**** DONE : GB-53 1/48 Yak-3 - Eastern Front

Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules

Got a start on the decals. I usually start with the bottom ones in case something goes wrong with the decals. I'd rather have a defect show on the bottom than in a more prominent position. As it turned out, the decals are a tad brittle and don't really respond to Solvaset so good learning for the rest.

22052202.jpg


The uppers were handled with care and went on OK so far. The white parts are a little translucent but there's not much I can do about that now.

22052201.jpg


More when the rest of the decals are on.
 
Thanks again friends. The remaining decals went on without complaint and a bit of washing has started. Note that the "15s" are placed on a slant intentionally. Contrary to the instructions, photos of the actual aircraft (see page 1) showed these to be on a slant, probably because they were painted vertical when the aircraft was on the ground.

22052301.jpg
22052302.jpg


Next will be a bit more washing and matte-coating. Thanks again for following.
 
A spillover from Don's post on pre-shading. I see the affects; very subtle. I'm afraid I don't have enough AB control on application to pull it off.

I have been keeping up with this build, just not commenting. A beautiful effort to say the least. I'm also impressed with the Zvezda kit detail.
 
Cheers fellas. Well, I'm done with those Tamiya panel washes as I find they are too aggressive with my clear coats and leave stains where I don't want 'em. I used the black wash a bit on the underside and then shelved the bottle and went with my own mix of water, dish soap, and ground black and brown pastels to finish the job. After I was satisfied, I sprayed a coat of Tamiya Flat Clear and pulled the masks. The prop is just dry-fitted for the pics:

22052401.jpg
22052402.jpg
22052403.jpg


One area I don't like is the very shallow moulded groove were the rudder fits to the vertical stab. It's so shallow that there is nothing for the wash to run into so it's hard to make it look like there's a separate control surface there. I'll need to mull over this for a bit and come up with something. Maybe more on that later. Ta-ta for now.
 
Appreciate the feedback guys, thanks. On to the landing gear. I flattened the tires with a file after checking that they thankfully should be vertical, unlike the 109. After gluing on the main struts, I stuck on the tires, rolled them to the flats, then glued them in place. Then all the doors were stuck on.

22052602.jpg
22052603.jpg


In the above pics, the jacks and linkages need to be repainted. Same goes for the edges of the doors. Now, it is rather odd that Zvezda, despite providing a huge amount of detail for the engine like very thin harness and hoses, omitted the very noticeable retraction frames for the inner gear doors as seen in the below pic from here: Yakovlev Yak-3 MOF Photo Walk Around

frouch_yak-3_05.jpg


These are a bit too obvious to leave off so I'll need to scratch up a set. Note that the inner doors are also at a cant as opposed to straight up and down like I made them. An easy fix.

Next, the prop was finished off by adding the stencils, chipping the edges with a silver pencil, and spraying the aluminum wear pattern on the back side:

22052601.jpg
22052604.jpg


That's all for today. See you next time.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back