VVS Yakovlev Yak-3 from the 402nd FAR, Spring 1945

[PlaStix]

Wow! Very impressive progress! It's going to be one stunning cockpit. 

Kind regards,

Stix

[Basilisk]

On 25/06/2017 at 7:33 PM, Biggles87 said:

Good save on the instrument decals, and the side console are looking really good.

More good reference for mine, thanks.

 

Cheers

 

John

 

On 26/06/2017 at 0:15 AM, Hewy said:

The extra painting details and placards really take it up a notch peter, looking good

Glynn

 

On 27/06/2017 at 3:44 AM, PlaStix said:

Wow! Very impressive progress! It's going to be one stunning cockpit. 

Kind regards,

Stix

 

Thank you all for the kind words. I managed to do some work on the cockpit, adding filters and chipping. But I wont bore you with more pictures of the cockpit progress until it is finished, which will take a bit longer.

 

But to finish the cockpit, I have to assemble the fuselage and also fit the exhaust, but I am not too happy what Special hobby done. The resin exhaust look great, but the shrouds around them doesn't look too good.

 

This is how it looks in the kit.

And that how it should look like.

 

The shrouds are way too thick and there is no curvature at the front. Unfortunately it has to be thinned down from the outside as the resin exhaust fits very well to the opening as is.

 

I made a spacer I could fit in the opening so that I could scrape the plastic shrouds to scale thickness.

 

After lots of scraping, I came up with this.

Top original, bottom corrected.

 

Here top corrected and bottom original.

 

And here with the exhaust in place.

Top original, bottom corrected.

 

Here top corrected and bottom original.

 

This correction brings the exhaust about 1mm further forward which is how it should be when you compare it with the picture of the aircraft in Le Bourget. I think it was worthwhile to do this modification as it enhances the look of the shroud a lot.

 

Cheers, Peter

[Hewy]

I agree Peter that small but obviously time consuming detail correction just adds more to an already stunning build.

Glynn 

[Biggles87]

+1

 

John

[modelling minion]

+2! It really adds to the look of the exhaust area Peter, very nice indeed.

[PlaStix]

+3!

[Basilisk]

Thank you all for the feedback. Great to see that others think too that the modification is worthwhile

 

Got a bit further this week - be warned, lots of pictures in this post.

 

Before gluing the fuselage together, I modified the way the tail wheel can be attached. I converted the hole to a slot so that I can add the tail wheel at the end as I surely will brake it off if I attach it now.

 

Also hallowed the rudder linkage covers so that I can add the linkage later.

 

And the exhaust radiator grill is in place. I used the eduard PE part as it does correct the appearance as Special Hobby depicts the grill as used in the reproduction Yak-3s.

 

The IP received some chipping and glossy lenses curtesy of Gauzy.

Seat harnesses were next. I used HGW fabric harnesses as I feel they look much better than PE harnesses in this scale.

Attaching the fabric to the PE when still on the fret makes handling much easier.

 

The fabric of the latest HGW harnesses is different to the earlier examples. They don't look nice when wrinkled as some fiber of the fabric comes loose and they are a pain to glue.

 

At the end I use CE gel which kind of worked.

 

After finishing them, I realized that they are too short - and I did follow the assembly instruction. So apart they came and done again.

I also replaced the fabric strap for the locks with a wire as on the real Sutton harness.

 

And here the lap straps in place on the bucket seat and also the straps on the rudder pedals.

 

 

 

And finally all together with the shoulder harness in place

 

 

 

 

 

Doesn't it look better than a PE harness ?!

 

And to close, some pictures of the front end.

 

 

 

It took a long time to get to this stage and I can't wait having it in the fuselage with the side panels in place.

 

Even though the HGW harness looks great, I think it is not correctly represented for a Yak-3 as the Sutton harnesses in the Yak fighters dont have the length adjustment straps as can be seen on this picture from a Yak-1 cockpit.

 

I am puzzled why HGW got it wrong (or do they know something I don't)?

 

I just couldn't fit the PE harness as I do like the look of the fabric. So I guess the pilot who flew this Yak got a proper Sutton harness from a Spitfire for some extra comfort.

 

Thanks for watching.

Cheers, Peter

[Robert Stuart]

1 hour ago, Basilisk said:

Doesn't it look better than a PE harness ?

Yes Peter, it does.  It looks painful to put together, but the appearance is far superior to a PE version.

 

The whole 'pit is looking good

[PlaStix]

That is turning in to one of the best models of a cockpit I have seen. Superb detailing all around! 

Kind regards,

Stix

[Biggles87]

4 hours ago, PlaStix said:

That is turning in to one of the best models of a cockpit I have seen. Superb detailing all around! 

Kind regards,

Stix

Agreed.

I am using an RB harness for my Mig 3 and that doesn't have the adjustment straps, which as you say appears to be more accurate.

Looking forward to seeing the cockpit in place and the fuselage halves joined, I always think of that as a milestone in any build.

 

Cheers

 

John

[Basilisk]

21 hours ago, Robert Stuart said:

Yes Peter, it does.  It looks painful to put together, but the appearance is far superior to a PE version.

 

The whole 'pit is looking good

Thanks Robert.

 

20 hours ago, PlaStix said:

That is turning in to one of the best models of a cockpit I have seen. Superb detailing all around! 

Kind regards,

Stix

Very kind of you Stix, but the scale does provide a nice canvas to be creative

 

15 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

Agreed.

I am using an RB harness for my Mig 3 and that doesn't have the adjustment straps, which as you say appears to be more accurate.

Looking forward to seeing the cockpit in place and the fuselage halves joined, I always think of that as a milestone in any build.

 

Cheers

 

John

Great information John. I wasn't aware that RB is making an early style Sutton harness which is the correct type for the Yaks

 

I put a lot of effort into detailing this cockpit and having the wrong type of harness in it does bother me. I therefore ordered one today and will replace the one currently fitted. Fortunately I used minimal amounts of glue so it shouldn't be too difficult, but I most likely won't get the harness until mid next week. Oh well, plenty of other models to work on in the meantime.

 

Cheers, Peter

[spitfire]

If you have never used the RB seat belts they are great, I used them on my last 3 builds (all Spitfires) and they are a lot easier to handle and look a lot better that PE belts.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Basilisk]

30 minutes ago, spitfire said:

If you have never used the RB seat belts they are great, I used them on my last 3 builds (all Spitfires) and they are a lot easier to handle and look a lot better that PE belts.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

No, I haven't used RB harnesses, only the HGW fabric. But good to know Dennis that they work great.

 

Cheers, Peter

[Basilisk]

Got some other parts done this week as I am waiting for the RB harness to arrive. When drilling out the barrel in the supplied resin guns, they both disintegrated. . S I had to make them from tubes instead.

Looks ok, but I am actually unsure how far (if at all) the extruded into the channel as I couldn't find any pictures showing this part of the aircraft and the preserved aircraft have the guns missing...

 

Next was the elevator - and boy did I open a can of worms

 

First I reduced the trailing edge thickness by sanding it thinner prior gluing them together. I also reduced the fabric effect by sanding it down. I don't know why all the kit manufacturer represent the fabric covered control surfaces way overdone

 

And when seeing the above picture, I noticed that both trim actuators are on the bottom of the horizontal stabilizers and not on the top on one side as represented in the kit.

 

Of course I only noticed that after I glued them together

So off one came. and attached on the opposite side.

So far so good. But when I tried to open up the rear to make it more scale looking, the whole thing disintegrated

 

So I had no choice than making them from scratch. When looking at following pictures. it also shows that the cover on the kit is a bit on the small side.

 

And notice how smooth the fabric surface is!

 

So I made some replacement covers from tubes.

And fitted with the linkage and actuating rod in place.

The length of the cover is 4mm long! This was one of the most fiddly scratch building I ever managed

 

And last but not least, I finished painting the wheel wells.

 

 

Will add some more weathering and chipping when the undercarriage is in place at the end of the build.

 

That is all for now.

Cheers, Peter

[Hewy]

Excellent work on the actuator covers, and the mg tips are bang on the money, coming along nicely peter

Glynn

[Basilisk]

On 7/31/2017 at 5:17 AM, Hewy said:

Excellent work on the actuator covers, and the mg tips are bang on the money, coming along nicely peter

Glynn

Thanks Glynn. As my RB Production harness unfortunately hasn't arrived yet, I had some more time comparing the kit with pictures of Yak-3s and yes, you guessed it, I found some other discrepancies I decided to correct - I really have to stop looking at pictures

 

One problem is how Special Hobby created the top cover with the integrated gun openings. The size of this part is where I put Mr Surfacer 500 with additional panel lines filled in on the picture below with a talcum powder / CA mix.

The problem is that there is only one panel from behind the gun openings up to the canopy. But on the kit the top insert creates this additional joint which needs to be eliminated. In addition, the actual panel line for the part is too far back.

 

Here a picture how it looks on the real aircraft from above (Yak-3 at Belgrade).

This also shows that the bumps are too short on the kit at the end and the row of rivets are too far back. May fix this and also remove the large rivet holes around them...

 

And from the side on the Le Bourget Aircraft.

 

So some re-scribing was necessary.

I found the new Tamiya masking tapes for curves working well as a guide for re-scribing.

 

And some more re-scribing with the tools I use for the task.

 

That looks now more like on the real aircraft. I added a black panel line wash to see the new lines better.

I will re-work the fasteners after the wings are in place.

 

Here you can see the location of the old (very faint) and new panel line.

 

And under the nose is also some detail missing.

Both the circular hole and the larger opening behind the propeller aren't on the kit.

 

So I added them as well. The slot turned out a bit too wide, so I may fix that.

 

Hopefully the harness arrives this week - things always arrive super fast if you don't need the stuff, but if you wait for it it takes for ever

 

Cheers, Peter

[PlaStix]

Incredible modelling as always Peter. I really do not know how you have the patience to do all the modifications you do. Inspiring stuff!

Kind regards,

Stix

[spitfire]

The level of detail is phenomenal, I don't think that I will have the patience, but it's nice to see someone who has doing it right.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Hewy]

Top job on the scribing peter, more impressive details, i hope this thread is still around when i start mine, 

Glynn

[modelling minion]

Fantastic work Peter, the attention to detail you are putting into this build is amazing.

[zebra]

Tremendous work Peter, I'm picking up some tips here, I'll have to give some of your techniques a go.

[Basilisk]

On 8/9/2017 at 1:49 AM, PlaStix said:

Incredible modelling as always Peter. I really do not know how you have the patience to do all the modifications you do. Inspiring stuff!

Kind regards,

Stix

 

On 8/9/2017 at 3:52 AM, spitfire said:

The level of detail is phenomenal, I don't think that I will have the patience, but it's nice to see someone who has doing it right.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

On 8/9/2017 at 0:20 PM, Hewy said:

Top job on the scribing peter, more impressive details, i hope this thread is still around when i start mine, 

Glynn

 

On 8/9/2017 at 6:12 PM, modelling minion said:

Fantastic work Peter, the attention to detail you are putting into this build is amazing.

 

3 hours ago, zebra said:

Tremendous work Peter, I'm picking up some tips here, I'll have to give some of your techniques a go.

 

Thank you all for the kind comments. As you surely figured out by now, I love tinkering with the little details and coming up with solutions to do them

 

As an example the gun blisters.

 

First how it does look on the original aircraft.

(I consider the Le Bourget aircraft the most authentic Yak-3 in existence.)

 

And how it looks on the kit.

Using the nine fastener along the bottom edge of the cover as a visual guide, the blister should be located between the two pencil lines! It is 3.5mm too far back at the front and extends 1mm too far at the rear.

 

In addition the shape is totally wrong. It is too tall and should be pointier at the rear. This unfortunately is a substantial error

 

And here my solution.

I was lucky to have a plastic rod of the correct size.

 

Here is how I done it. First I saw a slot into the rod through the middle.

I glued a small piece of plastic into the slot to secure it

 

Then I shaped it on the lathe with a file.

 

... two blisters

Just needed to cut it of the rod and separate the two half and it was done!

 

I think it is an improvement, so I will go ahead and replace the blisters.

 

The RB harness finally arrived this week so I had a go at them.

Compared to the HGW harness which has all the grommets as one PE, the RB harness has them as individual parts

 

A fiddly task, but they do look nice.

I  think I will use them in place of the HGW harness.

 

Thanks for watching, Cheers, Peter

 

[Biggles87]

More great reference material for us,  and well spotted on the gun blisters.

I had great problems with the brass grommiets in my RB harness due to my lack of manual dexterity and general ham-fistedness.

Keep up the good work.

 

John

[Basilisk]

On 8/11/2017 at 4:26 PM, Biggles87 said:

More great reference material for us,  and well spotted on the gun blisters.

I had great problems with the brass grommiets in my RB harness due to my lack of manual dexterity and general ham-fistedness.

Keep up the good work.

 

John

Thanks John. Yes these grommets are a pain in the but  Actually I just wasn't too happy about the look of the RB harness so I did a bit of a research.

 

This is how a British Sutton A harness looks like.

And the RB harness is a good representation of it.

 

And here is how the Russian Sutton A harness looks like.

The graphics are from the Yak-3 pilots manual and the picture is a Yak-1.

 

This shows some interesting points. They used 6 hole harnesses, but with the grommets closer together. Also the locking pin and clip is attached to the lap harness and not to the shoulder harness as with the British type.

 

As I purchased two sets, I had a go at assemble them so the grommets are more like the Russian type.

The first is the original and the following two are the new one and they are definitely more like the Russian version The biggest challenge was to have a visible hole

where the grommet is placed

 

Cheers, Peter

[Biggles87]

More useful information, and a really good photo of the harness. I have given up on the grommets on my lap straps, but will add the clips. I will concentrate on the shoulder straps and they will be the last items to be added.

Looking forward to seeing the wings in place.

 

John

Edited August 13, 2017 by Biggles87