Hi there

It's been far too long since I've posted any build-pics! Hopefully, that's all going to change. because I've recently developed RSI and my doctor has advised me to spend less time at the computer - which is naturally the perfect excuse to get back to the modelling bench!

Anyway - the first of my new victims is Eduard's re-boxing of the Accurate Miniatures Yak 1. The kit is enhanced with one of Eduard's colour photo-etched sets and a much more interesting selection of colour schemes than the original release.







The Eduard parts certainly add plenty of extra detail over the original plastic items - which are already excellent. I chose to ignore both Eduard's and AM's painting instructions and, instead, went by Erik Pilawski's "Soviet Air Force Fighter Colours 1941-1945" which specifies that MUP "bright" metal primer was commonly used on early Yak 1s. It gave me a chance to use my new White Ensign Soviet paints. After a wash of tinted Klear, I also gave a couple of the new Mirage weathering pigments an outing.

I hope to post a full review next week although, ironically, Eduard inform me that the kit is already out of stock at their website. The follow-up is also selling in droves - 3 days ago Eduard had only 70 left - so, if you want one of their Yaks you need to get your skates on!

All the best

Rowan

Seeing at the pics has highlighted a few areas I want to fix, so I'll get back to the model. Ahh - this is my kind of medicine! :-)

That looks awsome Rowan, Eduards etch has always been the best but their colour etch really moved the goal posts.
I never did get one of these when Am first brought it out, now it looks as if I might miss out again. Maybe I'll find one at Hinckley.
Dare I ask, any news on the FM Halifax?
Mal

Hi Mal

No. Only that I haven't forgotten! :-)

All the best

Rowan

WOW, that looks fantastic Rowan. That is the first time i have seen the colour etched used and it is definitely the way forward. How is it to use, and how do the pigments compare to MIGs.
Nice to see you modeling again. Keep them coming.
Andy (++)
P.S Is Mal starting to get worried :-) :-) .

There is a rash of AM Yaks on the market being sold dirt cheap. I picked up my last two for about $10 CDN. Like you said, the AM releases have pretty dull colour schemes.... Is there any possibility that you could scan the decals and the painting instructions for the Eduard offering..... it would go a long way in determining if this newer offering is needed to clad my dull AM ones.....

thanks,
Frank

my edit: Nice cockpit Rowan, the colour P.E. makes a big difference...... Makes you wonder when in the future we can expect to open up a new model and find the cockpit completed for us?!?

Cheers Andy

So far the etched set has been straightforward - the most important thing is that the items actually fit the plastic parts very well! (That often wasn't the case in the early days of etched details). The only real problem is that there are some very small parts and I'm a bit ham-fisted at the moment. I must admit the carpet monster almost claimed a couple and I was lucky to get away with it this time.

The Mirage pigments worked very nicely and seem basically identical to Mig's, except they come in much larger pots - which could be a real plus for anyone using them for dioramas etc. The instructions have some neat suggestions for mixing the earth shades with plaster, acrylic colours or varnish to create various mud effects - something I'll have to try one day.

All the best

Rowan

Hi Frank

Fear not - I'll include the scans when I publish the review.

As for finished cockpits in kits - the way things are going you're probably not far off the truth.

All the best

Rowan

Doh! I'm getting forgetful in my old age! I've already uploaded the pics for the review, so you can see the decals and paint schemes here.

Hello Rowan

is the decal sheet also misprinted on your sample? I wanted to do Baranovs mount and I can't because red and white are slightly off:



which is deadly for the small stars with white border...

Nice cockpit though, I really like it (I do not think mine will be build so clean that it still looks nice with that large photo magnification

best wishes

Steffen

Hi Steffen

I'm afraid my sheet suffers from the same problem. I've just checked the sheet for the Yak 1B review sample and the registration on there is much better.

All the best

Rowan

Thanks Rowan,

I have to state that Eduards 'Achilles heel' is defenitely their registration on the decal sheets. Maybe I've just become too spoiled with the Cartograph releases which have taken over as the leaders in the industry!

Frank

Hey Rowan

Nice starting. I just don't get how you paint that little thing so detailed. What scale is it?? 1/72??

Looks nice bro

Greetz Roel

Nice clean build on the cockpit, Rowan !

WW II Soviet aircraft interior color info is almost as scarce as WW II Japanese.

I bought some of WEM's paints (entire RLM and Japanese sets), and some of the Luftwaffe shades look odd to me (RLM 65 and 71 most notably) look very odd to me. The RLM 65 has no green tint, and the 71 is almost brown. I was pretty disappointed with them.

Looking forward to the progress !

Hi Rowan!
That is looking fabulous!
Good to see you building again.Every cloud has a silver lining eh?
I hope to see you finishing this and some more of your part finished projects really soon.
Looks like great therapy
Nige
PS,,are you going to make it to Hinckley?

Hi Roel

Actually, it's 1/144! No, seriously, I'd love to claim it was 1/72 - but it's really 1/48! To be honest though, Eduard do manage to put the same sort of detail into their smaller-scale sets too - now that IS scary!




Hi Bill

You're not wrong! But Erik Pilawski's seems to be the recognised authoritative text now - it's certainly got far more info than I've ever found elsewhere. Apparently, WEM consulted Erik for original paint matches when preparing their range.

The Soviet paints are the first Colourcoats I've bought, so I can't comment on their Luftwaffe range. I'll have to get hold of some and do some cross-checking. It would be a big task - but getting together our own sets of paint cross-references on Armorama is a project I've always had at the back of my mind.




Hi Nigel - thanks for the encouragement! Apart from tackling the RSI, it's also an opportunity to belatedly live up to my New Year's Resolution for 2006... i.e. get more building done! - so expect to see more models from me.

Hinckley? No, I'm afraid not - it's just too long a journey for me. Plus, of course, someone has to stay behind to do the editing here! :-)

All the best

Rowan

Rowan - here's an example of WEM's Luftwaffe colors.
I used their 65, 70, and 71 for the camo. The 71 looks VERY brown, and the 65 doesn't have a greenish tint. The 70 is darker than Model Master's, and the 02 looks fine to me.

This is Eduard's Bf 108B-2 ProfiPack. I opened the canopy clamshell door (I like it 'cause it's different).

I hope the Russian colors look more authentic than these !

Hi Bill

What source(s) are you using for reference? I checked with John Snyder and he informed me that WEM's colours were matched to Michael Ullman's Luftwaffe Colors 1935-1945 and the Eagle Editions colour chart. It'll be too dark when I get home, so I'll have a look at both these and the paint chips in Vols 1&2 of K. A. Merrick's new Luftwaffe Camouflage and Markings 1933-1945 in daylight tomorrow.

Your point about RLM 65 does ring a bell; I remember noticing in these latest colour samples that it's a rather purer blue than I'd previously thought.

Of course, all the sources state that the paints did vary between RLM-approved suppliers. K. A. Merrick gives examples where they actually used completely different formulae and pigments to produce their paints. Michael Ullman goes even further with his theory that the RLM 65 specification actually changed early in the War.

All the best

Rowan

PS That's a REALLY nice '108!

Hi again

I couldn't resist trying out a couple of daft ideas for painting and weathering the Yak! I thought I'd try to represent an aircraft that was already rather well-worn before it was given a coat of winter white-wash - which, in turn, was becoming weathered.

So, I began by a bit of "educated guesswork" and painted the model to give some idea of how the original a/c might have been primed. Note, this is done totally without references - so I can't claim it's at all accurate. Sometimes, you just have to go with an idea and see where it takes you. So, I masked the kit and applied some bare metal, wood primer and red-oxide primer:



With the masking removed, the full effect was revealed. It's the first time I've used Alclad II and it proved a very good n/m finish which withstood the masking with no problem at all. Best of all, it showed no tendency to get metallic "dust" on the surrounding areas!



With the "primers" dry, I tried another new technique for me - stippled latex masking to represent chipped paint. I applied some copydex with a small bit of kitchen scourer and a tatty brush. Then I painted what Erik Pilawskii calls the "Great Meander" scheme. Apparently this ranged between hard edged and very loosely sprayed. In the interest of speed, I went for the latter, but I actually will tighten up the edges a bit today because I think the result is too soft when viewed closed up. :-)



In the next pics, you can see that, where the latex has peeled in a couple of places, there's quite an interesting "chipped" look developing:





So - todays tasks... tighten up that camo, remove the latex and check everything's smooth and that the panel lines are looking OK. Then begin to think about applying the decals.

After that, more weathering and latex before going for the winter scheme. It's certainly a convoluted process - but it's proving fun.

All the best

Rowan

Looking great Rowan!
Now thats what I call Occupational Therapy
Im interested to see how the "paint chipping" works out.Maybe you could expand on the technique a little when you feel up to it?
Keep going and looking forward very much to seeing this finished.
Nige

Wow Rowan!

It's the first time I see one of your build going past the cockpit stage!!! That's a totally new Armorama experience for me! The model looks great and I can't wait to see it reach the decals and weathering steps!
The "Tractor Green"/Black paintscheme is very nice... do you really want to hide it behind a winter white-wash?

Jean-Luc

Excellent colors! Excellent build.

I would be more than honored to put your completed model - and/or your review - on our VVS site. Just LMK.


Matt Bittner

Hi Jean-Luc

Thanks for the kind comments - but... wait for it!... that's NOT Tractor Green! This scheme is AII Green and Black. The WEM paints match the refs beautifully and, if you think this looks bright, just wait until I do give Tractor Green an outing soon! No wonder the pilots loathed it!

Don't worry - the colours won't be entirely hidden by the white-wash - this is going to be a very weathered bird...

All the best

Rowan

Hi Matt

Welcome to our Aircraft section - it's great to have you with us! Thank you very much for your offer - I'd be honoured in turn. That's an extra incentive to plough on and finish this one!

Thanks again and all the best

Rowan

Hi Nigel

I'll take some extra pics when I do the next round of latex stippling prior to the white-wash.

All the best

Rowan

Rowan, this is looking fantastic and I really like the weathering Ideas This simply proves that you must build more to share with us, great stuff
Mal

WOW, i don't know what surprises me more, the excellent build or that you are actually modeling :-) :-).
The Yak looks terrific Rowan, keep up the brilliant work.
I used EZ mask on my "Betty " for the paint chipping effect and will definitely be using it again as the effect is very good and its easy to do.
Keep posting the pics.
Andy (++)