Re: Yak-16 "Fistful" Finished!

[frank2056]

One thing I love about this board is that it's a great source of inspiration for new projects. In TSR Joe's Yak 15/17/23 thread he posted a link to Stargazer2006's Yak-16 Fistful. I love these early Soviet jets, and he did a fantastic job on modifying the Yak-23.

I have an old KoPro 1/72 Yak-23 that I put together back in 1989 or so, just after I got back into the hobby. It was probably my second 1/72 plane and my first all metal paint job. The model was banged about during a move and has been sitting in pieces, spread out over several boxes of parts, for the last 8 years. What a great opportunity to turn it into Stephane's "Fistful"!

After hunting around for the parts, I was able to find everything except one of the smaller main landing gear doors and the landing gear itself:



Next, I thought about the mods required. Unlike the Yak-15 & Yak-17, which used axial RD-10 jet engine (based on the German Jumo 004), the Yak-23 used the Klimov RD-500 centrifugal engine (based on the RR Drewent V). One advantage of the RD-500 (at least for this project) over the RD-10 is that while the engine is much wider, it's also shorter. Moving the RD-500 back to make room for the cockpit in the nose would be relatively easy in the real world aircraft. There's just enough room in the nose to house the cockpit. Here's a drawing of the Yak-23, with the engine outlined in red, and the Yak-16:



The engine in the Yak-23 is pointing upwards, with a long tailpipe. By moving the engine back, the tailpipe can be shortened, although the intake path is now longer. Now there's room for a longer fuel tank.
The mods to the KP kit look relatively straightforward:

1 - cut a new cockpit opening in the nose.
2 - Fair over the old cockpit. Looking at Stephane's drawing, the fairing increases the depth of the fuselage. This ends up adding a little more room for the cockpit, model-wise it just means a long spine from the tail to the nose.
3 - I'll need a new canopy. I have a selection of canopies to choose from; it won't be exactly like the one in the drawing, but close.
4 - new landing gear; also, not a big deal.

I'll start by removing the existing decals and splitting the fuselage to remove the cockpit.

Frank

[frank2056]

I've done most of the fuselage hacking.

It looks a bit like a tiny Russian Tunnan:



Top view:



The canopy is from an old Mig-23. I'll probably use some leftover bits from my Iskra build.
Luckily, this is a small model, so the amount of PSR, while significant, won't be too bad.

Frank

[PR19_Kit]

Neat idea that frank, I've always though the Yak 23 was ripe for various Whiff projects, and you've just proved it! 

[Taiidantomcat]

Very nice! 

[sequoiaranger]

I like the look.

Maybe, too, since the engine is moved back, the armament could poke out farther back and down, or additional guns put there, firing slightly outboard of the original pair.

I'm "concerned" about the air intake--is there enough room for a pilot's compartment *AND* channels for intake air around or below it? Or maybe widen the intake like an F-100?

[frank2056]

Maybe, too, since the engine is moved back, the armament could poke out farther back and down, or additional guns put there, firing slightly outboard of the original pair.

I was thinking of that. The new engine position adds some room to the gun locations. I may add a couple of external guns (like the Mig-15/17) because...

I'm "concerned" about the air intake--is there enough room for a pilot's compartment *AND* channels for intake air around or below it? Or maybe widen the intake like an F-100?

The new cockpit area is smaller and sits higher than on the -23. For some reason, the Yak-23 has a stretched, wide cockpit. I looked down the intake and there's plenty of space for the air. I'll compare it to the Mig-15, which has a much more powerful engine but only slightly larger intake.

[Stargazer]

Wow! 

Amazing stuff! Someone is actually building a kit from one of my whifs! 

There is no greater joy than to see something that was born in my mind move from the virtual world into the world and become tangible, concrete. You've made my day, Frank. Hope there'll be more of my works inspiring modelists around here... especially since I don't know if I will ever be able to make plastic models again because of my damaged fingers.

Anyway, can't wait to see the Fistful finished now... Keep up the great work!

[frank2056]

There is no greater joy than to see something that was born in my mind move from the virtual world into the world and become tangible, concrete. You've made my day, Frank. Hope there'll be more of my works inspiring modelists around here... especially since I don't know if I will ever be able to make plastic models again because of my damaged fingers.

Thanks Stephane! Your Fistful just screamed "build me!" . Even more so because I had the broken donor kit. I hope i can do your painting justice.

No pictures to show today, but I worked on the cockpit yesterday. I made a new instrument panel using some old resin bits from a Hawkeye resin set. The sidewalls will be detailed with some old PE instrument panels from n Airwaves Me262 set. Once I finish the cockpit, I can close up the fuselage and start blending the hump in.

[sequoiaranger]

I looked inside the front end of a Mig-15 the other day (at Planes of Fame), and was surprised how much LESS air intake volume there was relative to the opening. That is, there is a HUGE "divider" in there that is not just a thin membrane, but seems to take up about a third of the volume of the frontal air intake. So maybe there is plenty of room in your "Fistful" after all .

[frank2056]

I finished the cockpit - the floor is from an old generic resin cockpit detailing set, the foot pedals are from my trusty Airwaves Me-262 set (it has donated parts for at least four projects now, none have been Me-262s) and the instrument panel is made up from the main gear door from a Tamiya 1/100 Me-262 trimmed to fit (the shape fit just right with minimal trimming). The instruments are from the resin set mentioned above. I also detailed the side consoles, but they're not visible in this pic:



I'll go in later and give the dials a wash to reduce the stark white.

The area between the intake and the front of the cockpit is packed with plasticine, to act as a nose weight. Craig's post made me look up the pictures of the Chino Mig-15 that I took years ago. (IIRC, it's a Jian Ji-2). I carved the plasticine to roughly match the shape of the intakes behind the splitter plate as seen in that plane.

I also glued down the spine hump - it's a torpedo half from an old Imai James Bond kit. I used cyanoacrylate glue + talc as a putty to smooth the transition between the fuselage and the hump. Not visible in the pictures are the thin strips of styrene that I used to fill in some of the larger gaps.

Here it is after some PSR. The apparent discoloration in the metallic finish is due to the chrome Gundam pen that I'm using to check for gaps and areas that still need some PSR:



Even this early in the game, it's looking pretty good.

I have deviated from the drawing by a bit. Stephane's image has a straight spine. I think his version looks better, but frankly I don't think I have the patience (or enough plastic) to sand the spine flat on this model. Maybe it'll be the Yak-16bis.

I still have to scribe in new panel lines before I add the wings, but I'm hoping to have this plane finished before the end of the year.

Frank

[Stargazer]

I have deviated from the drawing by a bit. Stephane's image has a straight spine. I think his version looks better, but frankly I don't think I have the patience (or enough plastic) to sand the spine flat on this model. Maybe it'll be the Yak-16bis.

Heck, yeah! There were quite a few, not-so-well-documented variants of the Yak-16 ("Fistful-A", "Fistful-B" and "Fistful-C" are the main ones), and yours definitely looks like a later "B" model...    Well done, Sir!

[sotoolslinger]

Most nifty

[Tophe]

  Well done, Sir!

I second that

[Geoff]

  Well done, Sir!

I second that

Well done indeed!

[John Howling Mouse]

That is a very likeable shape.