Yakovlev AIR-3 1/32 Scratchbuild

[Stefanoff]

Thank you for the support, Jon!!!

Your biuld looks good so far, I am following your progress with interest!

 

I also like the fishes  , but maybe I have to explain the purpose of the "eaten fish". You can see the order of the ribs - "fish", "eaten fish", "fish", "eaten fish", etc. The distance between "fishes" is the real wing ribs distance, and the "easten fish" is between them. This allows me to have more dense and hard back, where the wing is covered with plywood, and allows me to make the skin sag on lower sag, where on the real airplane was only fabric.

[Stefanoff]

After covering the both ends of the wing, I have assembled the wing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I am proud to say that everything fits absolutelly perfect.

Couple of coats of Surfacer to chek for imperfections and the wing is finally sanded.

The ailerons will be made later.

[Stefanoff]

I missed something. The wing have V-shape in interesting way. The upper side is straight, but the lower goes up:

 

 

I used sloped shape of the end parts to get this:

 

 

And I succesfully achieve it. I have to picture the wing to show you.

Edited March 26, 2020 by Stefanoff

[pheonix]

This is certainly an interesting method of scratch building, and a lot faster than the method that I am using which is to make each rib individually. (I used the same method on my Gunbus BTW). The finish that you have achieved on the wings is marvellous - and of course, very light and realistic.

 

Looking forward to more.

 

P

[Stefanoff]

The wing is ready, let's move to the fuselage.

I have strated it from the tail section. The fuselage have hard top and sides and bottom covered with fabric. So I will use the same technique as the wing - rib construction covered with with thin styrene.

Here is the CAD model:

 

 

 

[James G]

Impressive!

[Stefanoff]

The back of the fuselage will be made from 3 parts plus one rib:

 

 

The skeleton of the fuselage will look like this:

 

 

 

Don't forget for the masses, it is big model!

[Stefanoff]

But before that I have done the end of the fuselage and rear heel.

Here is the design:

 

 

 

 

 

[Stefanoff]

The halves are done:

 

 

You can see the room for the heel and its strut. On top is a space for the tail fin, but for this later.

The heel strut is also done:

 

 

The heel itself I made by hand from wooden coffee stirrer:

 

 

And as you can see the assembly is perfect:

 

 

 

 

And because the heel is self adjustable in 15 degrees right and left, I made room for this:

 

[Stefanoff]

The parts are printed and assembled:

 

 

 

 

 

[JohnT]

That’s an attractive aeroplane I must say. Great modelling skills there too. Looking forward to seeing the final build. Keep it coming

[Stefanoff]

Actually at this point I realized that something is wrong. The carcas doesn't look like the real airplane on the pictures. The real one is slim and elegant, mine is fat and wide.

From airpalаne description I know that Yakovlev was concern about the air drag of the airplane. Therefore he made the fuselage with the minimum cross section possible. And we know exactly what are the dimensions - 600mm wide and 900mm hight.

In 1/32 that makes 18.75mm width of the fuselage. I have measured mine - 21.50, almost 3mm wider. And at this point I realized that the drawigns which I'm using are wrong. They doesn't kept this 600mm.

This automatically led to redesign of the fuselage. Despite this the cosntruction with all of this ribs is quite complex. Many ribs and assemblies = many possibility for mistakes. And lot of cleaning of the parts.

So, I decided to change the construction, to redesign it with less parts and to go  to more rigid parts, like the wings end parts, the black ones. This is the new design:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 27, 2020 by Stefanoff

[Stefanoff]

Parts are printed and assembled:

 

 

 

 

 

[Stefanoff]

The fuselage is covered with styrene, the end part is assemble and glued to the fuselage:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see everything fits just perfect.

 

The fuselage's back is also assembled and glued:

 

 

 

 

Edited March 31, 2020 by Stefanoff

[Stefanoff]

Next step is more complex, have to design the cockpit. There is no information what was in the cockpit. I know some things from the airplane's descripotion but everything else have to be improvised.

Following the drawing, pictures and description, I started with the cockpits frame:

 

 

 

This was my first design. But finishing it I suddenly found this picture:

 

 

This is maybe first attemp for stealth or invisible airplane. Using AIR-4, which is developed from AIR-3, they replaced all covering with transparent polyethilene or something like that. This makes the airpalen transparent. The idea was to create low visible aircraft. How much it is succeded I don't know, but this picture allows me to see the structure of the cockpit and some details.

[Stefanoff]

After study of this picture I totaly redesigned the cockpit and the final result is this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next step is to make and assembly all the parts.

 

To be continued....

 

 

[Stefanoff]

The parts for the cockpit are ready. Walls, front and rear bulkheads:

 

 

 

 

 

Seats and controls lever mechanism:

 

 

 

 

Seat cushions and document bags:

 

 

 

 

Edited April 11, 2020 by Stefanoff

[Stefanoff]

Left and right walls:

 

 

 

 

 

Bulkheads and floor:

 

 

[pheonix]

The wood grain effect id first class - very realistic. How did you do that?

 

The leather bag on the wall is also very good.

 

P

[Stefanoff]

For all elements I have used two types of wood grain decals. Darker shade for the structure, and lighter for the walls imitating birch plywood.

[Stefanoff]

Seats are ready as well, but I will take pictures tonight.

[Stefanoff]

Assembly:

 

 

 

[Stefanoff]

Control lever, pedals and foot rests assembled:

 

 

 

 

 

Rudde cables are attached. 

 

 

Aileron cables will be attached later. 

Control lever is up to front, the horizontal stabilizer will be dropped. The pedals are angled - the rudder will be turned to right.

 

To be continued...

[Stefanoff]

Engine under design:

 

 

 

[Stefanoff]

Test print: