Yakovlev Yak-11/Aero C-11
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Kit Review
by Richard A. Franks
The Kit
As we stated back in our initial preview of this kit (see here), it is limited-run and injected in a tan-coloured plastic. The surface detail is very good, with subtle fabric effect and very finely engraved panel lines. The kit is purely plastic, there are no resin or etched detail parts although Brengun do an excellent photo-etched detail set should you want to add this.
Interior
This is made up of the floor, control columns, seats with separate back cushions but no seat belts, the rudder pedals (these are the odd shaped items listed as '24' in the instructions) and two excellent instrument panels. The detail on these latter items are such that you can get a very good finish just with careful painting and a dark wash. I found it best to build up the floor (#34), rudder pedals (#24), control columns (#22), side frames (#20 & 21) and the rear bulkhead (#30) first, to create a solid 'tub', then insert this into the fuselage from underneath once the front instrument panel (#36) had been secured and the glue had dried. The parts line up very well indeed and I found all it needed was a couple of dabs of cyanoacrylate to secure it in place. The seats can be added last with belts were made from Aizu fine tape, suitably painted, which are sufficient for the scale. The gunsight is a mystery, as the two clear lenses are marked as '?' in the instructions, so I presume they have to be made from scratch as they are not on the clear sprue. It is best left to be added towards the end of construction though.
Wings
The wheel well inserts fit nicely and are not too deep, which is often a problem with limited run kits, so they don't force the wing halves apart. You can fit the landing light (#CP2) at this stage, as it is not the best of fit, so secure with cyanoacrylate and then sand smooth, before polishing back the clarity. The intake at the root of the port wing looks nothing like the illustration in the instructions, nor does it fit too well, so I again installed it using cyanoacrylate and then sanded it to fit (masking all surrounding areas to protect the panel lines as much as possible). Leave the pitot (#31) and undercarriage off until final assembly.
Tail
The locating lugs as moulded are not the best of fit into the shallow holes either side of the fin, but a bit of trimming along with some thinning down with a flat file soon had then fitting a lot better. They were secured with cyanoacrylate, which was also used to fill the resulting seam that was later sanded back to shape (again protecting the panel lines with masking tape during this stage).
Undercarriage
The main oleo and wheels are well moulded, although they need to be cleaned up. The retraction linkage (#16 & 17) and rams (both un-numbered at construction stage 13, but in fact parts #22) are acceptable, although their round cross-section means that the limited nature of the tooling method does lead to them being more oval. All the undercarriage parts and bays were painted with Tamiya Sky Grey, then a dark wash was applied to highlight the detail. The wheel hubs were sprayed Alclad II White Aluminium, whilst the tyres are Vallejo Panzer Aces Dark Rubber with pastels used to add some dirt to the sides. The tailwheel is a lovely little moulding, it needs a bit of cleaning up around the linkage, but other than that a little care in painting is all that is needed.
Colour Scheme
This was an easy one for me, although the kit offers four excellent schemes, they are all the same light blue-grey colour overall. I opted for the Egyptian Air Force example, and painted it was a mix of Sky Grey with a touch of RLM 65 overall, whilst the yellow bands are Tamiya Lemon Yellow. The canopy is not too onerous to mask, as most of the frames follow straight lines, so this was done with Kips Fineline masking tape. To do this I apply panels of tape, then holding the unit up to a strong light source I can see the frames, so a steady hand and a scalpel with a new blade is all that is needed to cut each panel out. The rear section curves in two directions, so you will have to fold up the tape to get it to fit, pressing it down firmly to ensure it is well down, then use the same system to trim it to shape. The framework on the canopy is sufficiently well denoted and the plastic clear enough for this method to work well.
Decals
These are superb, but they are very thin and can be damaged if you are not careful. I found most decal solvents are too much for RS decals in the past, so played it safe here and just applied a little Micro Sol carefully to each once on the model. They all settled down beautifully into all the recessed detail and I had no problems with silvering at all. The whole model was then sprayed with Johnson's Klear and left 24hrs to cure fully. Once this was the case, all the panel lines and other details received a Dark Wash from the MiG Productions range, with the excess wiped off with a clean cloth about 30 minutes later. The final varnish coat was a 50/50 mix of matt and satin varnishes from the Xtracrylix range to achieve what I call a 'mattin' finish because I find matt to dull and satin often too shiny!
Finishing Off
I had only secured the canopy with PVA, so this could be removed quite easily once the painting was done. This allowed me to removed the masks and to ensure that the interior was free of dust etc. The hole for the aerial mast in the rear needs to be drilled out with care, as you need an elongated hole that thus requires two separate holes to be drilled close together, then the resulting ridge to be cut away with a fine knife blade.
I added all the undercarriage parts and then found that the doors as supplied are about 2mm too long, so trim these to fit by continually checking after trimming away small bits off the 'top' of each door. The tailwheel looks as if it will fall into a great hole, but there is a ledge inside, so a drop of cyanoacrylate on the end is all you need. The rearview mirror had been painted the same colour as the exterior, with the lower edge done in black, as that will show inside through the canopy, then it was secured with Gator Glue. The canopy itself is secured with Pacer 560 PVA and any gaps along the edges filled with the same medium. I had kept a little of the overall paint mixed in a jar, so this was used to spray over these gaps (I am not 100% happy with how I did this, so in future I will have to allow the glue to fully cure because it has 'pulled in' in several areas). The propeller is a neat three-part assembly and the propeller itself just needs to be cleaned up along the edges, then sprayed satin black (or NATO Black as was the case here). The spinner is two-part and this was sprayed with the over blue-grey mix at the same time as the whole airframe was done, so now could be used to trap the propeller in place. I did find that the hole in the backplate (#6) has to be opened up with a drill though, as it is too small for the shaft on the propeller. I have to admit I did not install the ventral radio mast and I replaced the two exhaust stacks (#19) on the underside with suitable lengths of aluminium tubing from the Albion Alloys range (these were sprayed with Alclad II Jet Exhaust). The kit pitot is OK, but I always break them soon after assembly, so I went my usual route and replaced it with a length of aluminium tubing inside which is a length of brass wire. This was then secured in a pre-drilled hole in the wing tip and the main (aluminium) body was sprayed with the overall colour and the extreme (brass wire) tip is left unpainted as this is usually a brass colour anyway. I did not install the wing racks, mainly because they looked a little vague in overall detail to me and I just did not want then on my completed model.
Conclusion
This is a superb little kit, that goes together with little fuss. It is unlike the limited stuff we used to do battle with 10-15 years ago and is even an improvement in the type of kits that RS were producing a few years back. Although not for the complete beginner, I think that if you have ventured away from mainstream kits, this is certainly one that you should be able to cope with.
Our thanks to RS Models (www.rsmodels.cz) for the review sample.
Don't forget that the warbird version (#92168) is also available and my example is shown here as G-BTUB, as operated out of Kemble in 2011, alongside the Egyptian example.
by Richard A. Franks
The Kit
As we stated back in our initial preview of this kit (see here), it is limited-run and injected in a tan-coloured plastic. The surface detail is very good, with subtle fabric effect and very finely engraved panel lines. The kit is purely plastic, there are no resin or etched detail parts although Brengun do an excellent photo-etched detail set should you want to add this.
Interior
This is made up of the floor, control columns, seats with separate back cushions but no seat belts, the rudder pedals (these are the odd shaped items listed as '24' in the instructions) and two excellent instrument panels. The detail on these latter items are such that you can get a very good finish just with careful painting and a dark wash. I found it best to build up the floor (#34), rudder pedals (#24), control columns (#22), side frames (#20 & 21) and the rear bulkhead (#30) first, to create a solid 'tub', then insert this into the fuselage from underneath once the front instrument panel (#36) had been secured and the glue had dried. The parts line up very well indeed and I found all it needed was a couple of dabs of cyanoacrylate to secure it in place. The seats can be added last with belts were made from Aizu fine tape, suitably painted, which are sufficient for the scale. The gunsight is a mystery, as the two clear lenses are marked as '?' in the instructions, so I presume they have to be made from scratch as they are not on the clear sprue. It is best left to be added towards the end of construction though.
Wings
The wheel well inserts fit nicely and are not too deep, which is often a problem with limited run kits, so they don't force the wing halves apart. You can fit the landing light (#CP2) at this stage, as it is not the best of fit, so secure with cyanoacrylate and then sand smooth, before polishing back the clarity. The intake at the root of the port wing looks nothing like the illustration in the instructions, nor does it fit too well, so I again installed it using cyanoacrylate and then sanded it to fit (masking all surrounding areas to protect the panel lines as much as possible). Leave the pitot (#31) and undercarriage off until final assembly.
Tail
The locating lugs as moulded are not the best of fit into the shallow holes either side of the fin, but a bit of trimming along with some thinning down with a flat file soon had then fitting a lot better. They were secured with cyanoacrylate, which was also used to fill the resulting seam that was later sanded back to shape (again protecting the panel lines with masking tape during this stage).
Undercarriage
The main oleo and wheels are well moulded, although they need to be cleaned up. The retraction linkage (#16 & 17) and rams (both un-numbered at construction stage 13, but in fact parts #22) are acceptable, although their round cross-section means that the limited nature of the tooling method does lead to them being more oval. All the undercarriage parts and bays were painted with Tamiya Sky Grey, then a dark wash was applied to highlight the detail. The wheel hubs were sprayed Alclad II White Aluminium, whilst the tyres are Vallejo Panzer Aces Dark Rubber with pastels used to add some dirt to the sides. The tailwheel is a lovely little moulding, it needs a bit of cleaning up around the linkage, but other than that a little care in painting is all that is needed.
Colour Scheme
This was an easy one for me, although the kit offers four excellent schemes, they are all the same light blue-grey colour overall. I opted for the Egyptian Air Force example, and painted it was a mix of Sky Grey with a touch of RLM 65 overall, whilst the yellow bands are Tamiya Lemon Yellow. The canopy is not too onerous to mask, as most of the frames follow straight lines, so this was done with Kips Fineline masking tape. To do this I apply panels of tape, then holding the unit up to a strong light source I can see the frames, so a steady hand and a scalpel with a new blade is all that is needed to cut each panel out. The rear section curves in two directions, so you will have to fold up the tape to get it to fit, pressing it down firmly to ensure it is well down, then use the same system to trim it to shape. The framework on the canopy is sufficiently well denoted and the plastic clear enough for this method to work well.
Decals
These are superb, but they are very thin and can be damaged if you are not careful. I found most decal solvents are too much for RS decals in the past, so played it safe here and just applied a little Micro Sol carefully to each once on the model. They all settled down beautifully into all the recessed detail and I had no problems with silvering at all. The whole model was then sprayed with Johnson's Klear and left 24hrs to cure fully. Once this was the case, all the panel lines and other details received a Dark Wash from the MiG Productions range, with the excess wiped off with a clean cloth about 30 minutes later. The final varnish coat was a 50/50 mix of matt and satin varnishes from the Xtracrylix range to achieve what I call a 'mattin' finish because I find matt to dull and satin often too shiny!
Finishing Off
I had only secured the canopy with PVA, so this could be removed quite easily once the painting was done. This allowed me to removed the masks and to ensure that the interior was free of dust etc. The hole for the aerial mast in the rear needs to be drilled out with care, as you need an elongated hole that thus requires two separate holes to be drilled close together, then the resulting ridge to be cut away with a fine knife blade.
I added all the undercarriage parts and then found that the doors as supplied are about 2mm too long, so trim these to fit by continually checking after trimming away small bits off the 'top' of each door. The tailwheel looks as if it will fall into a great hole, but there is a ledge inside, so a drop of cyanoacrylate on the end is all you need. The rearview mirror had been painted the same colour as the exterior, with the lower edge done in black, as that will show inside through the canopy, then it was secured with Gator Glue. The canopy itself is secured with Pacer 560 PVA and any gaps along the edges filled with the same medium. I had kept a little of the overall paint mixed in a jar, so this was used to spray over these gaps (I am not 100% happy with how I did this, so in future I will have to allow the glue to fully cure because it has 'pulled in' in several areas). The propeller is a neat three-part assembly and the propeller itself just needs to be cleaned up along the edges, then sprayed satin black (or NATO Black as was the case here). The spinner is two-part and this was sprayed with the over blue-grey mix at the same time as the whole airframe was done, so now could be used to trap the propeller in place. I did find that the hole in the backplate (#6) has to be opened up with a drill though, as it is too small for the shaft on the propeller. I have to admit I did not install the ventral radio mast and I replaced the two exhaust stacks (#19) on the underside with suitable lengths of aluminium tubing from the Albion Alloys range (these were sprayed with Alclad II Jet Exhaust). The kit pitot is OK, but I always break them soon after assembly, so I went my usual route and replaced it with a length of aluminium tubing inside which is a length of brass wire. This was then secured in a pre-drilled hole in the wing tip and the main (aluminium) body was sprayed with the overall colour and the extreme (brass wire) tip is left unpainted as this is usually a brass colour anyway. I did not install the wing racks, mainly because they looked a little vague in overall detail to me and I just did not want then on my completed model.
Conclusion
This is a superb little kit, that goes together with little fuss. It is unlike the limited stuff we used to do battle with 10-15 years ago and is even an improvement in the type of kits that RS were producing a few years back. Although not for the complete beginner, I think that if you have ventured away from mainstream kits, this is certainly one that you should be able to cope with.
Our thanks to RS Models (www.rsmodels.cz) for the review sample.
Don't forget that the warbird version (#92168) is also available and my example is shown here as G-BTUB, as operated out of Kemble in 2011, alongside the Egyptian example.
