ACCURATE MINIATURES 1:48 YAK-1

Reviewer: Stephan Marignac  (marignac@worldnet.fr)

The plane: The Yakovlev fighters family was the principal agent of air superiority achievement by the Soviet air force during WWII. Beginning in 1942 with the introduction in operational service of the Yak-1, the family enlarged later with the Yak-3, 7 and 9, the latter being one of the most efficient fighters of the Eastern front. The total number of planes produced, all versions added, is 30 000, thus explaining that the Yak fighters were carrying the burden of the Soviet war effort. These, along with the Lavotchkin types helped shooting out the Luftwaffe fighters from Russian skies.

The kit: first thing that stroke on opening the box, is how tiny this bird is. Smaller than a Spitfire!  The box offers 4 sprues of fine pieces, moulded in a soft grey plastic, with engraved panel lines. Clear parts are separately bagged to avoid scratches and damages to these fragile pieces. Transparent parts are very clear, with no deformation problem observed.

The kit allows the building of a Yak-1 "razorback" type; decal sheet offers one option only, the plane of Lila Litvak, first woman to reach ace status on the type. The plane is camouflaged dark olive green and black over light blue and is coded 44 yellow. The decal sheet also offers stenciling, seat harness and two sets of instruments dials : one, printed face down, is supposed to be placed on the reverse of the completely transparent instruments panel, to render better the glazing; the second is a more traditional decal with dials facing front.

Instructions: Accurate Miniatures former instructions sheet were somewhat on the confusing side. This has now been corrected and it offers a complete set of perfect, step by step drawings and explanation text in english. Painting instructions are given with FS references and conversions in the most usual paint ranges. Important Warning ! for once, it is mandatory to follow instructions steps to achieve a trouble-free building.

Construction: Accurate Miniatures have a habit of releasing nicely fitting models, leaving the putty tube sitting on the side of the bench like a poor orphan. The Yak-1 still has outstanding fitting qualities, but due to provisions for optional parts (the Yak-1b Bubble top is also produced by this manufacturer), and the use -in my opinion- of a too soft plastic, a few bits of filling here and there is required.

As usual, assembly begins with the cockpit. Lateral consoles and tubular framing as well as the seat, floor and instrument panel come as separate parts. The later is totally clear and has to be painted black, before selecting one of the two options listed above for decaling. Anyway I elected to use the "classic" dials decals, sealed in with Micro Set. When dry, a drop of gloss varnish in each of the dials rendered the glazing.

The whole cockpit interior was then sprayed with UK Ocean Gray plus 5% of interior green added to it. Details were picked out in black, red and yellow. Seat dorsal cushion was painted black, drybrushed in dark brown. Seat harness are photo-etched ones, coming from the surplus box. I suggest, if using the decal harness, to place them on a foil of food aluminum, to thicken it. Machine gun breaches were painted Gun Metal (Testors), with wood handles. The corresponding holes on the engine cowl were drilled, and 2 small portion of tube added. The different parts of the cockpit were then assembled together and put aside.

The fuselage halves are then glued together, not forgetting the front plate representing the carburettor intake and the propeller axle that fits onto it. You will also have to fix the radiators cooling flaps at the same time.

Next, come the spine cover (in fact, the part making the difference between a Yak-1 and -1b), going over the fuselage. This piece is a bit oversized and require a bit of filler to achieve correct fit.

The cockpit tub is then assembled from the underside and must include the wing reinforcing spar. Do not glue it ! (neither cockpit nor spar), for this will give you the correct anehdral for the wing, by fixing onto it the wing underpiece. This is the trickiest part of the building, since the spar is also part of the wheel well arrangement.

A lot of dry fitting and steel forged nerves are requested for that one ! (isn't it what modelling is all about?).  The fitting of the wing upper parts doesn't present any trouble, nor the horizontal fins. These are handled so you won't make any mistake.  AM offers the opportunity of mobile flaps, but Yak photos show it with all flaps at neutral when on the ground, so it's up to you!  Then comes the poorest fit of the kit : the port wing leading edge carburettor additional intake. This one required a good amount of filler to correctly fit.

Painting: The whole model was painted using Aeromaster Acryllic paints. First the light blue was airbrushed on the undersurfaces, the fabric covered flaps being oversprayed with the same hue, lightened with white. Olive Green is airbrushed on all upper surfaces. Paper masks are cutted and fixed on the plane with bend-on-themselves stripes of Tamiya masking tape. This allows demarcations between shade to be slightly melted and avoid that paper masks adhere to the paint. Black is then airbrushed.

Decalling and Finishings: a coat of gloss varnish is applied to help decalling. When drying, the exhausts stacks are drilled, painted testors gun metal, dry brushed in brown and affixed onto the plane. Light exhaust stains are added via a drybrush in black. Soviet planes were usually very clean.

Decals were placed using Micro set and Sol, with no problem and no silvering. After overnight drying, a coat of matt varnish sealed the lot. Landing gears and wheels were then mounted, and wire aerial, made out of stretched sprue installed.

Conclusion: not a model for the absolute beginner, due to the wing spar arrangement, but certainly the one a modeler with a few models under his belt will enjoy greatly.

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Photo of Stephan's excellent completed model