Jump to content

1/72 Amodel Yak-15 - FINISHED


Recommended Posts

My next entry for the group build is the 1/72 Yak-15 from Amodel, bought at the list price from Hannants (6.50 pounds):

Yak_15_box_zpsf0ed6937.jpg

The instructions (not shown) proudly proclaim it to be the first Soviet aircraft with a turbojet. On to the sprues and decals:

Yak_15_sprues1_zpsee24d6cd.jpg

This will be the third Amodel kit I've built, and hopefully the third I finish. This is a warm-up for the Yak-28PP I have in the stash, and I also want to build a Yak-1 (Amodel) to examine the family resemblance.

Yak_15_sprues2_zps6be4d0f9.jpg

There are two schemes: one overall red, and one green-over-blue, which is the scheme I plan to do. As the photos show (or not!), there's a fair amount of cleaning, sanding and what I call therapeutic fettling to be done. My Scandinavian Spitfires will have to wait...

Edited by snapper_city
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've built quite a few Amodel kits (and have lots more to build!) and they're not difficult but do need a bit of effort. As you've probably found from the kits you've built already some of the parts are best replaced rather than trying to clean them up. I've been on a bit of a Yak family mission over the last couple of years and have got nearly all of them done up to the Yak-40, with the Amodel Yak-50/52/53/54/55s still to do.

The Amodel Yak-28 didn't give me any problems that I remember but it was 3 or 4 years ago so not that fresh in my mind!

Have fun building it.

Steve

Link to comment
Share on other sites

An update without pictures, as things still look too rough as they are. I've started cleaning up the larger parts of the kit and putting the wings and cockpit together, using the wrong seat/headrest as the carpet monster claimed the one recommended for the kit. The detail on the engine parts is soft and it's often hard to tell where a part ends and where flash begins, but this is expected with Amodel. The plastic is cuts and sands easily. I started building the wings and undercarriage early since I prefer to have to mix the 'interior' colour only once (to avoid minor inconsistencies in mixes).

I also made a serious error yesterday-in getting the wing halves to fit, I had to sand down the wheel well a bit and clamped down the wings and undercarriage (trapped between the wing halves-an interesting system) without checking them to the root wings on the fuselage halves. End result: the wings are thinner than the wing roots, and I will have to sand down the latter to make things look OK. Oh well :weep: , it will look like a Yak-15.

As a final remark, it's already quite interesting to compare the wings to a Yak-3's. The family resemblance is striking.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another non-pictorial update, I'm afraid. The Klimov RD-10 is together after much fettling and sanding though I still need to clean it up and fill some seams. The cockpit has been put together, and a dry fit of the two in the fuselage suggests no serious problems (knock wood). The paint should go on today or tomorrow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And so-a small update though a lot of 'therapeutic fettling' went into it. I've got the wings, engine and cockpit together:

Yak15_other_bits_zps26fd12cf.jpg

The wings and engine needed quite a bit of clean-up, putty and sanding to go together. Even though it will end up hidden, I painted the engine Humbrol 56 (well, Wikipedia says its relative the Jumo 004 was coated in aluminium). To fit correctly, the engine went in at an angle; apparently this was how the engine went in on the real thing (according to plans found by Google Image Search). There is some kind of mounting on top of the engine to help it go in at the right place with some slots on the fuselage side; but these were useless so I sanded them off.

A close-up of the cockpit and instrument panel:

Yak15_cockpit_panel_zps50084d10.jpg

Most of the detail here and the colour call-outs in the kit instructions are dodgy according to a walkaround of the Yak-15 available on the Internet, but no corrective (or complementary) scratchbuilding. I may build a gunsight, though. Tomorrow I should have the fuselage together and the nozzle for the jet attached; dry fits suggest the fuselage join should be pretty clean.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Yak-15 would most likely have been A-14 Steel Gray inside, the gray you used looks a reasonable match from the photos.

the external colours?

http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/colors/1945-1950-newtypes/1945-1950-newtypes.html

Yak-15 section has links to an excellent walkround, and colours chips at the bottom of the page

also

http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/colors/color-table.html

and

http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/colors/colors.html

HTH

T

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Troy, the kit instructions recommend Humbrol 114 over 65 for the option I'm interested in, which may stand in for AGT-4/A-24g over A36-g based on the colour tables at sovietwarplanes. I think I will use 226 or 80 over 65 with some grey mixed in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The fuselage is closed, the jet nozzle attached and the wings have finally gone on (at the cost of losing the dihedral). Will put the pictures up tomorrow as I'm a bit soused right now. But no, the wings didn't go on when I was soused. I may have to adjust the camber and rake of the undercarriage, though.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So, a few days ago I got the fuselage together:

Yak15_fuselage_zps02b5e63c.jpg

The fit was a bit tight near the engine, but was otherwise straightforward (with four clothespins). Fitting the rear nozzle to the jet was the most painful part of the build so far, as the engine made the fuselage too wide for the nozzle, and the nozzle was too narrow (or short?) as a result. After much puttying and sanding and painting over to look for imperfections, I decided the nozzle's fit to the fuselage was good enough and attacked the wings:

Yak15_wingson_zps7d3414be.jpg

Notwithstanding the fact that I glued the wings together badly, the locating tabs needed to be sawed off to line up the wings with the fuselage. The port wing was glued on without much fuss, but the starboard wing was a nuisance. To correct for the wing being too thin, I had to sand down the wing stub on the fuselage, while making sure that I didn't sand through it. The wheel wells needed some cosmetic surgery too. I got the job done, but had to sacrifice the slight dihedral the actual plane has:

Yak15_headon_zps5666a126.jpg

The other plane in the background is an Amodel Polikarpov I-190.

The nose has a nasty seam inside the air intake which I will deal with using Mr. Dissolved Putty. I filled in coarser gaps and sink marks with Tamiya putty and sanded them down before gluing the tailplanes on:

Yak15_family_zps090fbae2.jpg

They are meant to be slotted into the fuselage, but both tailplanes and slots needed to be cleaned up before getting a decent fit. The Yak-15's lineage is quite clear when lined up with a (Zvezda) Yak-3.

I should finish cleaning up and gluing on the remaining bits over the weekend (knock wood).

@Learstang: as long as it doesn't involve hobby knives and painting stripes, I agree with you ;)

Edited by atvd1020
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can finally call it done regarding gluing and sanding (except for the canopy-cue ironic fist pump):

Yak15_profile_zps8f23ba7f.jpg

I spent more time than expected going over fingerprint marks, dents and sink marks with putty and sandpaper before fitting the undercarriage; this needed clean-up and some trimming to fit. In the end, I should have followed the advice above and simply replaced some of those parts.

Yak15_complete_1_zpsd48e75cd.jpg

The first coat of Humbrol 80 has gone on-hopefully revealing no unpleasant bumps to clean up after it dries. I may go over this colour with something duller after looking at it in sunlight, though.

Edited by atvd1020
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The paint has gone on, and I should be applying the decals shortly:

DSCN1132_zpsccbce5ef.jpg

The topside is Humbrol 80, which turned out to be less yellow than 226, and brushed out remarkably well without thinning. Once the varnish went on, it looked yellower, though. The underside (not quite visible) is a mixture of Humbrol 65, the 'old' 157, and Revell light blue. Fortunately, there were no real fixable faults visible. I hope the decals work...

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

DING! DING! DING! It's done! Huzzah!

Yak15c_6_zps66ac8d76.jpg

More pictures in the gallery.

In brief, the decals went on OK but had a lot of carrier film that remained slivered after decal softener and gloss coat. Overzealous trimming of the carrier film led me to damage half the stars as well. I gave the uppers are panel wash of black and the underside one with Humbrol 66. I tried to add an exhaust stain too, but it ended up looking more like really bad mildew than an exhaust stain. Furthermore, after taking a picture of the underside, I realized that the flaps were not dropped to the same angle, so no pictures of the underside as I don't feel confident about correcting that :(

Next Amodel kit to build: the Yak-1, to have a proper Yak family.

Edited by atvd1020
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...