Yak 120 (prototype Yak 25) - from Amodel Yak 25M 1/72

[John R]

Fairly typical Amodel kit - nothing quite fits and the instructions about where to fit parts can be a little vague.

The Yak 120 was the company designation and was changed to Yak 25 when production was authorised. It first flew in 1952 and could be considered a contemporary of the Gloster Javelin and DH110.

Information about converting the kit to the prototype configuration came from the Aerofax book of the Yak twinjets by Yefim Gordon. Modifications consisted of removing the outer wing fences and various bumps and aerials that it acquired in development.

Assembly is as fiddly as one expects but there are a few traps for the unwary. I could find no information in the kit about the anhedral angle of the wings (more of this later). I discovered at the decalling stage that one wing was a couple of mm forward of the other. The canopy is too thick to fit over the seats. Fortunately I had not glued the seats to the cockpit floor before finding this out.

There were two real nightmares.

The decals were EXTREMELY reluctant to leave the backing sheet and I found that very hot water was needed to loosen them and then the backing sheet would just drop away and sink leaving the decal floating on the surface. I ruined a couple in the process.

The positioning of the main wheels on the fuselage looked wrong. They were attached too far forward  for them to retract into the bay and they came down so far that the outriggers on the wingtips were too short to touch the ground. Maybe I did not give the wings enough anhedral or there was a more fundamental problem. I repositioned the mainwheels but still nearly had a fit of apoplexy trying to get all the wheels to touch the ground at the same time. The ground angle of the fuselage is still not right but fixing it would probably mean a rebuild.

Finish is Tamiya Gloss Aluminium. The grey bits are Humbrol Matt Light Grey.

 

 

Here it is with the La 200B. As the La 200 had been flown and tested it was thought that it might be quicker to use it as a basis for a new version carrying the Sokol radar and it would be insurance in case the more radical Yak a/c turned out to be a failure. In the event the Yak was ready first and the 200B was relegated to being a test bed for the new radar.

 

 

 

Here with the DH110 for comparison

John

 

 

[Vultures1]

That's great (verging on the heroic) work on the Yak!  The La-200 is very smart too.  Well done!

[John R]

Shown here with a DH110 for to compare the sizes.

 

[helium]

Hello John,

 

Well done! And very interesting topic!

 

Cheers 

Holger

[RidgeRunner]

Ah ha, you got there, John! Nice

 

Martin

[Ryan Hothersall]

Nice build.