Northrop YF23 Black Widow

[Michael louey]

A recent build by my son Nathan.

 

The Northrop YF-23 has always been a fascinating aircraft looking more like a Science Fiction object than a modern fighter. The Italeri kit is the better rendition in 1/72, the only other kit available being the Dragon one. To me the YF-23 has always been a better aircraft than the YF-22 that won the ATF contest. It's stealthier, better super cruise and certainly a much nicer looking design. The YF-22 was more agile. The official line regarding selection is that the selection panel "had more confidence in Lockheed in their production capability".

 

An evolved YF-23 would have even been neater looking as conjectured in "The Warzone"

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/24911/this-is-what-a-northrop-f-23a-wouldve-looked-like-if-lockheed-lost-the-atf-competition

 

I still think an evolved F23 would fly rings around the Su 57 or Chengdu J20.

 

This model represents PAV-1 which was finished in a dark grey and had a "Black Widow" motif under the fuselage. The Italeri kit was pretty good except for some sinkage in the flaps which needed filling. The decals were replaced by a more accurate "Caracal" sheet. Nathan fitted a bunch of F15 etch to the cockpit which confused me until I read the reference which discussed how such parts were used to speed up the prototype. I have the Testors boxing of this kit (and the left over Caracal decals) to model PAV-2 (though the kit actually represents PAV-1).

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers

 

Michael

Edited May 8, 2020 by Michael louey

[SAT69]

Really nicely done. I'd love to see a really good 1/48 or even 1/32 YF-23 kit. Definitely a much nicer looking design than the F-22A.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Great looking Widow ! ... I still think these were better than the Raptor’s that won. Nice touch with the Red hourglass mark too. 

[Pete in Lincs]

The model and the real thing get my vote too.

[Michael louey]

On 5/9/2020 at 10:50 AM, SAT69 said:

Really nicely done. I'd love to see a really good 1/48 or even 1/32 YF-23 kit. Definitely a much nicer looking design than the F-22A.

Hi,

 

Nathan mentioned there is the Hobby Boss kit though perhaps you already know about it when you refer to a "good" 1/48 kit. The reviews here on Britmodeller were a bit scathing from some. Sounds like no improvement from the Italeri kit even though they had decades more time for research.