Yak-75 "Flapper"

[Gondor]

I have still to finish my Yak 75! It's nearly there. Canopy frame and Ejector seat painting tomorrow I think, touching up the external tanks as well seeing that they will be the same colour. After that detail painting of the missiles and the wheels will set the stage for adding the decals which should really lift the aircraft from the drab and mundane grey beast that she is at the moment. So as she is almost finished work wise don't expect any pictures until she is all together, well maybe one of the ejector seat to keep teasing you guys 

Gondor

[Gondor]

A small update. The canopy framing has been painted and the under wing fuel tanks have been touched up again where the paint thinned for some reason, probably some grease.

The plan for tomorrow is to finish painting the wheels and some more painting of the ejector seat. I might paint the fuselage with Future even though the aircraft is painted in Xtracolor

Gondor

[Gondor]

Made one step forward and two steps back today 

I applied all of the decals, six stars and four digits for the Bort numbers then after an hour or so I applied varnish, only to find a few hours later that the numbers read one way on one side and backwards on the other   

I know it's not difficult and I know that I am not the first person to do this and I am also guessing that I will not be the last person to do this either but when the reverse number looks like one of the most popular brands in the UK it's sooo easy to make a mistake 

SO I have a 75 on one side and a 57 on the other as well as no matching numbers in the decal bank 

So guess what I am going to have to do..... remove the decals, hopefully by over painting them, the replacements are not the same as the first numbers I used so its either this or sand them off which will be plan "B" is the paint doesn't work.

I am definitely glad that extension was granted for this group build.

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

Leave it as it is, it helps confuse the opposition who think you've got more aircraft than you actually have.....

[Gondor]

Leave it as it is, it helps confuse the opposition who think you've got more aircraft than you actually have.....

I like that idea. Partway through a show turn the model to face the opposite way and to a different part of the display so that people think it is a different aircraft 

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

Comes from having a devious mind Alastair. 

When I ran my N gauge model railway layouts at shows we had one side of each train painted in one scheme with a different scheme on the  other side. As the Joe and Jane Publics could only see one side at a time we effectively doubled the number of trains we could display. 

[Gondor]

Decided to be generic and make the Bort number 01 rather than trying to find suitable decals from somewhere in my stash. I have a long weekend now so hopefully I will manage to get the build almost finished. Some parts just need touching up, quiet terry, while a couple of others just need some details painted before the whole lot is completed and pictures taken!

Gondor

[Gondor]

Hopefully on the home straight now, all decals in place and varnished over. In fact the whole airframe has been given a coat of matt varnish. So many little bits and pieces to do though but not enough to stop me finishing in time.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Home stretch at last!

Undercarriage on, wheels fully painted as are the weapons. One fuel tank is attempting not to be finished but that should be sorted in a day or two. I have actually fixed the wheels onto the undercarriage but I am loathed to turn the aircraft the right way up until tomorrow as I wish to give them plenty of time to set.

Very close to finished now and she is looking good to my eyes. Just tempted fate by putting her upright on her wheels and legs with the canopy in place. She doesn't look like what she is built from, but then the kit doesn't look like what she was supposed to be either 

I should get the undercarriage doors on tomorrow as well as some final detail painting of the ejector seat and the control column which will allow me to button her up on Tuesday so that may be when she is finished or a day or so later. This may all change as I have to take the cat to the vet tomorrow unexpectedly, not sure if she will be coming back afterwards either 

Gondor

[Captain Canada]

Looking forward to seeing this !

[Gondor]

I should have her finished in a day or so. Close to the wire is how this build is going as I simply do not rush things when building even when it gets to this stage of final touches and assembly of sub-assemblies.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Most of the undercarriage doors are on, unfortunately I found that I had misinterpreted which way round two of them went, consequently I have painted them wrongly, not only that but the ejector pin markings that could have been an internal feature have now become an external problem 

Still there is progress.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Just about there. Wing-tip missiles to attach and a pair of undercarriage doors to paint on one side, the other side is still drying at the moment, then the doors need attached and that's it! 

Not Putting the missiles on until later today as I only just glued the ejector seat and canopy into place so I will let them dry before tilting or moving the model.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Well as good as 

Two undercarriage doors to go on and I noticed when processing the pictures that there is a bit of stray paint on the nose wheel, but for all intents and purposes the model is finished. The back story though is another matter 

The story is that the aircraft was Yak's entry to the fighter competition that was eventually won by the MiG-29. The YaK being considered to radical and complicated an aircraft for the Soviet Air Forces and those of their allies. The design did not even get further than some wind tunnel models so what I have produced may not have even been the final design.

Anyway, on with the pictures which are mainly general views of the aircraft.






















Finally this is what the aircraft was built from.


Additional parts were the missile rails and missiles as well as the ejector set and the decals, all the other parts came from the box. The second fin came from another Esci EFA kit, the fin fillet were the canards from the box, the spine was heavily filled and PSR'd as were the recessed missile troughs in the underside of the fuselage.

For a more detailed breakdown of the build please read this thread from the start.

Gondor

[McGreig]

Now that is excellent And also very good to see all of it at last, after all in-progress photos of small bits of the airframe!