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AMODEL 1:72 YAK-38 FORGER |
Reviewer:
Trevor Boxall (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted:
21 December 2003
Amodel kit # 7257; 1/72 Yak-38
Amodel kit # 7257; 1/72 Yak-38
This kit is packaged in a flimsy box with a nice painting Yak-38 hovering or about to land on the cover. Inside the box there are over 100 light blue limited run parts that give off all the traits of short run technology. The parts are molded in heavy soft plastic and the sprue gates are thick, requiring a razor saw to remove the parts. There is a bit of flash and ejector pin marks encumbering the plastic and the smaller parts are simplistic and chunky. The surface detail is not too bad considering the rest of the molding and is finely engraved. The one piece canopy comes separate and needs polishing for optimum appearance in this kit.
The booklet that comes with the kit provides nine fairly straight forward assembly steps with adequate painting and positioning details. Some interpretation is needed for precise placement and a sprue diagram identifies the parts to use throughout assembly. Text for the aircraft overview and other parts of the booklet is in both English and Cyrillic. Painting information for the three versions produced by the kit is given from the Humbrol range.
The first task is to both identify for later work, and initially carry out some cleaning up duties. Parts are carefully removed from the sprue with razor saw, as the plastic is easy to gouge if removed any other way. Flash, ejector pin marks and any other mold imperfections are fixed and some of the mating surfaces get a preparatory sanding. I soon found out that most of the alignment pins do not align with their mating holes, so they were filed off and that every assembly needs a dry test run first. Once the cockpit parts and the major components for the two fuselage sections were prepared it was time to move onto assembly.
The cockpit supplied by Amodel is fitted out with the essentials and seems accurate in the way the parts are molded although they are still over simplified. Seat belts, sidewall detail, ejector seat handles were all scratchbuilt and added in. The fit of the cockpit required some trimming to install into the forward fuselage sub assembly. The halves were closed, with some nose weight added, and filler used to plug up the seam lines.
Various components need to be installed into the main fuselage halves before these can be closed and mated with the nose assembly. The internal splitter plate behind the air intakes require some trimming to fit properly as do most of the other parts here. The exhaust nozzles, which are added later, are see-through so some work was done here with plasticard to ensure the interior was blanked off. This was just a matter of cutting up some plasticard to size and installing into one of the fuselage halves. It means the blanking out is closer to one side of the fuselage than the other, but no one would be the wiser.
The shoulder mounted wings fit well together but leave gaps where they mate with the fuselage. The upper exhaust behind the cockpit can be deployed open or shut as desired. In the closed position the fit will need some work.
The smaller detail parts are simplistic and need cleaning up before affixing. The canopy needs a good polish to look in good nick and the undercarriage should be treated like the smaller components of the kit, although the inclusion of a towing mechanism was a good touch.
The kit allows for three schemes to be reproduced from the USSR in the 1980’s. These are a Yellow 70 Navy aircraft in blue-grey camouflage; Yellow 07 Leningrad Cruiser aircraft in silver overall with dark green tiger stripes; and White 55 in dark brown and dark green camouflage from the Afghanistan war.
The decal sheet is small, containing only the unit numbers, intake warning triangles, serials, very small amount of stencils and roundels. They are thick and prone to curling but bedded down quite well on a gloss surface with decal setting solution. I replaced the code numbers and roundels with spares as they were not crisp or in register on the decal sheet.
The finished product looks the part convincingly and the measurements stack up very well against reference material. Amodel have a reputation for producing accurate outlines of aircraft, particularly those from USSR and this one is no exception.
Once the parts are cleaned up and the necessary adjustments made during assembly after dry fitting this kit can be built up into a fine replica of the Yak-38. Some of the construction is challenging to say the least and the smaller parts are probably best replaced along with the decal sheet. It’s something that will give those who have some short run kits under their belt a challenge but a good result beckons, and one that is surely better than the inaccurate Revell offering.
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