Yak-1b, completed

Sebastian Meyner
My utmost respect for those of us who build 1:72 exclusively ? I couldn't do that kind of stuff all the time ? However Arma Hobby's Yak-1B is a real treat of a kit. Great fit, fantastic detail OOB and very well priced!

Marek Nagy
Hello, I´m making the same model. You´re right, it´s a nice kit, but in some places I´ve filled sags in the surface. Good luck.

Sebastian Meyner
So far I didn't come across any sink marks on mine...luckyly. Filling and sanding are not my favorites, especially in such a small scale 😉

Guy Rump
Following with interest, I have this in my stash. 🙂

Sebastian Meyner
Welcome Guy 🙂 Pull it out of your stash and build it! It's a fantastic kit....and that comes from the guy who mostly builds Tamiya 👍

Jan Peters
Good to see you tackle a kit in the one and only true scale 🙂

Sebastian Meyner
The one and only true scale?! Well that's debatable Jan 😉 But since I'm slowly running out of space I will build some of the 1:72s I have in my stash. Besides that, this kit is a breeze to build....nice and relaxing 👍

Sebastian Meyner
Quiet unusual for me I make some sort of rapit progress with my little Yak! This is however more due to the almost flawless kit with its Tamiya-like fit, than to me being a quick builder 😛 There is only spot where I had to use some putty (...on the chin radiator) and that only because of me and my sausage fingers messing the fit up. General construction is now finished on we're ready for some painting 👍

Sebastian Meyner
Tonight I masked the tiniest canopy I ever had the "pleasure" to mask, spraypainted the canopy frame and primed the whole model. Not sure if I eventually get used to 1:72.... I filled the paint cup as I usually do for a 1:48 or even bigger scale....it somehow felt as if the paint inside got more, not less 😛 Anyhow, next stop pre-shading! Time to bring out my H & S Infinity 0,15 again 👍

Pierre Pierre
very nice build !

Sebastian Meyner
Thank you Pierre, much appreciated mate 🙂

Sören Bartusch
Do You know the russian book „pjerwui yaks"? Its a very fine reference book.

Sören Bartusch
Ah...and nice build so far??

Jan Peters
Nice preshading Sebastian!

Sebastian Meyner
Danke Sören 👍

Das Buch kenn ich leider nicht....hast du evtl. einen link?! Für dieses Projekt habe ich diese "Referenzen"

Book: Yakovlev Yak-1 (by Serguei Kouznetsov, Alexander Rusetski)

Book: Sowjetische Fliegerasse 1941-1945 (by Waldemar Trojca)

Sebastian Meyner
Thanks Jan 🙂 However I'm somewhat doubtful that much of it will show thru in the end... I wanted to try a hard edged pre shading for a while now....but man I should have tried it in my more usual scales 😛

Paweł W.
Great colors!

Sebastian Meyner
Thank you Pawel 👍 The camouflage colours are Tamiya's XF-63 and XF-66, each lightened with a few drops of white. The light blue is XF-23 mixed with (a little bit more) clear blue X-23 to make it look a bit more lively. So nothing too fancy 😉

Sebastian Meyner
Today's schedule included: some light chipping on the few actual metal penal, spray painting the gear bays and putting down a first gloss coat. If all goes well I'll start with the decals tomorrow.

Even if I repeat myself... what an amazing kit Arma's little Yak is! I love that little thing 🙂 👍

Jan Peters
It is looking very good indeed Sebastian.
Since you are so fond of this one I will ad it to my wishlist 8-)

Guillaume Blanchet
Looking nice! I really like your interior.

Sebastian Meyner
Thank you mates!

@Jan: ...you should 😉 Under-represented subject, PE parts, masks, great fit, nice decals all for under 20€! What, s not to like about it!? 😄

@Guillaume: Well I guess the interiors will work since hardly any of it will be visible in the end. But being used to bigger scales I have to admit I even had a hard time achieving the mediocre result

Sebastian Meyner
Today was time to put on the decals.... something I honestly dreaded a bit, since I usually try to use stencils instead. However in this scale I didn't see a chance getting around using decals on this one. Luckyly the kit decals and the Exito decals (printed by Cartograph no less...) turned out to be great 👍

Jan Peters
This build is one big commercial for the kit and decals 🙂
Very impressive indeed, clean work Sebastian!

Sebastian Meyner
Of course Jan....I await a sweet advertising deal from Arma Hobby any minute now 😛
Thanks for your very kind remarks though 👍

David Januska
Nice job 👍.

Sebastian Meyner
Thank you David 🙂

Sebastian Meyner
Did the last bit of weathering today. Just a light (oil...) pin wash to bring out all those nice panel lines and rivets....at least the ones I haven't plastered over with paint 😉

Marek Nagy
Are you going to paint the fuel gauges on the wings?

Sebastian Meyner
Well given my sausage fingers and the small cale, most probably not. I'm also a bit scared to ruine the paint job

Marek Nagy
I understand. I'll try to paint it.?

Sebastian Meyner
I call this one done 🙂 ....pictures to follow shortly

Sebastian Meyner
And now it's done 🙂

Jan Peters
And what a beauty it is!
Great job Sebastian 🙂

David Januska
Nice result and superb paint job👍

Guy Rump
Great build 👍

Sebastian Meyner
Thank you very much Jan, David and Guy for your encouraging words! This kit was a personal challenge for me.... not because of the Kit being bad (quiet the contrary in fact), just because it was somewhat way out of my comfort zone 😉

Sebastian Meyner
Danke Roland 👍

Pierre Pierre
very nice, can you please share close up pics?
details pics during progress were amazing, curious to see how cockpit, intrado and pics @ human scale height would look like ?

Sebastian Meyner
Thank you Pierre! I'll try to take some more close-ups tonight or tomorrow. In fact I'm thinking about replacing some pictures since I'm not 100% happy with the last ones I took

Sebastian Meyner
So I decided to take some new pictures in order to do this little gem of a kit justice. This time I'm actually very happy with the pics 👍 ....of my first 1:72 build in about 27 years 🙂

Sören Bartusch
Whow! That's a beaty! Well done! ??

Sebastian Meyner
Thank you very much! Much apreciated 🙂

Pierre Pierre
thanks a lot Sebastian for the pics indeed they seems to show much better the final look. very inspiring !

Sebastian Meyner
Thanks Pierre 👍

James C
That's awesome and I love the camo colours 👍
I intend to do a similar paint scheme with Zvezda's 1/48 scale kit

Sebastian Meyner
Thanks James! For the paint job I simply added a few drops of white to XF66 and XF63 respectively. The underside is XF23 with a good portion of clear blue (X23 I believe) to make the light blue look a bit more lively....so to say. I think it worked out pretty well imho. So no extra spending on "real" Soviet colours needed 😛

I am looking forward to your Yak mate 👍

Andy Ball
cracking depiction of a Soviet icon!

Sebastian Meyner
Thank you Andy 👍 Indeed an icon and sadly one that's somewhat under-represented when it comes to scale modelling