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Hobby Boss 1/48 YF-23 Black Widow II Something to maintain my sanity between Big Builds. Hobby Boss' 1/48 YF-23 Black Widow II. Done up in AV article 1. Pretty much OOB with the exception of CaracalModels decal set and some wire for the brake lines. I used Rustoleum Dark charcoal Satin for the overall colour, Tamiya, Model Master, and AK interactive Metallics for everything else. And a shot with its competitor., A YF-22 Raptor Thanks for stopping by and having a look. All comments, suggestions, and critiques re always welcome.

I know, it's not like I don't have two VERY big projects already on the bench, but here we go once more into the breech. Although it is another Northrop subject. Number 3 on the bench. But this will be a nice little diversion that SHOULD be OOB. Simple and easy to break the monotony of these long builds. Let's see what we've got shall we?

Hello again.I have finished this one last week.The old Testors YF-23.Fully rescribed.The cockpit has been upgraded a little with some scratch details.Painted in tamiya and ak interactive paints. Regards,Dragan

Hi All, My first WIP, and to be fair this one's been 'in progress' for quite a while. I've finally figured out photo posting, too -Thanks Bullbasket, I'm loving Village Photos! My Mojo for the build has been restored by this brilliant (as ever) Steve Ginter monograph, written by the guy who flew this gorgeous but ultimately doomed prototype. Bit of a double edged sword tho as I now have a shedload of really good photos and drawings of the thing (that will all have to be faithfully reproduced, so says that nagging little voice!) Anyhow - the shortcomings in this kit are well written up and bemoaned elsewhere - I just want to show you my fixes, for what it's worth! 1 - Awful (and really obvious) top of fuselage contour hollows amidships........ Solution - Traced the panel lines with frisket film, good old p-38 filler and then the panel lines were reinstated using the tracings. I also deepened the panel lines a bit on the bleed doors too, to break up a very stealthy and uniform top surface (which it was!). 2 - The Intakes (ohh the intakes) - no "before" pics from I'm afraid but they're readily available if you must look! ZACTOMAN is my hero here -he's doing a phenomenal 1/32 YF-23 project, I mean, just incredible! I've shamelessly plundered his project to knock these into shape ... His ones ... And mine !!!! Loads of reworking on the inside needed after this surgery! Hadn't really forseen that, but I cannibalised the kit trunking and broke out the Milliput to produce this.... Bit rough, but it will get another round of filler and primer and it will be pretty dingy in there anyway! And then (another) moment of lunacy - compressor faces (actually 1/72 Revell Victor ones as they are the perfect diameter for the kit's trunking).This had to be converted from oval to round with Milliput. Well, I know it's in there, as they say. 3 - bottom End - this was my biggest bugbear with this Kit. Northrop made two of these beauties - PAV-1 (Prototype Air Vehicle,BTW), with Pratt and Whitney YF-119 engines, and PAV-2, with GE YF-120 motors in. Result- two different back ends. Being the masochist I am, I wanted to do PAV-1, whereas Hobby Boss have depicted PAV-2. I just think the plane looks cooler in all-over Gunship grey. More surgery, then..... Heat-dissipating tiles rescribed - not 100% accurate (a tile spans the centreline of the trough in reality), but it's better than the Topps Tiles they've depicted!! Then a separate kit to make for the rear end conversion! I'll have to have another crack at casting copies of these bits - wonder if anybody else would like a set? and in situ (sidewalls anyway)...... Hopefully something like this will result. The edges of the trough will be covered with some thin metal foil or litho sheet or sommat, and embossed with a knife sharpening steel (in my mind!!) From what I can see the ZACTOMODELS kit will have both exhaust trough options, and not just the easy one!! 4 - Front office - What's in the box is fine. Aft of the seat the detail is mostly fictional, but who knows what access Hobby Boss had to the info. Most of the pics of this area I've seen come from the restoration projects, i.e. from after the PAVs were rescued from the desert. I added an Aires seat and scratched the Red/orange camera mounts. I razor-sawed some kerfs and scribed a bit to break up a rather flat and featureless wing or two.... And a few belly details amended, couple more to go!! and that's about it for now!!! Thanks for looking in, hope this has been of interest so far!!

Dragon is to re-release soon its 1/72nd Nortxhrop/McDonnell Douglas YF-23 Black Widow II kit (link 1 & link 2) - ref. 2507 Source: https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10594440 Box art 8 V.P.

And so 2018 begins with a kit that has been in storage for nearly two decades... a rare 1/72 Italeri YF-23 I bought this kit when living in the US during my high school years or shortly thereafter, so circa 1996-99. The kit is dated 1994 so it was relatively new back then. This was my second foray into modelling and first "serious" attempt, this time with an airbrush (a Paasche single-action). However, I didn't actually start this kit until many years later, around the mid-naughties, but I only got around to painting the cockpit. Since then, the kit had been stored in a box somewhere in my family's house until I rescued it a few months back and brought it back with me to London. On the plus side, despite some cleaning up needed (the plastic is a bit dirty), all pieces are accounted for except one of the sides of the ACES seat which I will scratch-build with plasticard. This is quite an achievement given how easy parts can fall off and get lost in Italeri's flimsy open-ended boxes. Also given how rare this kit and how much it goes for these days on eBay, it's a privilege to have one near-intact, and even with no yellowing of the decals! Thankfully, I have another one of these in the stash (still sealed!) so I can afford to do some experimenting with this one. Namely, black-basing. This will be my first attempt at this technique which over the holidays I started getting more and more enthusiastic about. The Black Widow is an excellent starting point for this: it's all dark grey camo will be perfect for black basing. It's a big plane too and despite being only a prototype, looked grimy enough in pics: http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/510961f66bb3f7682a000012-1200/yf-23.jpg Anyway, it is an honor to start work on this gem of a kit and make it my first completed build of 2018

Hello Chaps First finished model for 2014! Last year I only finished one model. I said this year was going to be better so here you go... My attempt the YF-23 1/48 from Hobby Boss, fascinating aircraft by the way. Carcal decals and Vallejo paint, primer and varnish. 11.5 hour of pure fun, spread over 5 months . Nice and easy kit, comes together like a dream, not filling required. The surface detail is a bit in the fine side to my taste but other than that, no complains. The mirrors are the only extra. They came from an Academy kit I think. Hope you like it. The pictures: YF-23 1 by adrianmunozm, on Flickr YF-23 2 by adrianmunozm, on Flickr YF-23 3 by adrianmunozm, on Flickr YF-23 4 by adrianmunozm, on Flickr YF-23 5 by adrianmunozm, on Flickr YF-23 6 by adrianmunozm, on Flickr YF-23 7 by adrianmunozm, on Flickr C&C welcome. Adrian

Hi everyone, I'm Tim and a newcomer to this excellent forum! Received my latest addition to the stash this week and wanted to share my progress building this large anhd beautiful modern(ish) aircraft. Not my usual cup of tea (I'm mostly into Cold War British and Russian jets) but I think you'll agree, this is one good looking aircraft even in boring low-vis colours. The kit will be built OOB, except for a replacement ejector seat (Aces II correct me if I'm wrong) by Aires or Pavla. Am also hunting for the excellent Caracal decals sheet, so if anybody can help, please please PM me! I'll be trying some new airbrushing techniques - mainly pre-shading panels as the panel lines on this kit aren't as numerous as other kits, so any pointers and constructive criticism will be most welcome. Will be starting this evening and pics will follow! http://s160.photobucket.com/user/espritenthusiast/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20140304_172049_zps8710b34a.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0 Tim

At Nürnberg Toy fair 2013. 1/48th Northrop YF-23 Black Widow by HobbyBoss ref.81722 Source: http://www.primeportal.net/models/thomas_voigt7/hobby_boss/ V.P.

Well before I completed the F-84E, I did these. The YF-22 and one 23 were strip-downs and repaints of kits first built in the early 90s. The dark grey 23 has decals from the Dragon kit, bought specifically for them. The details - The YF-22 is the Italeri kit with Airfix decals. All the original kit was still in one piece, I just removed the u/c, added a bit of filler, and the nose probe from the Airfix kit too. Both YF-23s are the Italeri mould (one from a Revell release). Not too much weathering on them but the decals on the dark grey one silvered quite badly. The YF-17 is the Anigrand tooling. Straightforward if not too accurate at the nose end. The nose probe I added is a bit on the long side! The canopy was quite cloudy though. The X-32 is (IMHO) a gorgeous looking machine! This was the Revell boxing of the Italeri moulds, of which I have another, and may well end up as the X-35B. Accuracy, again, is not all there, especially in the back end, but I couldn't be bothered to make new vertical stabs or move the wing, OR put in an exhaust on the back left fuselage.. but I enjoyed making it - went together well! Finally the Gnat and Vampire make up the Brit end, Airfix versions of course. They went together ok, but not superbly. A bit of filler and rubbing down on a few joints that didn't want to mate up, and panel lines that didn't seem as fine as the aforementioned X-32. On the Gnat, I had a lot of trouble with the Alclad orange peel effect, despite being rubbed smooth and properly primed. In the end I opted for Humbrol Metalcote overall, along with their 209. The Vamp was painted too initially in Alclad, but I wasn't happy with it (I have seen pics of Vampires having what looks to me like a greyish metallic colour, whilst the Alclad seemed a bit too... metallic?? So I opted for Xtracolour High Speed Silver instead.) You will also notice some of the display stands in their naked formats - I haven't gotten around to stain varnishing them all yet Also, I put the YF-22 next to an F-22, just for comparisons.. Apologies if this is a tad pic heavy URL=http://s764.photobucket.com/user/jasman71/media/null_zps13090729.jpg.html][/url] Thankyou for looking

To those (anybody?) eagerly awaiting the follow up to my earlier on of the British protoypes in January apologies for the delay. I got involved in designing a website for the local branch of a national charity. With that, the P1040 and spring finally appearing in the garden the follow-up took a back seat. Anyway I hope you like them but first a consumer warning. Some go back a long way - hopefully my modelling skills have advanced in the meanwhile John First the Americans Douglas D558-I Skystreak Anigrand resin, not the best of kits. Tail surfaces were very inaccurate and replaced by scratch built items Douglas D558-II Skyrocket Anigrand resin, not terribly impressed with this kit either. A pity as it was one of my favourite a/c. One of my model club members recently produced the Hobbyboss version and it looked ‘right’ whereas mine doesn’t Bell X-1 Hobbycraft kit – awful decals and I didn’t dare attempt to paint the canopy! Lockheed F94C Starfire Emhar kit. I think that there is something not quite right about the nose of this kit. A pity as I used to think that this was a most impressive a/c and I really wanted to model it. Douglas Skyray - No it is not the prototype but it was one of the many weird and wonderful efforts of the US Navy in the fifties that culminated in the Phantom. Tamiya kit - Why can't everybody produce well moulded kits like this? Convair XFY-1 KP kit. Quite a nice but heavy panel lines and undersize decals North American F107 Trumpeter kit. This went together with little trouble except around the intake but for some reason I had dreadful trouble with the paint job. Don't look too closely (Oh yes you will won't you!) Then a grandchild broke the nose probe! I wish all Trumpeter kits were this good. McDonnell Douglas F15 Hasegawa kit. Went together well but kit was old when I got it and the decals were a nightmare to separate from the backing sheet This seems to be a problem with old Hasegawa kits Lockheed YF22 Dragon kit. Some problems with sink marks but otherwise OK Northrop/McDonnell Douglas YF23 Italieri kit General Dynamics F16 XL Monogram. One of my most recent completions. The rear fuselage does not have the uptilt of the a/c. I also suspect the a/c wing may not be as simple as the one in the kit. I was unable to find anything to verify this. And now some Russians Yak 23 A simple KP kit. I didn’t know it was a prototype until recently I found a picture of it in the book ‘Early Soviet Jet Fighters’ Mig 1-44 Zvezda kit. First time I have made one of their kits and it went together well. Only real problem was that the colour scheme had the upper and lower colours reversed Su 37 Revell kit. Went together fairly well with a few issues with the fit on the front fuselage and around the intakes. It wasn’t clear (to me anyway) from the instructions how the boundary layer bleeds fitted and of course I got it wrong and had to correct it. And finally a French one SO Trident II Mach II kit.