KP 1/72 Yak-23
After finishing my last build (MiG-17PF) I wanted to build another KP kit. I've been eyeing the Yak-23 for a while and decided to give this kit a try.
The Yak-23 is an early Soviet jet fighter which flew in the late 40's. This is a very small all metal aircraft developed with improvements from the Yak-15 and Yak-17 jets. It did not stay in service very long with the Soviets but were used more in Poland and Czechoslovakia. The more advanced MiG-15 eventually replaced them all.
This is another old KP kit released in 1981, kit #18. Even though a slightly newer kit than the MiG-17, I found this to be a bit rougher than the MiG-17, it had some big gaps between the fuselage to wings and tail planes to vertical stab that needed some filling and blending. It has decent cockpit details, and the whole kit has very fine raised details on the outside surface. The canopy is thick and fitting the cockpit and canopy needed some filling to allow it to fit correctly. This was a straight out of the box build.
After gluing the canopy into place, I masked it and primed the kit with Matte Black acrylic craft paint that I bought from Walmart. A two ounce bottle only cost 58 cents! I bought the 8 oz bottle for the painting display bases that I was working on not too long ago. I do not remember how much it cost for the 8 ounce bottle.
A few days later I airbrushed a silver craft acrylic paint (platinum), this 2 oz bottle cost me $8.00 in Walmart. I like the finish of this paint, it went on smoothly and looked reflective, almost like metal. For both paints the mix was 50/50 alcohol to paint. I added a few more drops of alcohol while airbrushing.
I chose to go with the box art markings. The original decals were not good, so I ordered a set from this site, https://www.hobbyshop.cz/shop/en/9_apc-decals...The decals were slightly out of register but went on with no problems.
Not a bad kit, I could have done better but I am okay with the end results.
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- 1. My KP model collection is growing!
Excellent result from the old KP kit, Bob!
Thank you Spiros @fiveten.
Nice result, Bob!
Thank you, John @j-healy.
Simple kit, but every effective!
Nice to experiment with the paint options, nice work Bob!
Thank you George @georgeswork. I plan on using these paints on some of my builder builds later on. I hope they work out.
Impressive work on this less than impressive kit , Bob ! It’s nice to see an uncommon subject presented here on imodeler. The silver paint looks great, your experiment with a different paint paid off with nice finish. It’s good to try new things.
Thanks Jay @ssgt. These old KP kits and others from the earlier years are definitely less impressive kits. But they sure brought in some pretty interesting subjects for us to build. There was a couple of moments I almost threw this build away after rushing the flat coat and breaking the antenna mast a couple of times. I am glad I kept it and accepted my mistakes. It does look good next to my recent MiG-17. Lets see how this silver paint works out on my later builds.
If I didn’t keep my less then perfect models, I wouldn’t have any to display.
The same goes with me, to be honest I really enjoy looking at the not so perfect builds more.
Man, looks like you're pulling kits from my stash! I'll just keep an eye on your builds so I know what I'm going to face. Came out looking great!
Greg @gkittinger, thank you!
Lovely job on this old kit, an interesting addition to any collection.
Thank you Neil @neil-foster.
Excellent result out of this oldie, Bob @v1pro
Great video about this aircraft as well.
Thank you John @johnb. Yes, this video had some great scenes and info.
I know it's not the most easy kit. Very nice NMF model.
Thank you Dan @dbdlee. Yes not an easy build, I almost lost my patience with it near the end but happy to still have it still together.
I tossed my kit long ago, so high props to you for turning the mass of scrap plastic in the box into such a nice result.
Thank you Tom @tcinla. Years ago I did the same with my old KP kits but in my recent years I fell in love with these kits. I think from building some of my recent builds which were a few short run kits and vacuforms help me out a lot to build these old KP kits. Not perfect but fun to see what I can do with them.
Nice build, Bob @v1pro. Love the nmf look of it!
Thank you, Felix @fxrob.
Looks great, a nice looking aircraft. I think I did KP's two seat Mig-15 awhile back, they can be challenging.
Thank you, Robert @roofrat. Yes, they can be a challenge just to make them look okay. I have a bunch of them in my stash and I am not planning on buying any of the newer kits. Hopefully I will eventually get to build most of them. To be honest, with all of their flaws I like the way they look when built. I like their MiG-15, I think it was the most accurate 1/72 kit when it first came out probably back in the early 80's.
Nicely done Bob, I have a Yak 15 to do at some point !
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
Thank you, Allan @kalamazoo. I also have the Pioneer 2 Yak-15 which is the same as the PM kit. I plan on building this kit too and a Waku 1/72 Yak-17 vacuform kit. They both are interesting builds and will look great next to the Yak-23.
4 attached images. Click to enlarge.
Lovely Bob,congrats!
Thank you, Marcus @mvtb.