great Patriotic War and even in modern conditions.

"Given the high value of a nuclear -armed strategic bomber this tactic presents a good trade-off and has been explicitly endorsed in the VPVOS press, but ramming requires flying skill at least as great as that for gun attacks and would be unlikely to greatly increase VPVOS effectiveness. 

"The conclusion of most Western analysts is that the VPVOS did not present a very effective defense against low altitude penetration during the 1960s and 1970s."

 

-- John William Rix Lepingwell, Organizational and bureaucratic politics in Soviet defense decisionmaking: a case study of the Soviet air defense forces, MIT PhD Thesis, c.1988

 

I was going to do a joint Spitfire build with Cookie after I finished the Hunter, but we're both a bit worn down at the moment, and I wanted to wait until happier times to build my favourite aeroplane.

 

The Yak-28P is probably one of the less well-known Soviet aircraft of the Cold War. It was never exported, never served overseas (unlike the Su-15 -- which used the same radar and missiles -- a few of which were apparently briefly stationed in Egypt during the War of Attrition), and labored more or less in obscurity as part of the PVO (in the USSR, the air defence command was an entirely seperate and independent service from the VVS, the tactical air force) covering lower-priority sectors of the vast Soviet Union against the possibility of NATO intruders. It was phased out around the same time as I was born in 1983, which seems more recent than it actually is. I probably wouldn't know anything about it if there wasn't a two-page full-colour spread of it and the paltry selection of stores it could carry in Bill Gunston's Modern Warplanes book, which I must have first seen in 1988 or 1989. I thought it looked incredibly unlike any NATO plane (my favourite at the time, by the way, was the hapless Tornado F.2), and spectacularly Russian. Of course, now I know it's a rather old-timey-looking design for the late 1950s from whence it sprang (it and the F-4 Phantom are contemporaries), but despite its vague resemblance to an Me 262, there's just a bit of muchness to it: the nose is too long, the wings too swept, the whole thing too pointy. I dig it.

 

When I got back into modelling in 2011, I happened upon a secondhand kit of it in a local hobby shop and bought it immediately, only to discover it lacked a radome, which pyro-maniac kindly sent me. I then read that it was a bit of a tough build and left it at that, until now. [fanfare]

 

30049826692_f435d7a361_k.jpg20161006_214424 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

29535396593_b056e2927a_k.jpg20161006_214430 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Hmmm, "prefer quality". Well, I like to think I do. I like my models like I like my women, beautiful surface detail, expensive, and locked up safely in the basement.

 

And look, only three steps, basically, and then it's all together!

 

29535488614_1e6c1068dd_k.jpg20161006_214418 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Sprues don't look too bad. Low parts count is good.

 

30164084345_d738fffec0_k.jpg20161006_214442 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

what the butt

 

29535485934_c12f891fcc_k.jpg20161006_214457 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

This should be a hole.

 

29535484144_99d8d9c000_k.jpg20161006_215101 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

"Intriguing" fit.

 

30164082395_59acb6ccbc_k.jpg20161006_215818 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I've started the cockpit tub:

 

30049825082_1882ef0d6c_k.jpg20161006_225434 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

From what I know of Sovjets, they didn't start getting their delightfully hideous vomit green cockpit interiors until the late 1960s, so this aircraft should have a restrained light grey with black instrumentation.

 

A three-part nosewheel bay, which I then have to capture between the fuselage halves! Oh, Amodel, you spoil me.

 

29535480484_19226bd624_k.jpg20161006_225430 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

 

Edited by Procopius
Corrected translation
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5 minutes ago, Procopius said:

Hmmm, "prefer quality". Well, I like to think I do. I like my models like I like my women, beautiful surface detail, expensive, and locked up safely in the basement.

 

Yes! Let's all prefer quality!

 

Well done Edward, you made me laugh before half-past six in the morning, an occurrence so unusual that the dog is now observing me carefully and, it must be said, suspiciously.

 

I'm in - let's go :)

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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You'll be fine young man. Get in there an do eet! I envy you the task you face - the fitting and fettling is my very bestest favourite part of mogelling.

Those 50s Soviet aircraft were amazing to look at, Buck Rogers with a red star.

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I'm in too, off you go Egbert! :D

I'd not seen a 'Firebar' before and it certainly is an 'interesting' subject...

Fuselage with interesting gaps, a bit flashy, sleek lines and a bit quirky, just like I like MY Women!

Looking forward to you fettling it into submission.

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One of my favourite soviet aircraft from the Flash Gordon school of design. They look like somethin straight out of Dan Dare or Flash Gordon comics :wub:

I have a pile of the members of this twin-engined family waiting for inspiration and a healthy dose of masochism.

The kit you're building belongs to the very early Amodel production so it has all the charateristics of a VERY short run kit. I'll be following this project closely - you have more than enough modelling talent to make this difficult kit into a beautiful model! ;)

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4 hours ago, Procopius said:

" Сами не летаем – другим не дадим." ["The Sami can't fly – don't let anyone else."]

 

-- Unofficial motto of the Войска ПВО СССР, Soviet Voyska-PVO

Interesting translation. ;-) In fact it means simply "We don't fly and won't let anyone else".

 

In Poland (and maybe in Russia too) a person thinking this way can be called "a gardener's dog" (in Polish: "pies ogrodnika") because it does not eat fruits and won't let others to taste them.

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The Amodel Yak-28P needs some work - but it makes up into a decent model.....

 

yak-28p_01.jpg

 

yak-28p_02.jpg

 

yak-28p_03.jpg

 

I have an old T-shirt showing a caricature of the Russian Knights Su-27 - and on the back it says in Cyrillic - "We have no brakes"

 

Which seems odd at first - but when you understand that it is better translated as "There is nothing to stop us" it makes perfect sense.

 

So the PVO motto is perhaps better translated as "If we don't fly - nobody else does"

 

I have all of Amodel's Yak-25/27/28 series of kits - but have not yet got around to making any more after the Firebar.

 

I did fancy having a go at marrying a Su-15 fuselage to engineless Yak-28 wings to make the one-off Yak-28-64

 

Have fun with your Yak.....

 

Ken

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46 minutes ago, Rob G said:

That massive nose gear is... amusing. Almost as if they expected the pilot to slam the thing onto the deck at warp factor 5.

Gives a very good AOA for take-off too,I bet it didn't need much back stick to un-stick and climb away.

 

I'm in too,I like Yakety-Yaks.

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Jessica, that was the very kit that started me on my enduring obsession with Russian aircraft.

 

It must have been way back in the 70's - I made the Contrail Yak-28P version - and displayed it on a base with a hardstanding surrounded with piled-up snow as if at dispersal.

 

Tim Perry (of PP Aeroparts) made me an etched-brass tow bar for it - which was huge.

 

I think I might have won a couple of prizes with it.

 

Ah! Nostalgia.

 

Ken

 

 

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I believe a modest but eloquent Hubba-hubba is required at this initial stage of proceedings. RAND documents, a Bill Gunston name-check, and a plane with pointy-parts all over it that reek of aerospatial optimism. Irrestitible! :D

Tony

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9 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

Well done Edward, you made me laugh before half-past six in the morning, an occurrence so unusual that the dog is now observing me carefully and, it must be said, suspiciously.

 

Sad when a dog isn't willing to entertain the notion of preferring quality.

 

7 hours ago, Rob G said:

I envy you the task you face - the fitting and fettling is my very bestest favourite part of mogelling.

 

Actually, I'm much the same. It and unmasking are very therapeutic...until I stuff it up.

 

 

6 hours ago, Christer A said:

Short-run kit, from an earlier period in Amodels life, of a bonkers looking russian plane. What could possible go wrong?

 

Right?

 

 

6 hours ago, CedB said:

I'd not seen a 'Firebar' before and it certainly is an 'interesting' subject...

 

It is, very Me262-esque. It looks a lot more like an early 1950s jet than a late one, with the podded engines.

 

5 hours ago, Moggy said:

The kit you're building belongs to the very early Amodel production so it has all the charateristics of a VERY short run kit. I'll be following this project closely - you have more than enough modelling talent to make this difficult kit into a beautiful model! ;)

 

I don't know about talent, but this is definitely short-run. I don't think it's worse than a High Planes kit in that department, though. The parts actually look quite nice!

 

4 hours ago, rav said:

Interesting translation. ;-) In fact it means simply "We don't fly and won't let anyone else".

 

Thanks, Rav! I have to rely on machine translations, so I greatly appreciate your language skills.

 

4 hours ago, Whofan said:

I was taken with the wish to have "Pleasant time with our models"

 

 

Yes, we'll see about that, won't we.

 

3 hours ago, Flankerman said:

The Amodel Yak-28P needs some work - but it makes up into a decent model...

 

 

Do you have any tips or know of any good reference photos, particularly of the gear and engines? Almost all of my books are in storage until my house is sold. Any tips on the build, Ken? Don't think mine will look as good as yours...

 

3 hours ago, Rob G said:

That massive nose gear is... amusing. Almost as if they expected the pilot to slam the thing onto the deck at warp factor 5.

 

Russian.

 

1 hour ago, Jessica said:

If you run into trouble with that kit, I have a backup available for you.

Contrail%20Yak-28.JPG

 

Eep! I saw someone doing a build of this while I was researching the kit. Looks scary.

 

45 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

I believe a modest but eloquent Hubba-hubba is required at this initial stage of proceedings. RAND documents, a Bill Gunston name-check, and a plane with pointy-parts all over it that reek of aerospatial optimism. Irrestitible! :D

 

One of the great things about RAND is that a lot of their 1960s-1980s papers are now online as free PDFs!

 

 

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2 hours ago, Procopius said:

It is, very Me262-esque. It looks a lot more like an early 1950s jet than a late one, with the podded engines.

That's because it is an early '50s jet with the wings swept a little more, bigger engines and a pointier nose. Here's the Yak 25 it evolved from:

yak125-1.jpg

 

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16 minutes ago, Jessica said:

That's because it is an early '50s jet with the wings swept a little more, bigger engines and a pointier nose. Here's the Yak 25 it evolved from:

 

 

Oh, I know about the Yak-25. Normally I love stupid looking Russian aircraft (MiG-21 and MiG-29 in their -SMT forms, for instance), but the Yak-25 crosses a red line for me. My god does it look dumb. 

 

 

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No photos tonight, as it's been almost all fettling. The wings are almost one piece, but there's a plate for the underside inboard of the engine pods, and it doesn't fit well without a bit of work. I've also been doing some test-fitting with rubber bands to hold the fuselages halves, which gently curve away from each other like reluctant lovers, together. 

 

Surprisingly, the cockpit floor fits pretty well, needs rounding off (at the very least) at the forward end so the fuselage can ultimately be forced closed around it. 

 

I spent an inordinate amount of time sanding and smoothing my second-hand radome out. It looks like it was previously glued with CA glue. Well, no longer! 

 

The shock cone/intake bullet/go-faster spike in each engine pod is four parts: front cone, top rear cone, bottom rear cone, fin. The whole kit and kaboodle forms a single piece composed of two back-to-back cones with three fins radiating off in a more or less cruciform shape. I can't find a good picture of a Yak-28 intake, but it should end up looking like this:

 

Yak.jpg

 

 

The way you do this is by gluing on the third fin and then somehow trapping the whole assembly between the two engine pod, which looks to be a recipe for disaster. My plan is to assemble the pod and then slip the bullet in through the top and geeeeeently coax it into place with blandishments and threats, one after the other in quick succession.

 

Tonight was Pumpkinfest in the sleepy hamlet of Highwood, and we took Winston to see it (IE Mrs P wanted to go, and we had to go with). Winston had a shot with a cute little girl toddler, but blew it because he saw a Ferris Wheel and went absolutely out of his mind with excitement. She was left standing there as he roared off on his absurdly short legs to stare in rapturous awe at what I can only assume he believed to be an avatar of his god, Almighty Ceiling Fan.

 

We listed our house for sale yesterday; the first showing is Sunday. Wish me luck.

 

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