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Yak-28P Firebar (81767) 1:48


Mike

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Yak-28P Firebar (81767)

1:48 Hobby Boss via Creative Models Ltd.

 

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First flying in the late 50s, the Yak-28 was an early Soviet swept wing design that began life as a bomber but was adapted to fulfil other roles such as interceptor, reconnaissance and electronic warfare.  The Firebar was the long-range interceptor variant and gave up its weapons bay to accommodate more fuel and carried offensive missiles to complete its role when it had arrived on station.  Over 400 of this variant were produced between 1960 and 1967.  The interception radar that made its task possible was placed at the front of the aircraft in a long radome, which was extended for the later improved radar installation.  It carried the Kaliningrad R-98 missiles on stations under the wing between the engine pods.

 

There were numerous attempts to improve on the P, but none proceeded past prototype, although the PM did achieve a speed record while the Yak-28-64 had wing root mounted engines giving it a more modern look, but again was cancelled before it reached production.

 

 

The Kit

This appears to be the later version with the longer radome from mooching around on the web, and it's a new tool from Hobby Boss but with a moulded-in radome it would take a whole new fuselage to change it to an early model, or one of the other variants that are probably more sensibly done that way anyway.  It arrives in a longish box due to the size of the fuselage in this scale, and inside are nine sprues in grey styrene, one in clear, a sheet of decals and the instruction booklet with a sheet of glossy A3 folded inside it that shows the painting and decaling options.  Detail is good and there has been a fair amount of slide moulding used to improve detail without increasing the part count, especially around the engine pods and their many auxiliary intakes, and there is plenty of detail to be seen in the cockpit tub and wheel bays, including the wingtip stabilisers.

 

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Construction begins with the cockpit, which revolves around the long tub with instrument panels (with decals), bulkheads, control columns and seats added before the sidewalls are installed.  The seats have good detail and each consist of seven parts each but no lap-belts visible on the cushions.  Like the Harrier, the Firebar has bicycle undercarriage with a nose wheel and one main gear leg toward the aft of the fuselage with each bay boxed in with good detail, and struts with retraction jacks added along the way.  While they can be left off until later the supporting jack on the nose wheel could be difficult to put in later, so check this in advance of applying too much glue.  With these three sub-assemblies completed the fuselage can be closed up around them, and there are good supports and tabs within to assist with positioning.  As mentioned earlier the nose cone is moulded into the fuselage so there's one seam top and bottom to deal with, and as the majority of the Firebar fleet was bare metal or painted silver, you'll need to take care with the handling of seam hiding, as these colours show up the slightest of blemishes.  The gear bay doors are added around the sides next, and the rear tail cone is fitted in either open or closed positions adding a couple of antennae top and bottom, and you are also invited to install the canopy at this point, which requires the coaming to be fitted first before you add the fixed windscreen and the separate canopy.  The drawings show a seamline down the centre, but on the sprue there isn't one which is nice, as no-one really enjoys removing these seams whether we're good at it or not.

 

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The engine pods bear a passing resemblance to extended Me.262 pods and each one has two main cowlings with a rear blanking plate, stator blades and nose cone enhancing that feeling.  The intake is close enough to the cone that more detail isn't really visible to anyone with normal levels of inquisitiveness especially when the intake lip is added to the assembly, so there aren't any blades depicted on the plate.  At the rear a four part exhaust is provided with blades visible at the end of the trunking, and a nice tapered exhaust tip.  Tons of small slide-moulded intakes are added to each side along with clear vision ports toward the front, and of course this assembly is repeated in mirror image for the other wing.  The weapons are next and include four of the R-98 missiles mentioned earlier or two K-13A Atoll short-range missiles, depending on your tastes.  The wings are simple assemblies of two parts with holes needing drilling depending on which weapons fit you intend to use, and they incorporate the tops of the engine pods that the main sections are added to during their construction.  The pylons and weapons are added at this time too, as are the short wingtip mounted stabilisers that fit into their bays with two doors, retraction jacks, wheels and yoke.  There are also wing-fences and more intakes on the engine cowling, plus a small flap between the fuselage and engine pods and a pointed fairing near each wingtip that attaches to a small cut-out in the wing surface.  The tail is separate from the fuselage and consists of two parts for the fin with another for the rudder, then two single part elevators half-way up the fin are fitted on two pins each.  Adding the wings to their slots in the fuselage and fitting the pointy probe on the nose completes the build.

 

 

Markings

As is often the case with Hobby Boss kits, only one decal option is included in the box and very little information about it is given to assist with accuracy.  From the box you can build Blue 01 which is painted silver, although many Firebars were left in bare metal, so check your references before you paint.  The main decals are supplied plus a few stencils, many of which are for the missile complement, and the sheet is completed by the two instrument panel decals.

 

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The decals are printed anonymously, and have good registration, sharpness and clarity so are suitable for the task if you elect to use this option and not go off-piste and use one of the aftermarket sets available.

 

 

Conclusion

This new tool from Hobby Boss has plenty of detail from the box and includes the weapons you'll need to complete the job.  The decals are perhaps a little lacking in choice but that's a minor inconvenience and if you're looking for other options they are available.  This kit should also be more readily available than other brands, which is always handy.

 

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Review sample courtesy of

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Thanks for the kit presentation!

Any idea how it is accuracy wise, especially the cockpit?

Not too much is out there regarding the ejection seats... and they look quite bare..were these kk-4 seats? Have to look it up again....

Are you sure you can put on all 4 r98 missiles at once?

Oh I see..  I am lacking detailed knowlege ooh (out of head) here again....

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13 minutes ago, exdraken said:

Are you sure you can put on all 4 r98 missiles at once?

Can't help massively with the rest of the queries as I'm just yer average layman and with a pointy nose like that, it's hard to get a decent photo without distortion of some kind, but with the missiles it shows you putting all four on, or having just two of the Atolls. I've seen (the box being one place) one of each under each wing, but as usual things in the real-world are seldom exactly as is seen in the missile diagrams of kits, so always check your references :shrug: 

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Is this kit better than the Bobcat kit?

 

I just love these planes, very cool looking! Too bad it is so difficult to find good references on Soviet airplanes, with the exception of fantastic website of Massimo Tessitori, there are just too few thorough books on what is a significant and interesting part of aviation history. :sad:

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26 minutes ago, Eivind Lunde said:

Is this kit better than the Bobcat kit?

 

I just love these planes, very cool looking! Too bad it is so difficult to find good references on Soviet airplanes, with the exception of fantastic website of Massimo Tessitori, there are just too few thorough books on what is a significant and interesting part of aviation history. :sad:

I can suggest the threads here, quite some info to be found! (threads are about the earlier released competition model though...)

 

and in Russian:

http://scalemodels.ru/modules/forum/viewtopic_p_1265821.html#1265821

 

have fun building one! they are spectacular aircraft!

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@exdraken , pleasant memories , that build is a blast from the past werner, i thought the  photobucket fiasco  had gobbled those pictures up , i remember the bobcat kit to be a very nice build, and i believe you can get some after market for it now, I'd  still like to do that camo'd " 28p" that  you found a picture of, also last week at the lms i was browsing the sprues of the bobcat il-28 ,  i was thinking of doing it in the" year you were born gb" ( egyptian markings  from the  6 day war in 67 ) it would have needed researching  though

Glynn

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2 minutes ago, Hewy said:

i was browsing the sprues of the bobcat il-28 ,  i was thinking of doing it in the" year you were born gb" ( egyptian markings  from the  6 day war in 67 ) it would have needed researching  though

Glynn

oh yeah! I cannot.... for being obiously a yougnster.. (no idea what I should do for 81.....)

 

Decals will be difficult, or you paint the markings! simple 2 star flag, numbers.... (I asked @Diego from HI-decals several times already for Egyptian Recce decals for the Beagle... ) that is the one I wanna do one day... probably mixing the HPH and Bobcat model if need be ;)

 

http://www.harpia-publishing.com/index-ArabMiGsVol2.html#/16

 

 

 

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