THE SUBJECT

The Yakovlev Yak-130 is a subsonic two-seat advanced jet trainer and light fighter originally developed by Yakovlev and Aermacchi. It has also been marketed as a potential light attack aircraft. Development of the plane began in 1991 and the maiden flight was conducted on 25 April 1996. ~Wikipedia~

Top speed: 1,050 km/h
Unit cost: 15,000,000–15,000,000 USD (2010)
National origin: Russia
Number built: 140 in 2017
Engine type: Ivchenko-Progress AI-222
Role: Advanced trainer / Light fighter

THE KIT

KITTY HAWK'snice artwork beckon you to make the purchase and all the various paint options on the side walls may just cinch the deal. If not then take a look at my photos and you should be convinced. Lifting the top your first impression is that there's a lot of plastic here. Eight sprues in five bags make up the bulk of the kit, but four of those are for ordinance. The plastic is what I consider high quality, being not too rigid or too soft. I didn't see any sink holes or bothersome ejection pin marks and there is a minimal degree of burring in the parts. However, a slight amount of flash on most needs to be cleaned up. That said, in tests the fit is good once everything is ready to cement. There is a little work needing to be done connecting the three major parts of the body but nothing you won't curse over. Also, in a few places you'll come across missing location pins and notches.

INSTRUCTIONS

These definitely need some work and I can only suggest that the different departments get together and build a kit prior to release. Exact location points are a little vague and while this wouldn't be a problem if the parts were correctly molded, yet all are not. I read through the manual three or four times and saw no reference to suggested paint manufacturers, even though Mr. Color paint numbers appear throughout. KITTY HAWK does give a rough idea though by mentioning the correct colors to use in many areas.

PARTS

Certainly KITTY HAWK have put a lot of thought into the details of this multi media YAK-130 model. Plenty of rivet holes, raised and recessed detail along with some photo-etched bits for an even finer look. Some might consider the rivets a bit big, although that's a personal preference and altering your wash color will help. The key thing for me is that it looks well represented with the real thing both inside and out. The one area which falls well short are the safety belts. They're almost 1/32 in scale size and look nothing like the 5 point harness installed in the actual aircraft.

The clear parts are nice yet you'll have to polish the center seam and unfortunately this kit came with a slight scratch you can see in the photo.

The photo-etch sprue provides the woeful seat harness and some connection points for the weapon racks, yet sadly this one was missing a part.

The Resin Figures have great detail and surely add another dimension to the kit. The usual clean-up needs to be done and you'll have to add the ejection handles after the seated figure is installed. This will be a conundrum because the safety belts on the figure look nothing to scale compared to the PE. The aftermarket route is what it will have to be should you wish to include them in your build.

MARKINGS AND DECALS

The color call-outs provide are simply amazing. There's something for everyone in the seven versions and since I have literary clients in Belarus will be doing the dark green with orange highlights. I would suggest to KITTY HAWK they consider more English in their description of each version, but give them high marks for all the choices.

The decal sheets also get high marks for several reason. One is that the weapons stencils are on a different sheet and second is how they look and behave. While you'll have to cut the different sections of the cockpit display to make them fit properly they went down great with only two coats of Tamiya Mark-fit strong and held up to my No.11 blade like a champ. The print is high quality with strong colors although you might want to trim the slight amount of carrier film.

CONCLUSION

As odd as it sounds, this feels like a larger scale than 1/48. The parts are well detailed and easy to handle, the fit is decent, you get to use some modeling skills, plenty of paint options and when completed your shelf will have a really cool looking subject to show off. Yes there are some areas to improve which all young companies grow through yet even from the little bit I've assembled it was and will be a fun project... save for those harnesses.

Keep an eye out for the future build feature of this kit and when shopping for your KITTY HAWK YAK-130 please mention you saw a review on KitMaker Network Aeroscale Magazine. Thanks and enjoy your build.