Salvaging a Yak-1 (work in progress)

[mikehorrell]

This poor ol' AM Yak-1b spent almost 10 years on a shelf above my wife's office desk until she retired a couple months ago.

All things considered, it was surprisingly undamaged from all those years of being subject to the tender mercies of the cleaning staff, but I no more than got it home when it literally started falling apart. Never mind the decals which were peeling off..

Since it was fundamentally sound and I know a lot more about VVS aicraft now than I did then, I decided to redo it as the same aircraft (Sergei Luganski as on the box art) but with more accurate paints and better decals.

It's been slowly working its way through the process for three months now in between other projects and I hope to have it done by Christmas. The worst problem is that one gear leg sheered in a way that is almost impossible to pin and will always be weak. Otherwise I think it'll get there OK..

I lightly sanded the paint back but did not do a full strip. I've redone it using WEM VVS colors AMT-7, AMT-11 and AMT-12 with Model Master semi-gloss white for the fuselage stripe and rudder flash.


No prize winner but I just couldn't bring myself to scrap it.





Mike

[Lobbie]

Mike,

Nice rebuild, I'll be interested in the progress on this one.

[tempestjohnny]

If it can be rebuilt why not rebuild it good luck

[gregers]

i too have quite a few models from my youth that could really do with re-building, and a few recent builds that i am not happy with too. looking forward to seeing the finished article.

all the best.

Greg

[mikehorrell]

Thanks to everyone for their comments!!! ;D

I got a bit more work done today...

Got the main decals on over a local coat of Future. Once fully dried,
I'll shoot a coat of MM semi-gloss over it all..

The spinner decal ****ed up and I've got one more from another sheet.
These decals are Errormaster and are not lying down as well as the
original Accurate Miniatures ones did for the same scheme.

If the spinner decal ****s up again, I'll probably just say screw it and not worry
about it any more but I guess there's always the option of an attempt to paint it...

Tomorrow is Touch Up Day.. taking care of the little "issues" and maybe
gettting around to reinstalling the damaged gear.

[Bluecorsair]

Its coming around nicely!

[dude]

Coming along nicely!!

[voodoo]

"No prize winner but I just couldn't bring myself to scrap it."
I have a one like that!
Nice work!