It's alive

Looks like it is time to reactivate the shambling muck monster that is the 72 Land blog. Even though this is the time of year that many modellers go into hibernation, falling to the realities of unmown lawns and unpainted houses, I’ve just come off of an 8-week gig of temp work (thanks to CAD of Seattle) that has gotten me anxious to get back to the workbench. And since it was temp work, I now have the opportunity to do so.

So what is lurking on the workbench?

First up is a project I was just starting on when I was called away. That would be the three Soviet trainers: Yak-130, MiG-AT, and Su-28.

The Yak-130 was a multinational collaboration between Russia and Italy. About a decade or so ago they split up the partnership, but Russia continued to develop the type into the Yak-130 and Italy worked on the Aermacchi M-346. Similar in look, they no doubt differ in internals. I don’t believe the Aermacchi retained the winglets and it added some new wing fences.

AModel produced a kit of the type a few years back. It is in their older style, less refined and precise. In addition, it strikes me as over-engineered. The intakes are built up from multiple parts that they have to fit down into the fuselage under the leading edge extensions and form part of the wheel wells. The fit overall is imprecise and much filler is going into the gaps. Thankfully it isn’t a NMF surface.

In fact all three of the trainers have variations on a red, white, and blue prototype marking scheme. That means a good deal of masking, so I doubt I will add the landing gear and doors (even though they are white as well) until the main bits are painted. The carpet monster gets quite enough plastic on my watch that I don’t feel the need to make it easy for him.

The photo below shows the Yak-130 in progress. I have since added instrument panels and coaming to the cockpit and gotten all the exterior bits attached. Sanding seams is ongoing.

Next: The Su-28 and the Tenax bath.