1/72 Jacques Six

[frank2056]

I've had a kit of the Yak-6 made by Alpha rattling around for 20+ years in a container of started kits. It's not a good kit, despite its simplicity. I decided to finish the plane and not put too much effort into it since it's not worth the effort of super detailing... and it would guarantee that I would finish the model before I lost interest.

In the same container,  I found a box with some old 1/72 Airfix Hs-129 parts (not enough for a complete kit) and another box with an ancient but also partial,  Lindberg Hs-129. From the brittleness of the plastic, it has to date from the 1960s.

So I decided to mix and match parts. I started by putting together the Yak-6 fuselage and noticed that it was too narrow for the canopy, so I widened it with styrene strips to improve the fit. I didn't like the radials on the Yak-6, so I replaced them with the Gnome-Rhône radials from the Hs-129. This involved some careful plastic surgery on the brittle Lindberg plastic (the engines were a better fit than the Airfix ones).

The box with the random aircraft bits also had the tail from an Airfix 1/72 Pe-2. The Yak-6 tail didn't spark joy, so after a quick operation the vertical tail was removed and the two vertical stabilizers from the Pe-2 grafted onto the horizontal stabilizers.

The kit's side windows seem to have gone AWOL over the years. They were replaced with thin plastic and masked with Tamiya tape. I also did some minor detailing of the cockpit, with pilot seats from a Matchbox Ju-188, throttle quadrant and instrument panel from an Airfix B-25 and a styrene floor and bulkhead - the kit only comes with two seats and a blank ip slab.

Here's what it looked like after the first layer of primer:



The props are from the Airfix Hs 129:



I'm leaning towards a French aircraft from immediately after the war, hence the "Jacques Six" name. The plane is starting to look like a fixed gear version of the Beechcraft 18, too.

Here's after some paint:



The blobs of putty are there because I pulled off the masks too soon and I need to put on a semi-matte coat after decalling.



The tail wheel is from an anonymous kit. This is starting to look like a Frankenstein build!

[Dizzyfugu]

That's looking very good and balanced, nice! 

[comrade harps]

That's looking very good and balanced, nice! 

Agree. Wouldn't pick it as a kit bash. 

[Tophe]

+1:

[zenrat]

 

[NARSES2]

That's looking very good and balanced, nice! 

Agree. Wouldn't pick it as a kit bash. 

Nor would I. Starting to look very smart in that livery as well 

[Rheged]

That's a very nice looking light twin!

[Nick]

That would work well as an Admirals Barge or an early executive aircraft.

[Old Wombat]

 

[kitbasher]

Smart 

And VERY Beech 18 ('Plage 18'?).

[loupgarou]

Very pretty, much more than the out of the box version.
You could put it besides a "real" Beech 18 at a show, and see it visitors can spot which is what...

[Wardukw]

That looks like thats the way the manufacturer intended it to be ..everything is just right..very nice work Frank 

[frank2056]

Thanks guys! I put on the decals, gave it a satin coat, took off the canopy masks... and all the frame paint came off! Something about that particular clear plastic kept the acrylic paint from sticking. I repainted the canopy framing by hand with silver Badger Stynylrez acrylic primer and trimmed the paint that got on the glass with a sharpened styrene stick. I'm waiting for it to fully dry now.

On the bright side, I was able to remove one of the previous versions of the side windows that fell into the fuselage.

A literal translation of the Beech 18 would be "L' Hêtre 18"

[frank2056]

I thought it was finished, but I just noticed I left off the navigation lights. a quick dab of Tamiya clear and it'll truly be done. Top view, with a figure for scale:



Two side views:



The aircraft registration, "F-TODC" is the year and month I finished the model - Twenty One DEcember. The aircraft code on the tail - 2112 is the same.



The hand painted canopy framing came out OK - the canopy is a lot clearer than I had expected. I added the cowl flaps under the engine to cover the huge gap between the cowling and the original engine mount.

The list of kits/kit parts used:
Yak-6
Lindberg Hs-129
Airfix Hs-129
Matchbox Ju-188
Airfix B-25
tailwheel from a mystery Tamiya kit
styrene bits and clear plastic bits.
black decals by me, French tricolor from a Heller 1/220 Noratlas.

Not a great kit, but it came out OK and I'm pleased that the original kit is barely recognizable. Thanks for following along!

[philp]

Nice Frankenplane.