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Alternate History - Yak-17 "Feather" of Russian Ace, Ivan A. Orlov (1/72 Special Hobby)


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Hi everyone. As with many others on the board I am fascinated with first and second generation jet aircraft, from the Me 262 through the mid-1960s which was truly the great age of jet prototypes. Some of the earliest jets in service were direct conversions from prop-driven airframes, and the Yak-15 was the product of mating a Yak-3 fuselage with the Klimov RD-10 engine, a Soviet copy of the Jumo 004 used on Me 262s.  This is a Yak-17 which was a rapid modernization of the Yak-15, providing greater fuel capacity in the form of wingtip fuel tanks (200l or 53 U.S. gallons each). The Yak-15 also had issues with melting the runway on takeoff due to the slant of the engine and had to be equipped with a steel tailwheel, which the Yak-17 redesign resolved with tricycle-type gear arrangement. In all, 430 Yak-17s were produced, including the Yak-17UTI two-seat trainers. They were soon greatly surpassed in overall performance by the Yak-23 and other Soviet fighters of greater renown.

 

I wanted to have this fighter in my collection, but I found the monotone green color scheme to be quite boring. Instead, I thought to use a Print Scale decal sheet for Imperial Russian WWI fighter aces. It was a fun exercise in applying WWI markings as well as being a small tribute to Podporuchik Ivan Alexandrovich Orlov, a pioneering aviator who scored 5+1 probable kills in WWI. After the February revolution in Petrograd resulting in the Tsar's abdication, the maintenance of aircraft in Orlov's squadron became even more difficult, and he wrote that "We are stealing many parts from old aircraft to keep a few airworthy. Clearly we are tempting fate day after day." On the 4th of July 1917, the lower right wing of Orlov's Nieuport 23 gave way during combat maneuvers and he fell 3,000 meters to his death in the Russian trenches near Kozova, Ukraine. Memento mori.

 

As for the kit itself, the Special Hobby kit from 1998 is nothing special. The resin seat and cockpit sidepanels are nice, but not necessary. The fuselage halves and wings were somewhat asymmetrically moulded and came with lots of flash. The panel lines are shallow, but that's consistent with the real plane. I made the 23mm gun barrels from wooden toothpicks. Hand painted with Vallejo model color acrylics.

 

Disclaimer: I've used some artistic freedom here, including the yellow bort numbers and red star kill markings. It is merely a fusion of the WWI camouflage with markings more commonly seen on aircraft later in the century.

 

So, without further ado here is my fictional Yak-17 in the livery of I.A. Orlov's Nieuport 21 in Autumn 1916. Thanks for looking!

 

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Great Work, Pyradus!  As someone who has been making many Imperial Air Service Aircraft over the past year, I am impressed!    I have been thinking about taking an ME109E and striping it like some crazy WW1 Albatros ....you beat me to it!

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Cool idea and clearly well thought out. It's always great to see something that's so unique. I must try to allow myself similar freedom of thought and allow myself to be more personal and whimsical in my subjects from your example! 

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13 hours ago, S. Uehlinger said:

Great Work, Pyradus!  As someone who has been making many Imperial Air Service Aircraft over the past year, I am impressed!    I have been thinking about taking an ME109E and striping it like some crazy WW1 Albatros ....you beat me to it!

 

11 hours ago, Murewa said:

Cool idea and clearly well thought out. It's always great to see something that's so unique. I must try to allow myself similar freedom of thought and allow myself to be more personal and whimsical in my subjects from your example! 

 

I'm glad you both liked my imagination with this model. @S. Uehlinger I am a fan of your delicately rigged WWI and RCW biplanes. I of course enthusiastically agree that a Messerschmitt with WWI lozenge camouflage or vivid personal embellishment would be beautiful. @Murewa I encourage you to try a "what if" project of your own creation, and look forward to seeing whatever you come up with! 👍

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  • 3 weeks later...

Excellent ;) . I love what ifs, and maybe more if relatively historical and plausible. The tsar has never fallen! I agree that olive drab becomes dull quite quickly; after your 3rd or 4th, gets boring, and after your 10th, you avoid it like the plague.

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