Thanks Marc and Reasoned.
Gloss is dry and the decals are on. I used the kit decals, and sort of wish I didn’t. They are very matt in appearance, which makes the film still stand out after 3 coats of Alclad Aqua Gloss! The white is also transparent, which was hard to notice until the decals were applied on the model. This made me source some fuselage stars from an Aeromaster sheet. Here you can see the issues:
Its not the end of the world, but next time its aftermarket decals!
Ahhh - decal show-thru is a bummer, but it looks really nice otherwise. Do you dare touch up those areas with a little white paint?
I suppose I could. I would wanna airbrush it though, and masking off the star shape would be tedious. I’ll just let it go this time. Still doesn’t solve the visible carrier film though, such as around the #15.
Finished! I mixed up a semi-gloss mix using Gunze clears and I like the look of it. I added an oil wash and some post shading here and there. I think the fuel gauge decals came out good enough. Canopy and Ez line antenna attached. Zvezda’s clear parts are pretty nice. The kits draw backs are the poor decal quality, the too small wing root intakes, clunky wheels, and the fuselage to wing attachment not being on a natural panel line. I could also say the prop is clunky, mis-shaped, and assembles in a way that makes it almost impossible to paint the blades and spinner separate. Is it better than the Eduard kit? Hard to say. A Profipack kit with pe and masks, as well as Eduard’s excellent decals are hard to beat. But I like how this Zvezda kit turned out in the end. Thanks for looking and commenting.
Excellent work!
Turned out really good Nathan! I know where to reference when I start building mine.
Great work on the Yak! Thanks for posting the pics. Turned out awesome!
Eagle90
Yep, sweet build![:D[
Gary
Lovely, simply lovely.
That is a beaut Nathan…It seems you have those VVS subjects down. I like the archive pic too. Thanks for sharing.
Joe
Great looking Yak - it’s turned into a very good replica!
Congratulations!
Hey Nathan, that’s beautiful work! Despite the kit’s problems she looks great- funny I wouldn’t even have noticed any of them except for the translucent tail stars.
If you can find a pair of stars the same size as the tail you can always layer them a second set over the first ones to get a more opaque look.
Thanks for the good comments and suggestions guys. The kit’s problems are all fixable basically, except for the too small intakes. Set this kit next to my Eduard one and its hugely obvious. Not sure if I could dremel them out a bit. There’s not much material there to work with.
Hey Nathan, that looks great! Yak3s are such sexy little beasts.
Just as an aside, I saw a video listing on YouTube for one that was for sale for US $425,000. Apparently, in the classic warbird world that’s a steal…
Allen
Thanks Chanter. Yes, that does sound like a good price to get into a warbird. In the early 90s I think it was, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the economic situation was very bad for Manufactures, and Yakolev decided to re-tool and build a few dozen new Yak 3s for warbird enthusiasts across the world, to make some money, replacing the Klimov engine with an Allison, and the wood parts with metal. So it was probably one of these newer Yaks.
Not my favorite subject material, but you did a great job on this one. I haven’t tried a Zveda kit…how they hold up?