1/48 YF-23 Collect-Aire and Hobby Boss Double build

[paulsbrown]

The Northrop McDonnell-Douglas YF-23 was the losing contender to the Lockheed Martin YF-22 in the 1990s Advanced Tactical Fighter competition. 

These are two very different kits, one nearly 20yrs old and one a recent offering, both requiring a lot of work. The 2002 Collect-Aire is the more accurate and much of the dual build was to get the HB model to look more like the C-A.

 

Some photos of the build can be seen here. F-15, F-18 parts where used for the landing gear just like the real aircraft, lots of modifications to both aircraft's cockpit although the C-A was the more accurate but lacking details, both canopies needed scratchbuilding interiors. 

 

The C-A had the dropped flaps and the weapons bay.  There's no photos I've seen of it ever carrying weapons but the PAV 1 (gunship gray) aircraft had operating doors. It had some decent details and I only added riveting in the bay but left the Collect-Aire's offering of a weapons mount intact, I may add the door mounted sidewinders later but for now I wanted to show the essence of the company's endeavors on putting out such a remarkable kit especially considering the resources and published photos at the time. 

 

 

Probably not a dogfighter but they still haven't published it's top speed.

[stulad]

Those are both outstanding PB, a much better looking aircraft than the F-22. Top work as ever!

[exdraken]

Wow!

Great models!

Top speed is one thing, supersonic range another... a thing the Raptor does not excell supposedly! 

 

The T-50 is from hph I assume, no?

[bentwaters81tfw]

Amazing work, I just love the detailing. Are the heat tiles a decal or did you paint them? (I suspect I know the answer already).

[swralph]

Two lovely builds.😀

[SAT69]

Excellent work! Given the Collect-Aire YF-23 is reputed to be a beast of a kit to build, my hat's off to you for producing a very impressive model. Love the cockpits!

[Team Aer Lingus]

Really nice work both look stunning the cockpits are fantastic 

 

thanks for sharing

 

regards

 

Eamonn

[paulsbrown]

6 hours ago, exdraken said:

The T-50 is from hph I assume, no?

Yes it is. Really looking forward to the Zvezda Su-57 to sit next to it

5 hours ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

Are the heat tiles a decal or did you paint them? (I suspect I know the answer already).

Yes painted but the boundary air control bleed area was a nice inclusion on the Caracal decals YF-23 decals (which are available again).

2 hours ago, SAT69 said:

Given the Collect-Aire YF-23 is reputed to be a beast of a kit to build

It did pack some punches but what I expected would be a nightmare with the S intakes on the two fuselage halves wasn't so bad. It's heavy though, a LOT of resin. 

[RMCS]

Outstanding 

[Homer]

Congratulations on turning out two beautiful models well done 👏 

[CaracalModels]

Very nice - excellent builds overall. Thanks for sharing!

[paulsbrown]

17 hours ago, CaracalModels said:

Very nice - excellent builds overall. Thanks for sharing!

Hey, thanks for making it possible with the decals! It's unbelievable that the (Hobbyboss) kit never even had at least one prototype decal option.

[russ c]

Really nice pair of builds, great job(s)!

[F-32]

Wow wow wow! A lovely couple of Widows, superb builds

[shawty82]

Excellent work on both kits!

 

Always loved the YF-23, much better looking than the Raptor and arguably a better aircraft.

 

Question though - where did you get the plans/data for the rear cockpit, or was it something that you copied from the Collect-Aire kit over to the Hobby Boss kit?

 

I've got the Hobby Boss Kit and want to do some work in the rear cockpit.

[paulsbrown]

1 hour ago, shawty82 said:

Question though - where did you get the plans/data for the rear cockpit, or was it something that you copied from the Collect-Aire kit over to the Hobby Boss kit?

 

 

I had both kits half built and on ice until I got the Paul Metz 'Northrop YF-23 ATF (Air Force Legends) book a few years ago, it has really good cockpit photos.

 

The Collect-Aire had the right 'architecture' but was lacking in details.  I left the fictional pipes on the HB kit, sort of wished I hadn't now but at the time I didn't want to drain my energy on yet another HB correction job that would take away my enthusiasm to finish the C-A kit (I had taken that thing out of the box so many times to see if it was time to tackle it again).

 

The Metz book seems to be stupid priced now and there's a Japanese book that seems to be a copy of his book which is also expensive so if you don't have either of those PM me and I'll send you mile file of reference photos for the project.

 

1 hour ago, shawty82 said:

I've got the Hobby Boss Kit and want to do some work in the rear cockpit.

The nose on the HB needs sandpaper, it's really fat and flat, the intakes need some reshaping and the rear part of the cockpit(and canopy if opened) are the biggest issues that I felt needed attention.

On the plus side the wheel wells and gear are well done! But check out my build for the nose gear.

 

[shawty82]

Paul

 

Yeah, if you have some reference materials, by all means send them over - thanks a lot!

 

Internet doesn't yield much in the way of detailed cockpit photo's, bit disappointing given the aircraft and it's history etc.

 

I'm not too concerned about the nose-shape issues as you describe (well, I say that now but I'll probably end up tweaking it, but we'll see!) but definitely want to detail the rear cockpit - and, of course, have the canopy raised.

 

Do you have any reference material of the weapons bay? Or was that incomplete on the actual prototypes?

 

Again though, both lovely builds and they're getting my juices going for making the '23 my next build (second time around, first one got squidged in a house move)

Oh, the ejector seat as well - is it just a standard ACES II model?

[paulsbrown]

2 hours ago, shawty82 said:

Yeah, if you have some reference materials, by all means send them over - thanks a lot!

PM sent