1/48 Accurate Miniatures YAK-1

by Jamie Philp

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Here are some photos of my Accurate Miniatures Yak-1.   The model depicts the aircraft flown by Soviet pilot Lilia Litvyak.  Mrs. Litvyak before being lost in combat was credited with at least 12 kills.  Construction started with the cockpit, no major problems were encountered.  Next came the wings, here again no major troubles encountered.  After the wings were finished I installed the cockpit in the fuselage then attached the completed wing assembly. I did use some filler at the upper wing to fuselage joints but for me that is usually normal.  Next came the horizontal tails, no trouble there.  Now we get to the landing gear, the aft went together no problem but the mains were very finicky, no matter what I did I could not get them to dry rigid.  So what I did was, glue the upper gear doors to the wheel wells, then install the wheels/lower doors to the struts. I then glued the strut assemblies to the aft bulkhead as specified in the instructions and to the upper gear doors.  This proved to be the ticket.  With construction done I moved to paint.  I sprayed the upper fuselage Model Master medium green, masked off applicable areas, then sprayed Model Master flat black.   The lower fuselage was then masked and sprayed with Polly S Russian underside blue.  Finally the propeller and spinner were finished in RLM 70.  Decals were applied, then the model was given a coat of future.  Overall I was happy with the final product with one exception; antenna wires.  I attempted several times to get them to look proper but was unsuccessful.  Out of frustration I decided to leave them off.   Finally I would recommend this kit to anyone looking to build a nice Yak fighter. 

Jamie      

 References:

  • Accurate Miniatures instruction booklet.

Click on images below to see larger images

Photos and text © by Jamie Philp