I started this kit around the 1st of March and took some pics but have been too busy to post them up. But with the bench becoming more empty after finishing up 2 Fw190s for Mustang’s Butcher Bird gb and after seeing more interest in this kit I decided to share my build here. It fits too as I’m also building an Accurate Miniatures yak1b along side this as well, so bring on the VVS!
First, the Box shot along with all the aftermarket:
The aftermarket list includes PE and resin exhausts/wheels/and prop from Komplet Zip straight from the Motherland, along with some Aeromaster decals, which I may or may not use depending upon the performance of the kit decals…
The PE set is for the Eduard yak, as they haven’t made a set specifically for the Zvezda kit in 48 yet, but they did do one in 72, so I’ll assume its on the way…the cockpit detail oob is rather bland and tough looking, so it needs this pe big time. To be fair, most Yak cockpits have small details to begin with that are hard to replicate using injection plastic without it looking clunky. The seat is nicely detailed and shaped though and only needs belts. Instrument panel has no detail inside the bezels, so it needs the decal, which I used, but the bezel detail is soft and it doesn’t capture that 3d look of a nice painted and drybrushed panel, or the look of a pe panel. I didn’t use the panel from the etched set thinking I’d save it for anther build, but now Im wishing I did. The good news regarding the panel is there is a nicely molded oxygen regulator on the left side. Now on to the pics of the pit:
I added a few wires to the cockpit sides using some refs and also added some radio wires and clamps just to busy up the upper deck.
The cockpit floor was missing some tread detail for the heel plates so I ran a riveter across some bare metal foil and suck it on then painted the pit. I also added a wire to represent the air line to the brake lever on the stick:
Rudder pedals got some straps made of more BMF and the sides got some Pe levers and switches:
The blue tape is to keep paint off of the main glueing surface to the fuselage so the glue will stick. The cockpit was painted the standard A-14 steel gray color using a mix of Gunze neutral gray and sky, and the standard black for the IP and cockpit side rests. Next up will be shots of the finished pit as its already installed inside the fuselage and the wings and cowling is also on. Stay tuned!!
Thanks for posting this up Nathan!! Great to see this new kit being built up and you are definitely doing it justice. I thought it was interesting the way the pit floor was molded into the wing.
Thanks for checking in Eric. Cockpit design makes sense, thats the way all Yaks were built, with the pit on top of the wing, and the fuselage being lowered onto it, which brings me back to the stupied panel line issue on this kit that I will post up later tonite…On the other hand, that dammmm@#$$@! Accurate miniatures kit I’m building shoulda followed this design for their kit, but no, they have you make some complicated cockpit tub that doesn’t fit well inside the fuselage halves, then have you attach the upper wings to the fuselage and try and not end up with a gap there…[:@]
Ahh I see what you mean now! How is that fit of those two particular pieces? Close enough for just some liquid cement or definitely going to need some filler? Looking forward to the next update.
Jester it fit ok, but it wasn’t an even fit all the way around. I did end up squeezing some liquid cement out the seam, but how am I gonna sand that away now without ruining the surrounding detail? See for yourself: Here’s the main assembly done:
The cowling sides and top fit great:
I think I’ll try and sneak some Mr. Surfacer in the seam and just swipe it away with some thinner to try and make the seam go away, so I have some delicate and tedious work ahead:
Some cockpit shots. I don’t have a pic of the panel before it went in, but next time I’ll be using some pe for it:
The kit sure has some nice lines, and I love the razor thin leading and trailing edges on the wings and tail that really make this yak look to scale:
Coming along nice Nathan. I’ve heard some positive things about these Zvezda kits. It looks like the pit has some nice detail too. You probably already know this, but a trick I’ve been using lately for wing roots is to glue the uppers to the root first with Tenax 7R. It usually allieviates the gap. Then you just attach the lower and glue as usual. It usually works for Hasegawa kits but I can’t say if the engineering on Zvezda would allow for this. I’ll be watching this one come together.
Thanks for looking Joe. Yeah unfortunately that method for wing attach doesn’t work here. Its not a bad seam, its just in a tough spot surrounded by detail. If it fell on the natural panel line I’d leave it alone. I’ve scoured the web to find other builds to see what people think of the kit, and the only ones I’ve found were on French and russian forums. Even with google translator, I can’t decipher at all what their feelings are. On Scalemodes.ru, I couldn’t tell if they were saying it was better or worse than the Eduard?, but I could tell by the pics that they were pissed at this seem/panel line join area too.
Finally getting back to this one. Some sick days and other lost weekends really slowed me down. I Started work on the only flaw on this kit. The goofy wing/fuselage seam. Started with some Mr. Surfacer:
Let that dry 45 min then swiped the excess away with Mr. Color thinner:
Might need another coat or two. Not an easy seam to deal with.
Yeah, that’s a nasty seam Nathan. I’ve had good results using DAP Tub and Tile caulk on seams like that. I use a small plastic “syringe” from the Dentist’s office (irrigating syringes they are called), filled with the caulk. It has a very fine plastic point and one can squeeze the caulk right into the seam and wipe away the excess with a damp cotton bud. If the caulk shrinks a bit, just reapply and wipe again. This technique is not used for seams that must be sanded as the caulk doesn’t sand well, but it works really well for filling the gap. Might be worth a try someday?
You’re welcome Nathan. My wife is a dental assistant/office manager as well. She brought in a straight one and one with a curved tip. Both are good, and since they just pull apart, they are really easy to clean (which one must do soon after use, ya don’t want that caulk to dry in the syringe.) It’s a handy little trick and works really well for wing roots and horizontal stabs where one encounters a small gap.
Glad to see some progress on this one Nathan! Looks like your first swipe at the root worked pretty good, preserver the fastener and original panel line detail. I am sure you will get it cleaned up nicely!!
The “Accurate” Miniatures Yak-1 has been made completely obsolete by the Modeslvit/South Front Yak-1s, in the same way that the Eduard Yak-3 has been made obsolete by the Zvezda you are building. (Except that the Modelsvit Yak-1b has the early chin intake, which means you can only build the early Razorback boxings for a good result)
The wingroot intakes on the Zvezda should be made taller, but that is about it, problem-wise, on this excellent kit.
Both Eduard and AM have no basic understanding of what the Yak fuselages were shaped like (wrong plan view taper), and their clear parts are largely fictional as well… Not to mention grossly over-thick wings (about 5X actual towards the wingtips)…
The wingroot joint on all Yak kits follows the same “as in factory” wingroot fairing inclusion, way up the fuselage side, instead of the normal wingroot join, and it makes life an utter hell on ALL Yak kits (except maybe the very inaccurate ICMs), including even the Il-2s for some reason…
The easier and best Russian aircraft to build is the Zvezda La-5FN, especially with AML’s UTI conversion for the forward 2/3 glass. I cannot fanthom why the wing root is done the way it is on all Yak kits, but it doesn’t work and makes no sense: It displaces the sanding risk towards a lot of delicate surface detail, fouls internal framing details on some kits, and “pinches” the bottom fuselage out of square on the Modelsvit/South Front Yak-1s… It took me four kits to build one square one…
Well, I’m not so sure this Zvezda yak 3 beats the Eduard one by alot. They both have wrong fuselage taper shapes like you stated, Zvezda being victim of this as well. Also, the Eduard wing to fuselage join falls on the natural panel line, so no clean up necessary. (I’ve built 2 of them). This gives it a edge against the Zvezda yak. You are right about Eduards thick leading and trailing edges, while this Zvezda kit has nice razor thin edges all over. I had to sand the Eduard wings to get them to look ok, which is some added work. The accurate Miniatures Yaks (I’ve build a couple of those as well) have a nice wing to fuselage join, but the lower wing is the horrid piece there… I’m curious to get my hands on the Modelsvit Yak 1b, just to compare, but the one’s I’ve seen are going for $40 bucks which makes the AM yaks more attractive, as they can be had for 20 bucks or so on Ebay.
Wow, looking great Nathan and that is an interesting place for the wing root but it does make some sense given the construction. I think you did a fine job of revealing the molded detail in the office also.
I’ve finally gotten back to this build! Its been awhile, and I’m just about finished. As you know I’ve been finishing up a couple VVS builds and naturally, this kit was built up along with the others. I left off at the seam filling and sanding stage. The underside joins fit really well:
The canopy was masked and glued on:
Landing gear was glued on as well, after the attachment of some pe and brake lines. The kit torque links are horribly clunky, so some spare pe from an eduard kit was a must:
To add a little visual interest, I cut out the radiator exit flap, and made one out of pe, and added some actuators:
On to the fuel gauges in the wings. These had a glass cover that fit flush over the dials. This meant I had to drill a hole in the wings, and use some spare clear covers from an Accurate miniatures kit, and get the gauges to be recessed into the wings a bit:
After fitting and masking off these gauges, I sprayed the underside a home mix AMT-7 blue:
Then the topside grays, again custom mixed with Gunze Aqueous free hand with the airbrush:
