Yak 3 / Yak 11 undercarriage

[Edger]

Hi folks I am building the Waku 1/72 Yak 11 vacform kit at the moment but the undercarriage is woeful. Does any aftermarket company do replacements for the Yak 11 or Yak 3? 

 

Rich.

[72modeler]

Edger,

 

I'm not aware of  any metal or resin gear struts for a Yak-11 by any of the aftermarket firms in 1/72 scale, but after looking at photos, I think the gear struts were the same for the Yak-1b, Yak-3, Yak-7, Yak-9 and Yak-11, so landing gear struts from any of those model kits should work. There does appear to be some variation in the strut fairing doors and the oleo scissors  between the five versions, but the struts and wheels/tires seem to be the same for  all the versions. If you look at photos of the versions, I think you will see what I am talking about. I have the Waku kit myself, and it is  a very nice vacform,  and I was planning  to use the detail parts from a Hasegawa  or Zvezda Yak-3 for all the detail parts. Maybe somebody out there had a spare set of struts they could supply. Macchi 202-205 struts might also work, as they look to be very similar to the Yak series. One of our resident authorities might be a better source of information than I. Good luck!

Mike

[Edger]

Thanks Mike, it's a shame the aftermarket detail companies haven't though about doing a set, I mite even try scratch building them.

[PFlint]

Yak-7 and Yak-9 used a different type landing gear that is not suitable for your needs.

but Yak-1 , Yak-1b and Yak-3 are the same . (Yak-11 was derived from Yak-3)

 

the other solution is to do it wheels-up ???

[KRK4m]

1 hour ago, PFlint said:

Yak-7 and Yak-9 used a different type landing gear that is not suitable for your needs.

but Yak-1 , Yak-1b and Yak-3 are the same . (Yak-11 was derived from Yak-3)

Exactly - in all Yak-7 and-9 variants the leg is straight and it reaches the wheel from outside (like in Hurricane, Fw190 or Tempest) while the original (older) solution was similar to the T-6/P-51 with inboard strut (bent in the middle) and outboard wheel. What's funny - the Yak-15 also uses the Yak-1/3 design, while the Yak-17 features wheels held from outside.

Considering great shape commonality of the VK-107-powered Yak-9U/P and Yak-3 (both featured the ventral glycol cooler moved aft and both lacked the undernose oil cooler scoop) the best method of quick recognition is looking at the main u/c. Unfortunately it doesn't help with the modern-built Allison-powered aircraft, which differ only in the wing span and cockpit location - all they use the Yak-1/3/11/15 inboard struts and flaps following the wing trailing edge contour (in all wartime Yak-7s and -9s the flaps were perpendicular to the fuselage axis), which makes them only the "Yak-9 alike" replicas and not the copies of the real warbird.

Cheers

Michael