Airfix 1/72 YAK-9 - Finished!

[AdrianMF]

Hello All,

This project started life as a quick low-stress easy build. You can tell what happened next, eh?

The Airfix YAK-9 is a 1963 mould, providing a basic model with a pilot-on-peg cockpit and no wheel well detail. I've compared it to photos and plans from the interweb and it comes out "pretty close" - certainly not as bad as the Airfix IL-2 (q.v.). Here's the list of things I noticed with remedial actions:

• cockpit is empty (un-empty it)
• wheel wells are wrong shape and empty (change the shape some and box them in)
• propeller, undercarriage and exhausts are not much to write home about (modify/scratch as needed)
• air intake is too small (modify)
• wing tips are semi-circular like the very late model -9s (sand to shape)
• raised details and rivets (re-scribe some panels, add some panels from aluminium tape)
• canopy is too small (make a new one)
• Fuselage tapers too much in profile (don't look at it from the side)
• Tailplanes and elevators are a bit too small (hope no-one notices)

I added a new cockpit to get the project going:




The fuselage needed a LOT of filler! This was the first application:



You can see the widened air intake, the small intakes at the wing roots, the boxed in wheel wells and the original propeller (since removed) (well actually the blades broke off a lot during sanding...)

The exhausts are heat-stretched plastic rod, cut and bent to fit in a re-positioned exhaust slot (moved further back) on the fuselage:




You can see the scribing and the riveting - the rivets were mostly lost after a light sanding and primer, which is fine - I don't need every rivet to stand out. I used a cut out piece of plastic from a food container as a template to scribe the wing fillet and it worked pretty well.

I bought some aluminium tape at Maplin's this morning and intend to try it out to make the inspection hatches and petrol tank covers this evening.

Thanks for looking,
Adrian

Edited May 25, 2013 by AdrianMF

[John_W]

That is amazing work.

[airhead]

Another one that lays dormant in my stash waiting to be finished.

Ingenious solution for the profile error

Great start! I'll be following this one.

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Wow.....On a pogo-stick!

That's just amazing!

[HOUSTON]

Superb work ...

[Navy Bird]

This looks rather tasty! I think I said this on another thread recently, but I love it when folks take "undesirable" or "un-buildable" kits and do them justice. This is a great start, and I'm looking forward to seeing more!

Cheers,

Bill

[Learstang]

Adrian, compared to your transformation of the Airfix "Il-2" from misshapen lump of plastic into a recognisable, rather nice model of the Shturmovik, this should be a walk in the park. Still, I wouldn't attempt this and good for you for having a go. The interior looks very nice, for starters. So what's next after this - the Airfix Pe-2?

Regards,

Jason

[Jinja]

Great work. I've built this kit OOB just to practice some paint effects so, I know just what you're up against. The model is now in my sons aircraft toy box! At least it went to a good home......lol

[Troy Smith]

Hi Adrian

Lovely job on that cockpit, the faults of the kit were discussed on soviet warplanes, I got a couple of these really cheap to test out a paint scheme.

Now I'm sure you know the Airfix paint guide is a joke, the Yak -9 gives you the exciting choice of AMT-7 blue undersides with uppers in AMT-11 grey and AMT-12 dark grey [some early ones were green and black, and there are pics of some 'sea scheme' Yak-7B...]

see http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/colors/1943-45-fighters/1943-45.html

but if you fancy looking up some other marking options....

http://airfield.narod.ru/yak/yak-9/yak-9_color.html

which is a link to a Russian site of profiles, the kicker here being that they have the photos the profiles are drawn from up as well, tip, if you run your mouse over the cyrillic links, [look at at the bar at the bottom of the browser, ] it will say photo, but in Russian it's 'foto' and only the 'f' is different. lets see if the cyrillc will display фото

there are 8 pages of Yak-9 profiles, see bar at left, 'окраски' or

note, some are of the later version with moved back cockpit, and you know it's late, I'm tired, this PC came off the ark and was slow then and I'm not about to try to remember which versions have what...

bed calls

HTH

T

[John Thompson]

What the hell - here's a couple of Yak-9 walkarounds, assuming anyone needs or wants them:

http://photo.qip.ru/users/pakuro/3840677/

http://walkarounds.airforce.ru/avia/rus/yak/yak-9/index.htm

John

[AdrianMF]

Thanks for the links! I've used some of the interior pictures for detailing the cockpit, and I think I'm going to go with the "white curly 31" option because the decals print the number beautifully (if possibly a little large). My dark green and dark earth paint pots will remain tightly closed!

The kit has yellow outlines to the stars, with no outer red edge.

Looking at the widespread photos of "22" and "31", I can't see a red edge to the light outline, so red edges are out. I can convince myself that the star outlines are slightly darker than the number, so I could go with the yellow outline, but I get the feeling that the general view is that the outline should be white, in which case I will either break out the decal paper or look through my other kits...

So: yellow or white star outlines. What does the team think?

Regards,

Adrian

[JOCKNEY]

Superb work so far

My son was given the new version of this last Christmas, I can't show him yours otherwise we will never finish it !

I will really enjoy following your build on this

[Troy Smith]

Thanks for the links! I've used some of the interior pictures for detailing the cockpit, and I think I'm going to go with the "white curly 31" option because the decals print the number beautifully (if possibly a little large). My dark green and dark earth paint pots will remain tightly closed!

The kit has yellow outlines to the stars, with no outer red edge.

Looking at the widespread photos of "22" and "31", I can't see a red edge to the light outline, so red edges are out. I can convince myself that the star outlines are slightly darker than the number, so I could go with the yellow outline, but I get the feeling that the general view is that the outline should be white, in which case I will either break out the decal paper or look through my other kits...

So: yellow or white star outlines. What does the team think?

Regards,

Adrian

Hi Adrian

the answer is probably silver!

[despite what you may read elsewhere, check the preserved Airacobra in Finland]

yellow outlined stars are very rare,if used at all.

White and silver were both used. I'm saying silver as if you look at the badges on the nose, the backgrounds are white, and it's brighter than the stars outlines and bort number but it could be white. Silver outlined stars are available.

Remember the Luftwaffe and allies used yellow as a quick recognition tactical marking....

there are 8 pics here

http://airfield.narod.ru/yak/yak-9/yak-9_color2.html

Note, this is bright sunlight, the Krimea is southern Russia, and it's May. See the slightly glossy finish of the paint, and see how white the bacround of the guards badge is.

the stars will have the thin red outline, note this plane, note how silver can appear white as well

is of the same unit, same time '6 ГвИАП Крым. Май 1944 г.' = 6th Guards IAP, Krimea, May 1944

The is the plane of the commander 'М.В. Авдеев' [M.V. Avdeev]

there are 4 pics of this plane on the same page of profiles.

See how the red out blends in with the background grey, but stands out clearly against the blue.

another 6 GvIAP plane

compare the star outline and 1 with guards badge.

HTH

T

Edited May 2, 2013 by Troy Smith

[John Thompson]

Yeah, I agree with Troy - avoid the yellow-outlined stars. Russian standards identified red, white, and silver as being acceptable for markings - no mention of yellow.

John

[Martian]

Great work but you don't seem make life easy for yourself, do you?

Martin von Pot Calling the Kettle Black

[AdrianMF]

I enjoy whittling and hate painting, so at 1.99 in the Modelzone sale it makes for a very cheap hobby! But you're right - maybe I should do something simple next time, maybe a WWI bomber ;-)

Regards,

Adrian

[Martian]

I enjoy whittling and hate painting, so at 1.99 in the Modelzone sale it makes for a very cheap hobby! But you're right - maybe I should do something simple next time, maybe a WWI bomber ;-)

Regards,

Adrian

OK Fair point, well made!

Martin

[AdrianMF]

Hello All,

The Yak-9 got some navigation lights, courtesy of some toy beads. I've also been trying out my new aluminium tape. It dings more easily than I thought it would, but it can be burnished out with a thumbnail. I have done the inspection panels and fuel tank covers, and I will be using some more in the undercarriage. Here's where we are:

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

[AdrianMF]

Hello All,

I modified the Airfix canopy with superglue and bicarbonate, sanded down. That's the frosty one in the picture. You can see the markII vacformer and the five canopies I pulled. Only two failures! The clear sheet came from the packaging of a salt and pepper grinder set. It is thin but it worked well, and didn't melt the original. I packed the original with blutac and stuck it down that way, so that may have absorbed some heat..

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

[AdrianMF]

Well I've trimmed the canopy opened it up. I cut some tape to the same width as the opening hood and then wrapped it round the canopy to give myself a straight and square template to cut around. I then ran a new scalpel blade gently along the tape edge until I had cut through.

The canopy is now stuck down with Clearfix. The front section fitted pretty well, but the back section needed filling with Vallejo putty, which can be smoothed over with a wet finger (I don't want to sand it!). I think there may be some white filler showing through on the inside but it's too late now - hopefully it won't show too much once I get the sliding canopy on top of it.

I added an armoured glass panel behind the seat and a gun sight complete with its bracing arm. The photo is the best I could do by the window with an iPad camera before going to work.

So I'm ready for painting! Although I just noticed in the photos of "22" and "31" a little rectangular hole in the middle of the upper wing fillet...

Paint colours will be Hu74, 27 or 106 for the lighter grey, Hu 32 for the dark grey and a mix (which I used on my IL-2) of Hu65, 87 and 34 for the light blue. Stars will not be edged in yellow!

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

[Sgt.Squarehead]

A bit after the fact now, but a useful tip I picked up was to partially fill gaps around canopies with Clearfix or Krystal-Klear type stuff (anything that dries clear) and then apply a little interior paint colour before finishing off the job with Milliput (or whatever you prefer as a filler).

You really have made an amazing model there, it's very hard to believe it's the ancient Airfix kit.....Shame there isn't a really good and readily available 1/72 YAK-9, I managed to pick up a few Eastern Express boxings of the Dako kit, but even those are getting a abit scarce these days.

Edited May 8, 2013 by Sgt.Squarehead

[AdrianMF]

Doh!! Wish I'd spoken to you earlier!

Filed away for next time...

Thanks,

Adrian

[Martian]

This is just the sort of build I love watching. I find they inspire me to take a closer look at the older kits in my stash. You often find that there is a good model waiting to get out of the box, as you are most ablely demonstrating here.

Martin

PS: Whats up next?

[CarLos]

Fantastic work on the Airfix basic kit! By coincidence I compared my kit with photos and concluded that - as you are showing - it can be done.

What reference material are you using?

Carlos

[AdrianMF]

What reference material are you using?

Carlos

My plans came from airwar.ru, I'm afraid. I'm reluctant to give a proper link because I strongly suspect that the site is no respecter of copyright.

Since I started, I've noticed some more issues, in particular the canopy position is too far forward for a Yak-9D - moving it back would highlight the short fuselage, and if you are fixing that, you might as well fix the depth too. So this is a "looks like a Yak" build....

Regards,

Adrian