YF-23 Black Widow - FINISHED!

[chrisonord]

Liking what you have done with this, a favorite of mine too
Chris

[Old Wombat]

Neat scheme! Like it!

[DogfighterZen]

Liking what you have done with this, a favorite of mine too
Chris

Neat scheme! Like it!

Glad you like it, gents.
So, i'd forgotten about a small detail that, IMHO, makes a big difference... the Black Widow's hourglass... at first i thought of masking and painting and looking back on it now, it probably would've been easier than what i ended up doing which was to dig up some suiting decals out of the spare decals bag and cut it up accordingly... took me a while but i got it done, here it is, with Vallejo's decal solvent solution still drying...



Came out good a bit big but i think it's good enough so i'll move on cause the rest of the decals are from the kit so should be simple.
Almost 3.30 in the morning so i'm calling it a night and leave the rest for tomorrow...

[TheChronicOne]

THAT is a good touch of class...   don't let the 'Brass' see it!!! 

The hour glass is one of my favorite parts of the original.    Glad to to see it here.   

[DogfighterZen]

THAT is a good touch of class...   don't let the 'Brass' see it!!! 

The hour glass is one of my favorite parts of the original.    Glad to to see it here.   

Had to do it, even this being a whif, it just didn't feel right if that wasn't there, isn't it?
Now i know how i can do it when i build a real world version, but then again, i'll probably buy the Caracal sheet for that and that already has an accurate decal of the hourglass so i won't have to worry about this bit.

Hasta la pasta, bacani...

[PR19_Kit]

I was stupid enough to Google 'black widow hourglass'  and was buried in pics of lethal looking spiders! 

Did the real YF-23 have an 'hourglass' marking on its belly?

[DogfighterZen]

I was stupid enough to Google 'black widow hourglass'  and was buried in pics of lethal looking spiders! 

Did the real YF-23 have an 'hourglass' marking on its belly?

It had it during the first weeks after the roll out and first flight, then Time Aviation Week magazine published an article on the YF-23 and on the cover of the issue was this pic...



Air Force Generals had it removed as soon as they saw that cover...
A good documentary of the YF-23's side on the ATF competition - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYLiMYGBE2Q

Ok, ready for the rest of the decals...

EDIT: Just noticed that i wrote that the pic was shown on Time magazine but it was on Aviation week magazine, don't know where i got the Time from...

[PR19_Kit]

That's brilliant, trust Northrop for an 'off the wall' idea, and trust the USAF hierarchy to ban it too, a mirthless bunch of characters.

[DogfighterZen]

That's brilliant, trust Northrop for an 'off the wall' idea, and trust the USAF hierarchy to ban it too, a mirthless bunch of characters.

I'm taking my bit of revenge on the USAF on this build, i did not include the US AIR FORCE that was supposed to go on top of the engine nacelles.
The Raptor didn't have that written on it anywhere so this one doesn't need it... 

So, today was a good modelling day, got some things done, including putting on the last decals, painting last details on the airframe, finished painting the wheels, and to finish things off, a good gloss coat over everything and left it to dry.
Tomorrow i'll give some parts a panel line wash, maybe not on the whole fuselage cause i don't want this bird looking too weathered.

[DogfighterZen]

It's almost finished... just turned on the compressor to give this thing a matte coat and after that, canopy masks will be removed for the beauty pics.

[scooter]

That's brilliant, trust Northrop for an 'off the wall' idea, and trust the USAF hierarchy to ban it too, a mirthless bunch of characters.

Agreed, Kit.  Also trust them *to* pick a LM product... 

And, I really need to update this-

[PR19_Kit]

She'd make an even better 'icon' for the underside of an F-23 or derivative. 

[DogfighterZen]

She'd make an even better 'icon' for the underside of an F-23 or derivative. 

She sure would... Very sexy widow indeed!

Well, this Black widow is finished, just going out for dinner and might take a pic or two later on as a teaser, cause i wanna see if i can get the beauty pics taken outdoors with sunlight.
I can say i'm very happy with the results, although it's obviously not a perfect job, i think it looks good, just a bit different, and i'm happy that i didn't ruin the original lines of the YF-23, of which i've always been a fan of.

[DogfighterZen]

Ok, quick pic for now, tomorrow i'll just polish the canopy and snap some beauty pics under sunlight, bang up a back story and i'll put her on here... So, here she is...   

[DogfighterZen]

"The Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) was a demonstration and validation program undertaken by the United States Air Force to develop a next-generation air superiority fighter to counter emerging worldwide threats, including Soviet Sukhoi Su-27 and Mikoyan MiG-29 fighters under development in the 1980s.
In 1981, USAF began forming requirements for a new air superiority fighter intended to replace the capability of the F-15 Eagle. In June 1981 a request for information (RFI) for the Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) was published by the Air Force. Design concepts were provided by defense contractors. The common areas among the concepts were Stealth, STOL and supercruise. It was envisioned that the ATF would incorporate emerging technologies including advanced alloys and composite material, advanced fly-by-wire flight control systems, higher power propulsion systems, and low-observable, or stealth technology.
In September 1983, study contracts were awarded to seven airframe manufacturers for further definition of their designs. By late 1984, ATF requirements had settled on a fighter with a maximum takeoff weight of 50,000 pounds (23,000 kg), a mission radius of 800 miles (1,300 km), supercruise speed of Mach 1.4-1.5 and the ability to use a 2,000 feet (610 m) runway.[6] A request for proposals (RFP) for the fighter's engine, called the Joint Advanced Fighter Engine (JAFE), was released in May 1983. Pratt & Whitney and General Electric received contracts for the development and production of prototype engines in September 1983.



A request for proposals (RFP) for the fighter was issued in September 1985. In May 1986, the Air Force changed the RFP so that final selection would involve flying prototypes. In July 1986, proposals were provided by Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed, Northrop, and McDonnell Douglas.
Two contractors, Lockheed and Northrop were selected in October 1986 to undertake a 50-month demonstration/validation phase, culminating in the flight test of two technology demonstrator prototypes, the YF-22 and the YF-23. Under terms of agreements between Lockheed, General Dynamics, and Boeing, the companies agreed to participate in the development jointly if only one company's design was selected. Northrop and McDonnell Douglas had a similar agreement.
Because of the added weight for thrust vectoring/reversing nozzles and related systems on the F-15 S/MTD research aircraft, the Air Force changed the runway length requirement to 3,000 feet (910 m) and removed the thrust reversers on the ATF in late 1987. Two examples of each prototype were built for the Demonstration-Validation phase: one with General Electric YF120 engines, the other with Pratt & Whitney YF119 engines. The first YF-23 made its maiden flight on 27 August 1990 and the first YF-22 first flew on 29 September 1990.



Flight testing began afterwards and the second aircraft for each competitor was to be ready in late October 1990, but after some early development problems, the GE engines would only be ready 6 months later.
Worried by less than satisfactory data concerning the agility of the first prototype, Northrop engineers were convinced that it wasn't good enough so, after meeting with their team, Northrop's program manager Steve Smith and chief engineer/designer Bob Sandusky knew they had at least an extra 6 months so they proposed a last minute design change from the V tail to a 4 Poster configuration aided by 2D thrust vectoring nozzles like the YF-22 had, for the added maneuverability. Authorized by CEO Tom Jones, the second prototype would be finished with the new 4 Poster tail design in December, 1990, only having it's GE engines installed in April 1991, making it's first flight on the 12th.







The first YF-23  with P&W engines(PAV-1), supercruised at Mach 1.43 on 18 September 1990 and the second YF-23 with GE engines(PAV-2), reached Mach 1.6 on 29 April 1991. The YF-22 with GE engines achieved Mach 1.58 in supercruise. Flight testing continued until August 1991.
The maneuverability of PAV-2 was totally superior to PAV-1, which would be comparable to an F-15.







The TVC nozzles gave the plane a much tighter and sustained turning radius in a combat scenario, so much so that PAV-1 was rapidly relegated to systems testing, leaving all performance flight testing to be done by PAV-2, which had the now final EMD proposed design.





Following flight testing, the contractor teams submitted their EMD proposals for ATF production.



Following a review of the flight test results and proposals, the Air Force announced the Lockheed YF-22 with Pratt & Whitney engines as the competition winner on 23 April 1991. The YF-23 design was considered stealthier and faster, but, even with the design change to improve this aspect, the YF-22 was still more agile and furthermore, had a projected greater weapons load capacity in it's weapons bays.





The Lockheed team was awarded the contract to develop and build the Advanced Tactical Fighter in August 1991. The YF-22 was modified into the production F-22 Raptor version. The Northrop YF-23 design was later considered by the company for modification as a bomber, but the proposals have not come to fruition."

So, i have my first Black Widow on the shelf and i'm very happy with how it came out. The scheme looks simple but different and i like it a lot, i think the TVC nozzles worked well, the tails were a simple affair and while they change the looks quite a bit, i don't think it changed so much that it lost the original lines, and that was something i wanted to maintain from the original design.
Although i couldn't get any decent pics of the intakes, those came out better than i expected. These are the best pics i could get, the angle makes it hard to get light all the way in...





And an extra pic to finish off... 



I just love the look of this bird and i've got plans for all the kits i have, including a real world PAV-1, an EMD F-23A and maybe a twin seat variant, but that will be sometime in the not-so-near future cause i've got enough builds to finish...