Yak-23 Flora repaint by MacSongLi

[Isaac]

Here it is so far.







I like it, but.....
kind of bland; will need to add a bit more spice to it by darkening the surfaces to better resemble metallic plane.


Isaac

[MacSongLi]

A very unique looking aircraft indeed. Was there a lot of surgery to add more weight to the nose? I don't see any scars.


Gary

[Isaac]

Originally Posted by MacSongLi

A very unique looking aircraft indeed. Was there a lot of surgery to add more weight to the nose? I don't see any scars.


Gary

Gary

I added the extra weight after the landing gear was installed to make sure I have enough.

I cut into the belly behind the nose gear and inserted more weights ( glued with tissue and CA ). I then closed it up and glued another printed section on top of the cut out. Pictures later.


Isaac

[Isaac]

Here is the finished cockpit. The gun sight will be adjusted and the reflector glass will be installed later.






Nice repaint from the original scheme here:





Isaac

[hyair]

Hi Isaac - Your Yak look very nice !
To get the right silver scheme in plastic models it's very easy.
Somehow to get it on paper requires much more effort .
We encounter these issues with the Yoav silver Mirage and Super Mystere.

Yair

[Isaac]

Originally Posted by hyair

Hi Isaac - Your Yak look very nice !
To get the right silver scheme in plastic models it's very easy.
Somehow to get it on paper requires much more effort .
We encounter these issues with the Yoav silver Mirage and Super Mystere.

Yair

Yair

You are right in the sense that plastic models are painted separately and you can use silver and metallic pigment in those paints. So until we have ink jet printers that will have a separate silver or metallic ink, the best we can do are different shades of grey color.

Printing on silver paper is foolish in my opinion since it never looks right. Also working with silver paper is very difficult.

Check out my solution next.


Isaac

[Isaac]

As I pointed out earlier, the original repaint came out too light in color when printed. It looked good on the computer though.

I talked to Gary and he darkened the pages a few times. I then printed at high quality on thin paper and cut out segments/panels and glued on top of where they were supposed to be using UHU glue ( this allows small movements of the paper after it is in place ).

So here it is using a veneer technique ( I did not build another model yet ).








So this is the patchy look model with darker panels. I really like this look and will keep building this model. In the future, I may build a complete newer version with all the skins darker.



Isaac

[MacSongLi]

Isaac,


That was a great solution, you really added a lot of depth to the model. Nice thinking.


Gary

[Mike1158]

A very fine airframe, great build.

[Isaac]

The main landing gear retracted into the wing root as well as the wheels into the belly on either side of the exhaust duct. This arrangement was a strut that had to have a kink into it to accommodate the wheel at an angle so it stows properly in the belly. Hence, the "dainty" ballerina stance of the gear on the ground.

see here a frontal view


and a view I grabbed from the web



commentary:
As an engineer, I would have had conventional straight legs with wheels in the wings rather than the fuselage ( even if you had to create local bumps for the tires ). It would have been much wider, stable to land on and the tires would be in a cooler environment. Anyhow, this is redesign after the fact.


the first thing to do is to bend metal wire ( I used a large paper clip ) to shape and dry fit into the wood frame I installed earlier in the wing spar.



Next are the wheels.
I used the stacking of multiple card stock cut using a circular cutter and gluing them to achieve proper thickness.



I then mounted on a small metal wire ( apply CA glue to hold in place ) and then insert to a Dremel rotary tool to sand and shape the wheels.



Now paint the wheels and when dry remove the metal wire and apply the inner wheel circles.


Here it is


after dry fitting to make sure that the plane is level ( left to right wings ) , glue in place.



Isaac