Well, this is my first attempt at superdetailing. The subject is Accurate Miniature's Yak-1b in 1:48 with a lot of scratchbuilding and detailing... I used several aftermarket sets, but I will try to describe along the way. The images I posted are not of the highest possible quality, since I am using my phone camera. However, this will improve soon.



The main idea behind this particular build is to practice my skills... I am aware of the kit's problems, but I emphasize that the accuracy is not the guiding idea for me at the moment... so, be gentle in your comments However, I learned a lot along the way, and this project is slowly taking shape, so I decided to post at least some photos. As you can notice, I had to "update" wonderful Karaya's Hispano Suiza 12YC resin engine in order to become a "bearable" interpretation of the Klimov engine. Many scratchbuild details will be added later during the build. I also lack detailed plans of Yak 1b, so I heavily relied on the available photos (a few, to be honest). Of course, any help would be more than wellcome and appreciated.



As with many details in this build, the engine bearer and the firewall is scratcbuild... I also scratched the interior with addition of some aftermarket details. As you will see later, this particular build required a lot of surgery, and - to be honest - I don't know what made me do it! Stay tuned for more...

PS. I have no special preference for either the crown or the pound, but I had one at hand...

What are the known inaccuracies of that kit?

looks like an excellent start.

Nice work so far, and good choise of subject too !

Well, I am not an expert on the subject, plus I have no detailed reference... However, I read number of posts in Russian sites that list some of the kit problems. For instance, some people claim that the cockpit glass is dead wrong, but I have Falcon replacement, so...

In my opinion, this is really a nice kit and I enjoyed it so far. As I said earlier, the accuracy is not the guiding idea at the moment. Nevertheless, I will post better and more detailed photos of my work because I got my camera back. This particular subject will be the Yugoslavian Yak-1b, No 34, 112th Fighter Regiment from Pleso (near Zagreb) in summer 1945. Anyway, thanks for reading....

Compare to the recent Modelsvit Yak-1b in the same scale (which is the best 1:48th scale WWII model I have ever seen): It will tell everything... For instance, the Accurate Miniatures fuselage tapers in plan view from the rear of the nose back, while it should taper from the mid-tail...

Gaston

@Gaston... I completely agree with you, but as I said earlier - I am just a model builder, not an accuracy geek. Sometimes it is important for me to be reminded of that initial motivation. However, it is great to share this with you, and I promised to add some better photos. Of course, a lot of work is still ahead of me, because the front will be completely open and visible... a lot of scratchbuilding, wiring, piping... and a lot of frustration along the way, too. So, here are just a few photos of the work done so far. Thanks for being with me on this one!

Excellent stuff so far Entoni, keep us updated with your build.
All the best.
tim

@litespeed: thank you for your words! This will be tough and challenging build due to a number of modifications and surgery done so far. Although the kit is not perfect in every respect, it does have some aces up the sleeve. I've taken care to further complicate things with additional modifications, but it might be rewarding in the end.

I'm most impressed, Entoni- cheers! A beautiful display of skill- your build is quite fascinating.

chuk

@chuckw: I am very thankful for your words! By the way, I learned a lot from your builds as well... they were and still are a source of inspiration for me! I am very sorry for your loss, too! Having the dog myself, I really understand the pain.



Now back to the Yak. I made a little progress last night and scratched the cannon loading mechanism and the oil reservoir. These are really, really tiny... It will be latter installed in their place, so I can focus more on the piping and cockpit interior... a lot of scratchbuilding there, too.



Maybe it was not a good idea, but as you can see from the photo, the port side cockpit panel will be open. Therefore, most of the cockpit interior details will be visible. However, I will have to reconstruct the cockpit tubular frame, because the original ones are rather flat. This is unacceptable if the port side wall is removed for inspection. The port side engine cover will be removed as well, but I need it for now in order to reconstruct the rather complicated engine outer frame structure. Leaving this panel for now will help preserve the perspective for the build.

Thanks for reading, guys!

The time has come to move a bit and make a seat... I was not too impressed with the kit part, and I decided to reproduce some of the details. This is what we started with:



A bit of surgery and fine sanding, and the seat tub is almost ready to go! When I need to sand along the curves, the flexi-file strip sander is almost indispensable. After "dremelization" I usually put a drop of Mr.Cement to seal the small imperfections. It is shiny and glittering on the photos, but in reality it is quite good and blends in perfectly.









Then I decided to add some detail to the seat. I want to keep explanation short, and let the photos speak for themselves! The last one is taken "in situ", where the finished part was temporarily secured with a tiny blob of blu-tack. Thanks for being with me on this one... As I said earlier, the port cockpit panel will be open, which means that more detailing is on the way. Stay tuned!











PS. As you may have noticed already, I switched to Euro cent Maybe Swiss Franks would be better

Hi Entoni. I am really enjoying your work here, thank you for putting so much information into this thread. I have very little scratchbuilding experience, but with yourself and Chuk giving us very detailed step-by-step build logs you give me inspiration to give it a try.

Keep up the great work, D

Thanks... Well, Chuck started it... I remember that his posts were a constant source of inspiration for me as well. However, I am not that skilled in presentation Nevertheless, I think you should give it a try!! It seems mind-numbing in the beggining, and you feel like having ten big sausages instead of fingers... but it is fun, believe me!

We will move one step forward... The following is not a tutorial, since I am not able to teach you much. I experimented a bit with reproducing natural materials that might look more convincing with a bit of effort. This time it will be the seat back with a leather cushion. This is where we started from:



The cushion is not that bad at all (and probably can be improved by painting alone, rather than this), but I wanted to try something different. Most of you probably would not go this far with your models, but this is a technique that I invented recently, and it works wonders in larger scale WWII aircraft (The Yak is probably too small, but the result still works fine and rather convincing). Some of you might find this useful in their own projects. So, let's put up some leather on that plastic!



First, I started with a usual cleanup of the part. The holes that we made obsolete by previous surgery of the kit parts now need to be filled. They probably won't be visible in the end if left untouched, but I know that they are there, if you understand what I mean



After glue dried, I gave it a nice and gentle sanding with indispensable Flex-i-file and polishing stick. Now, move to the leather.



First of all, you'll need a piece of genuine shoemaker's leather, or any other genuine leather (preferably brown). I don't know if this is something readily available to you, but I got my batch from a local shoemaker's shop; the poor guy did his best in order to follow my explanation why I need it in the first place.



You cut a piece of desired size (enough to fully cover your seat). I have this readily available, but I cut a peace for this "tutorial" to guide you through the process.



Then out with your Dremel, and try to send it down as thin as possible, but be careful enough not to tear it apart. You will find that genuine leather is quite workable material, and you can actually send it quite easily. What you need is a thin, film-like peace of leather which blends easily with the background kit part.



When you achieve desirable thickness, give it a try against the plastic in order to see how it conforms. Then out with your acrylic glue (I use Gator's Grip, which is probably one of the best for the purpose), and give it a rather thick (but not too thick!) coat of glue.



Wait for a moment or two, and place the piece of leather on the part. Work out slowly with a cotton bud and a toothpick, and you will discover that it blends in perfectly. When you achieve desired result, take out a new #11 blade, and finely trim the excess, and...



...Voila! You have your genuine leather seat!! Maybe the photos do not reveal much, but if you have proper materials and enough patience, you will be satisfied with the final results. Nothing can be compared to the leathery glitter of genuine leather. Remember, it works wonders in larger scales!

Please, let me know if my posts are too long. I can make them shorter, if you will!!

Thanx,

After some quality time spent with my friends and family here:



...and that is Mt. Bjelasnica (near Sarajevo, where I live), there was not much modelling for me. However, I managed to do something during few night hours before we were gone.



I scratched the port cockpit side panel structure with strips of Evergreen. I also drilled the small holes in the lower frames. This will be left open for inspection in the diorama, and therefore allow the viewers to peek inside the cockpit. The whole port side has become very fragile now, and I am practicing to handle it with care.



Now when the port side panels are removed, the starboard walls will be visible... Yes, this means that I will have to reconstruct the interior framework and details (at least on the starboard side of the plane). Sorry for the bad quality of images; they were taken in a hurry.

All the best!

Entoni,

Thanks for sharing such fine work with everyone.
Love the subject, it's not usual to see less alone with such detailing. Very good stuff.
Also that leather cushion for the pilot's seat proves that sometimes nothing beats the original stuff!! Wonderful & simple technique

Keep it up
Pedro

Outstanding work! Your are really doing a great job here. Thank you for sharing your project and the scenery areound your home. Looks like a beautiful place. I had friends from what was Yugoslavia and that is how they described it. Take care. Jim

Thanks to everyone... Today I made a little progress. Since I opened up the port cockpit side, the interior behind the pilot seat will be visible. That was an opportunity to exercise my scratchbuilding skills. I decided to build the radio compartment set, which was usually set above the water radiator housing behind the pilot's seat. So here it is:



This one required a lot of patience

Thanks for being with me!!

Maybe you wonder what kept me away for so long. Well, when I have set out on this journey, I knew it won't be an easy one. Although the kit was rather promising, there are disasters just waiting to be unfold. If you ever decide to go this far with the kit, plan in advance. And when you think you thought it through, do it again, and again...

Nevertheless, when things go wrong, there has to be a way out... or plan "B". This is actually what has happened to me, so I will make the long story short. The wingy-thingy was almost done when I decided to get out Eduard's wonderful etched flaps in order to install the... I somehow ended up thrashing the whole thing, because I accidentally broke one of the flaps casing. Don't ask how, please. However I managed to salvage at least the flaps itself and the ribs of the inner casing. This means that I had to reconstruct the casing.

This is how I did it:



Whenever you scratch something, it is necessary that you outline or sketch the whole thing. I didn't do it... I just decided to take out the calipers and wonderful Jon Vojtech's scriber... He has created the tool which I find indispensable in my work (say hello if you see him)! I outlined the two flaps boxes and leading trenches for the rib structure.



I heated the plastic above the candle and made some plastic ribs from stretched sprue, which was sealed with Mr. Cement. I also finely sanded everything and reproduced some details. This is how the thing looks finished:



After the flap casing was finished, I had to install it properly. Nevertheless, it was not an easy task, because there are two or three very tricky points to tackle with, but I will describe it latter.



Well, I know it is not like the Eduard's original flap, but it doesn't lag behind to much. Tell me what you think!

... and this is how it looks with the ribs (this was done during the half-time of the Champion's League). Maybe it's not the cleanest build out there, but I still like it... the colors and weathering will surely bring up the details



Thanks for reading!

PS. I just noticed that the instalment is wrong both in the root and at the end of the wing. The flaps box must be placed within the wings. I will fix that in the afternoon

(In)Accurate Miniatures?

First a disclaimer... The title of this section refers to my previous work with the flaps, not with the kit itself!

Sometimes your words just turn against you! Just at the beginning of this build I said that the accuracy is not going to be a major concern here. However, the accident with the flaps boxes revealed a stunning mistake. I am not a Yak-1 expert, but something was dead wrong here – it was either the Eduard etched flaps, or the Yak 1 “technical reference book” issued in 1942 by the Russians. Whatever was the case, I had to make my choices; therefore I decided to stick up with the latter, and start the flaps all over again. Well, the flaps now have become a kind of nightmare for me!

From the start of the project I’ve decided that the flaps will be shown in their lowered position, so the inner construction of the wing framework will be visible to an observer. After the lesson with flaps learned yesterday, I guessed something was going really wrong with this build. I set out to find a kind of confirmation to my suspicion. As I said before, the “technical reference book” for Yak-1 revealed that the Eduard’s etched flaps do not resemble the sketches done by the Russian technicians. The Yak-1 is a quite obscure and exotic object for a builder with limited references available, but I ran into a photograph that revealed some of my anxieties about the flap structure. Well, the choice had to be made, and I’ve decided to start another surgery of the kit. So, out with the flaps, again!

I latter discovered that the Polish producer “Part” offers, what seems to me, correct etched flaps set for Yak-1b, but without the wing structure ribs http://www.jadar.com.pl/part/s48144/index.html However, I decided to spare my budget for future projects, and decided to do it myself.



First, I finely sanded the bottom of the upper wing. The care must be taken with that triangle lower-wing ending. I trimmed it down with a fine triangle file. Work out your way slowly, taking care of the alignment between the port and the starboard flap boxes. I carved out the small “pockets” with Vojtech’s indispensable scriber... it carves the plastic beautifully with just a minimum of pressure. The pockets are meant to receive the ribs from the wing structure.
When you are done, it should look something like this:



(You’ll notice that I was carried away and sanded the port side too much... therefore I had to reconstruct a bit with a tiny strip of white styrene).

Now, let’s turn to the structure itself. This is how it should look like to the observer (which was used as a blueprint).



The point where I departed from the blueprint is the distance between the ribs itself, because it is not identical with the technical reference and the available photos. This is where I decided to go on my own.



First I decided to close the root of the flaps box in the wing itself. Then I had to reconstruct the lost details in the build, and moved to the ribs. Yes, I will reproduce the whole rib structure, and this is what was done so far.





If you decide to do it, I advise you to work slowly and patiently... when you build tiny things, the accident is just lurking behind (or that always hungry carpet monster).



Thanks for being with me... Now I am off to a good weekend, which is what I hope for you as well!

You have to remember that when the kit was tooled, good information about Soviet subjects was only starting to come out of Russia to the West, so they went with what was considered best at the time.

We're still learning new things about Spitfires, so can you be surprised that your Yak didn't match the drawings?

The joy in modelling is installing extra details that make you happy. I can see even with all your frustration, that this kit is making you very happy indeed. It's going to look fabulous when you're finished

Thanks for the encouragement, Jessie! I am completely aware of the situation with the kit. It was a wordplay, therefore I put a disclaimer at the beginning of the latest post. It was a self-criticism...

Yes, the kit makes me happy in a strange way, if you understand what I'm saying

This build is now officially out of control... I am now ready to post some photos just to give you an idea of the work I've been struggling with. The flap box didn't satisfy me at all, so I cut it out for the third time and decided to take completely different approach. Not only the flaps had to go out, but I had to separate the glued wing halves. It took me awhile to get it right, and reduce the risk of loosing the both wings. If you followed this build from the beginning, you are aware of the amount of work and changes that have been made.

So, here are the photos:



Well, I just had to open the starboard central and console fuel tanks... These will be removed from the airplane (I can imagine some kind of diorama theme developing here...) for the inspection. I will also have to construct the two wing longerons and all internal structure. In the following photo you can see that the basic elements are already taking shape nicely:



If you look closely, you may notice the correct outline of the second wing longeron, where the flaps and the ailerons are attached to the wing. I was not satisfied with this before, but now it looks much better. You may also notice the main outline of the flaps box construction, but more will come soon. I just have to say that this wing changed my perspective on the meaning of word "fragile". When I was cleaning the wing under the stream of tap water, it almost shattered in pieces. I need to be careful with that...

However, I am racing with time here, and I am quite behind the schedule. I would like to take my three-year old son to his first kit exhibition in neighboring Croatia in the mid September, but I am not sure I will manage to finish the plane by that time...

Any encouragement out there?

Now the time has come to consider some presentation options for this model. Although I said that this will be the Yugoslav Yak-1b, No 34, 112th Fighter Regiment from Pleso (near Zagreb) in summer 1945, I am still open to consider few more options.

However, it will be a busy airfield maintenance diorama with several figures and usual airfield stuff. The source of information that I am relying on is an old article about Yugoslav Yak’s by Milan Micevski from Aeroplan Magazine, nr. 1/1990, pp. 4-16.

Along with other interesting information, it provides some drawings of “unusual” Yak’s in the Yugoslav skies during the closing days of the WW2. Nevertheless, it is clear from the source that the flight condition of the Yugoslav Yak-1’s was deteriorating by the end of the war due to constant use of the aircraft by both the Soviet and the Yugoslav pilots. Intensive flying caused many accidents and posed additional chalenge to rather unskilled aircraft maintenance crews. It seems that the improvisation (as with my build here!) was a rule of thumb, and scenes of the aircraft overhauling under the open sky are quite common to the period.

This is something I had in mind when I started this project (the photo is by D. Lazarevic, Museum of Yugoslav Airforce):



I think my scene will be something similar to this. However, I am not very skilled with terrain modelling, and this will be my first diorama attempt. As you may have noticed already, I like details a lot... so the challenge for me here is to stay focused and keep the pace steady and under control. I learned a lot here, and now I am trying to get the best out of it... I am very open to your ideas and will appreciate your comments and help. Thanks for being with me on this one!