Hasegawa Yakovlev Yak-3 Build in 1/72 Scale Part II

Small gaps can be filled with Perfect Plastic Putty and the excess wiped away with a moist Q-Tip. This eliminates the need for sanding in most cases. I have replaced the cowl guns with Albion tubing.

I filled and sanded the underside before installing the radiator. It is positioned over the boat tail where the wing and fuselage meet which would make the seams there impossible to address later.

I primed the model with Mr. Surfacer 1000 and then painted the red nose over a basecoat of white. No matter which brand of paint I use, I find the red pigment persists in the brushes afterwards unless I’m very diligent with my cleaning efforts.

The model is painted and glossed in preparation for decals, showing the colors used.

The AML decals performed flawlessly using Micro Set and Micro Sol. On some of my older builds I have noticed some silvering emerging on the smaller decals over time, so the next morning I went over all the decals again with Solvaset which is a little “hotter”.

This is the underside of the finished model. I think enclosing the wheelwells makes a big difference in the final appearance. The pitot tube is more Albion tube, the wingtip lights are painted on.

I added wheel down indicators to the wings, made from 0.0125” wire. The radio antenna is 0.004” Nitenol. Overall, the old Hasegawa kit is a model which goes together quickly but can use a few improvements.