I have started my plan but have some other projects to finish first.
Sheldon

Greetings, all!

This is my first post on Aeroscale, so I hope I have it figured out. I'm going to be attempting a build of Eduard's 1/48 Yak-1 razorback for the GB. Here (I hope) is a pic of my initial progress:

I'll try to get up a progress post sometime this weekend.

Automaton

Hi Automaton!

Welcome to Aeroscale!

I'm happy you are participating to this VVS Campaign! I'm looking forward to see your progress on this one. Rowan Baylis (Merlin) did a review build of this kit. You can find the article here if you are interested.

It seems you have a nicely organized workbench...

Jean-Luc

Hi all,
Marcel Albert's Yak7 is done.
Some pictures.

Hi Ayhan!

Very nice model! And it's a French's pilot mount!

Did you use the original decals? If yes, how did you do to make them look so good? ICM/Alanger decals are not known to be very easy to use...

Jean-Luc

Yes, Jean-Luc
I am used original decals. It is very thin and good reaction decal solutions.

Wow Ayhan the Yak 7 has come out really well. I'm glad you got on ok with the decals as I'm just getting to that stage on my Alanger Yak 9T.

I've really enjoyed building this model now (contrary to my earlier dissapointment) so I bought an Eduard weekend edition La5 at the weekend for a bit more VVS fun.

H

Ayhan, great Yak. I really like the way the aluminium is showing through the paintwork.

Thanks for participating

Great-looking Yak!
What method did you use for painting the spinner?

Thanks All.





I first painted the spinner blue, then masked it using Tamiya tape to paint the white stripe, removed the tape and finally masked it to paint the red stripe.

Hi Jean-Luc

Actually, I had seen Merlin's excellent build review (and it probably was one of the main things that influenced me to buy this kit.) And my workbench is usually orderly, but don't think that means I'm a neat freak because I definitely am not! I used to be one of those people who let clutter inexorably crowd in on the work surface until I was working in a 100mm square. I finally realized, though, that it actually takes less time and is easier to have a system, and to place tools back in their "home" as they are set down.

I've made some more progress, though I didn't have much time to work on it Sunday ( ).
I haven't run into any major problems with the kit, though I had to tweak the wheelwell area of the wing tops just a bit . . .



I probably did something wrong on the spar, but dry fitting showed a pretty wide gap between the spar and the wheel housing on both sides in the area of the pic where I added the styrene stock. It's all puttied and primed now, and looks like it's going to fit pretty well.

There's a minor issue with the lateral rivet line detail on the oil cooler and radiator areas of the fuselage bottom, also. The rivet lines don't match from half to half (being about 1.5mm or so off), so I filled the rivet lines on the left half with cyano, and they'll have to be rescribed to match the right. I forgot to take a detail pic of it before I filled--sorry. The fuselage is buttoned up, but there's still a lot of work to do on the seams. The top front area is still loose to allow for fitting of the oil cooler/front bulkhead after the inner chin scoop area seam is filled and cleaned up.

Here's where it stands right now . . .



By the way, I'll set up for better pic quality on the next progress post.

Out for now;

Automaton

Good job with the tape!
When doing my La-7, I just couldn't get the tip of the spinner masked neatly enough. I tried making a curved piece, and positioning it with the help of pieces of carefully measured tape used as spacers in the bottom of the spinner. That didn't work well enough, so I rolled up tape into a tube, with the adhesive in the inside.
This worked fine.

Well here I am so far with My Mig 15 entry. It's The Hobbycraft/Trumpeter 1/32 rendition. Lots of seam work/joint blending throughout and an extensive redo of the weapons pods. Good news is I'm almost happy and done with it. Bad news is I have another in the stash to do down the road.
Enjoy! Comments?
Oh yeah,that is my other project in the back. A 1/35 M51 Iraeli Sherman Batch 1 for a 6 Day War diorama.
Cheers!

Well as usual, I didn't build what I had originally planned, but decided to build a helicopter instead .
After reviewing the Hobby Boss 1/72nd Kamov 50, i got stuck straight in to building it as it just looks a serious piece of equipment.
The kit goes together quite well with only a little filler needed for the seams. The rotor assembly is a little tricky to fit together as its made up of several small pieces and the only problem I had with the kit is the very delicate undercarriage (it does require superglue to fix it securely into place, as with normal liquid cement it just coll apes).
Painted with Tamiya acrylics, with the camo airbrushed freehand.
Anyway enough rambling here's the pics.





Andy
P.S Sorry to mess up your campaign table Jean-Luc with a different entry .

A bit of progress to report on the Yak-1.

First off, here's something that will never again be seen once the model is assembled (I wouldn't have bothered if I'd realized how hidden they will be). This is a useful little technique (which I can't recall where I picked up) for creating spherical control handles, etc. The etched metal part in this picture is one of the two control handles that mount on the cockpit floor near the front corners of the seat. The real levers had (I believe) round handles. The "debris" in the picture is part of the contents of a kitchen faucet water filter which has been cut open. Note the little amber colored spheres among the black carbon particles:



The spheres vary in size, and the size equivalent to the etched parts' round end was at the extreme upper size range in this batch. It took me a bit of effort to find two matched ones of a suitable size. The round ends were cut off the levers and replaced with the two little spheres . . .



They are now painted and ready to be forever hidden beneath the consoles , and are shown here along with the interior as it stands at this point . . .



The cockpit is about 90% finished--there are a couple more of the controls to install, and of course the seatbelts and column. Some of the etched parts in this kit are tiny! It feels like doing microsurgery.

I'd hoped to be further along on this kit by now, but I've suffered a couple of paint-related setbacks, having to strip and repaint a couple of areas. For one thing, I didn't get a clean edge on the seatback cushion on the first try. Both the leather brown and the metal primer blue area were sprayed (I loathe brush painting), and the masking proved a bit tricky on this part. I'm using White Ensign Models VVS enamel colors on this build. They're excellent, but I wish they had made them acrylic based, as I'm a bit out of my element with enamels.

Hopefully, I'll soon be ready to get the cockpit in and button things up.

Automaton

Hi all!

Very nice progress!

Andy, no problem for the table!

Jean-Luc

Rick, good work on the MiG-15. Is this camouflage the "Korean War" type? Looking forward to see it in its markings.

Andy, great result with the Kamov. You did a good job on the camouflage - especially considering that is painted freehand in 1/72.

Great work in this campaign

Nice work on the Mig & Kamov, finally getting some more modern machines in the campaign.

I got the decals on Ivan's Yak 9T last night, they went on really well. Nice and thin and reacted well to microsol. Seems that the Begemot decals in the Alanger kits are way better than the ICM decals.

Pics to follow

H

MiG 15 update!







Final striping done with MM Afrika Dunkelgrau(sp?)
cheers!

Hello!

I cannot find a good picture of an Il-2 Shturmovik(single seater) landing gear that might show some up close details. I have seen some pics where the landing gear is visible but the pic is either blurry or too dark under the plane to see the details. I was wondering if anyone possibly had a pic or two of the landing gear that you could post or e-mail me. I thought I would ask here since everyone is focusing on soviet craft right now. Thanks for any help with this matter.

Hi Jean-Luc

All being well, I'll make a (very!!) belated start on my MiG-3 this week...

All the best

Rowan

I'm planning an IL-2 soon, and have also been looking for some reference pics. Here's a set that might hopefully be at least better than what you have. It's not a single-seater, but the landing gear is probably similar? Anyhoo, hope these help . . .

http://scalemodels.ru/modules/photo/viewcat.php?cid=113

Oh, and by the way, I am still working on the Yak-1. Just primed it today and worked out a couple of glitches the primer highlighted. Will soon be ready to spray the underside. I'll post progress pics sometime this weekend.

Automaton

Thank you Automaton--Those were the best pics I have seen in regards to landing gear. Looks like quite a bit has rusted off but it still gives a good idea how it looked. Looks like that bird has had a few coats of paint! lmao I am also surprised that no kids have tried to steal the bombs and rockets off of it-lol.

I can't tell if they ran a brake line down to the axle but it does appear as if there is a small conduit running down one of the support arms. I am assuming that this was the brake line unless someone else can enlighten me.

Finally, some more progress on the Yak-1. This has been one of "those" builds for me
(the kind where every little thing seems to go wrong), though no fault of the kit. I've been a bit frustrated with it at times, but have kept slogging away, and am now starting to see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

Here's the top painted (though it still needs some touchup work ). . .


I'm pondering whether to use the decals or to paint the national markings on (or at least spray some white where the decals will go). I'm a bit concerned that areas where the red stars fall over the green/black demarcations may have opacity problems.

Here's the underside--that early war VVS underside blue is a strikingly bright, almost "festive" color for a military plane, don't you think?


I'm going to try and "bear down" on the kit this week and finish it on out. Maybe I'll do one of my short-run kits next and see how much that fights me.

Automaton

Looking good Automaton. You 'slog along' pretty well!
Cheers!