**** DONE : GB-53 1/48 Yak-3 - Eastern Front
- Thread starter Crimea_River
- Start date
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Lovely work so far Andy!
Vic Balshaw
Major General
Great detail Andy. 
N4521U
Colonel
Great reference photos too!
Nice clean work. Hard to believe it's 1/48th with all that detail.
Nice clean work. Hard to believe it's 1/48th with all that detail.
- Thread starter
- #105
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks again friends.
The windscreen and rear canopy were glued in place after some finagling with the latter. The rear canopy comes in two forms - one for the closed cockpit and one for use with the sliding hood open, which is what I used. This part is slightly smaller and carries a moulded-in depression that is supposed to accommodate the armoured glass head protection. The problem was that the armoured glass stood much too high the way I attached it before and so I had to file off quite a bit of it at the bottom where it attached to the seat. The instructions are rather vague on how all this is supposed to fit and so were not much help. In the end, I got it to fit but looking at the below pic, the armoured glass should probably have been canted a bit more forward but I'm going to leave this alone now,
The undercarriage also saw some mods. The torque links were solid and so I drilled them out. I also drilled holes at the axle attachment points and added brake lines before painting the assemblies with Tamiya XF-82 and applying a wash.
Next up will be canopy masking and the start of camo paint. Thanks again for following along.
The windscreen and rear canopy were glued in place after some finagling with the latter. The rear canopy comes in two forms - one for the closed cockpit and one for use with the sliding hood open, which is what I used. This part is slightly smaller and carries a moulded-in depression that is supposed to accommodate the armoured glass head protection. The problem was that the armoured glass stood much too high the way I attached it before and so I had to file off quite a bit of it at the bottom where it attached to the seat. The instructions are rather vague on how all this is supposed to fit and so were not much help. In the end, I got it to fit but looking at the below pic, the armoured glass should probably have been canted a bit more forward but I'm going to leave this alone now,
The undercarriage also saw some mods. The torque links were solid and so I drilled them out. I also drilled holes at the axle attachment points and added brake lines before painting the assemblies with Tamiya XF-82 and applying a wash.
Next up will be canopy masking and the start of camo paint. Thanks again for following along.
fubar57
General
Very nice Andy
Vic Balshaw
Major General
Not surprised you had problems with the armoured glass, the tolerances on these kits leaves little room for adjustment. A good fix Andy and great work on the legs.
Totalize
Tech Sergeant
Nice stuff Andy!
- Thread starter
- #110
Crimea_River
Marshal
I appreciate you all stopping by and taking the time to comment or hitting the "Like" button, thanks.
The masking of the canopy and cockpit has been completed and camo painting was started. I started with the application of black preshading over the entire model like this:
The rudder area was also hit with white as I'll be masking the stripes there rather than using the decals. The wheel wells are masked with the kit parts for the retracted undercarriage temporarily glued in place.
The AMT-7 Blue that I used was the same Tamiya paint mix as I used on my Il-2, namely 85% XF-23 + 5% XF-8 + 10% XF-2. The initial coat was applied to show some of the black pre-shading through but it turns out to be overly blue to my eye. The colour is not well represented in the below photo which looks a lot lighter than in reality.
With the original colour still in the airbrush cup, I added more XF-2 White and more thinner and went over the bottom again in a patchy pattern and then I did it again with yet more white to tone down the brightness. I ended up with the below finish which, in reality, is still much bluer than the photo shows.
I then noticed this blemish in the seam between the rad housing and the fuselage which I missed during prep. This will need to be fixed.
I'm experimenting with mixes for the AMT-11 and AMT-12 top colours on the closed cowl part and was going to show a pic of this but, once again, the camera plays tricks with the outcome so posting it is meaningless. One trial involved straight XF-82 RAF Ocean Grey for the AMT-11 (which I kinda like) and XF-69 Nato Black for the AMT-12, which looks too green and even greener on the pic. More work needs to be done on that front and I'll let y'all know what I come up with.
Talk soon.
The masking of the canopy and cockpit has been completed and camo painting was started. I started with the application of black preshading over the entire model like this:
The rudder area was also hit with white as I'll be masking the stripes there rather than using the decals. The wheel wells are masked with the kit parts for the retracted undercarriage temporarily glued in place.
The AMT-7 Blue that I used was the same Tamiya paint mix as I used on my Il-2, namely 85% XF-23 + 5% XF-8 + 10% XF-2. The initial coat was applied to show some of the black pre-shading through but it turns out to be overly blue to my eye. The colour is not well represented in the below photo which looks a lot lighter than in reality.
With the original colour still in the airbrush cup, I added more XF-2 White and more thinner and went over the bottom again in a patchy pattern and then I did it again with yet more white to tone down the brightness. I ended up with the below finish which, in reality, is still much bluer than the photo shows.
I then noticed this blemish in the seam between the rad housing and the fuselage which I missed during prep. This will need to be fixed.
I'm experimenting with mixes for the AMT-11 and AMT-12 top colours on the closed cowl part and was going to show a pic of this but, once again, the camera plays tricks with the outcome so posting it is meaningless. One trial involved straight XF-82 RAF Ocean Grey for the AMT-11 (which I kinda like) and XF-69 Nato Black for the AMT-12, which looks too green and even greener on the pic. More work needs to be done on that front and I'll let y'all know what I come up with.
Talk soon.
Looks great so far Andy!
- Thread starter
- #113
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks gents. Today it was on to the top colours. For these, I ended up using straight Tamiya XF-82 RAF Ocean Grey for the AMT-11 and my proven earlier mix of 10:XF-50 Field Blue + 1:XF-2 White for the AMT-12. Here's how it turned out under shop lights:
And outdoors in natural light with Alclad II Aqua Gloss Clear applied:
The outdoor light really shows off the blue underside as it really is, not the washed out version seen in the earlier pics taken under shop lighting.
I'm going to let this sit now until Sunday before doing any more to it. Thanks again for stopping by.
And outdoors in natural light with Alclad II Aqua Gloss Clear applied:
The outdoor light really shows off the blue underside as it really is, not the washed out version seen in the earlier pics taken under shop lighting.
I'm going to let this sit now until Sunday before doing any more to it. Thanks again for stopping by.
fubar57
General
Sweet
Vic Balshaw
Major General
Looks very smart Andy and with the last two shots taken out in real natural light, the effects you have created really kicks in.
Last edited:
le_steph40
Senior Master Sergeant
looks great Andy
YakMan
Airman
Hiya!
Nice job, I maintain a Yak-11 and I can clearly see common parts in your model (the Russians didn't change designs that worked!) The Russians colour-coded all the lines to reduce the risk of bad connections. Fuel is yellow, oil is brown, pressurised air is black, intake air is blue, pitot is white. Now I only work on air-cooled radials so I have no experience of coolant but it would be no surprise to learn their colour code is green. FYI, any flexible hoses would be rubber, so black(ish) of course but the metal connectors each end would be painted in the correct colour code.
Klimovs had an incredibly short life between rebuilds and this is just my opinion but I really doubt they would bother to paint them, the block and heads would most likely be natural metal colour - cast aluminium but could easily be totally different recipies for the two aluminium alloys so would appear different shades.
- Thread starter
- #120
Crimea_River
Marshal
Good info thanks. I just painted the engine parts as called out on the instructions and I suspect these were based on the same museum samples I've seen on the net. Your suggestion that the block and heads may have been unpainted makes sense.
