Old Dog
Well-known member
OK, I'm already 3 days behind and I haven't started yet ! 
The kit and obligatory date stamp...
The Yak-15 was a straight forward adaptation of the Yak-3 fighter with the engine removed and mated to a Soviet built copy of the Junkers 004B engine used to power the Me 262. Despite the dramatic change in engines, no real difficulties were encountered, and the loaded weight of the Yak-15 was actually found to be less than that of the Yak-3. To expedite development the all-metal rear fuselage, horizontal tail, and main undercarriage, as well as for most of the wing of the Yak-3 was used. The front of the welded-tube fuselage truss was considerably modified to carry the Jumo engine, which was hung underneath on rubber shock-absorbing mounts. The vertical tail was slightly enlarged and skinned in metal, as was the heavily modified nose cowling surrounding the engine, which retained a Riedel two-stroke piston engine starter in the nose 'bullet'. The wing spars were strengthened, and the front spar was curved in an arch over the engine. A third fuel tank was also installed above the engine. The rubber tail wheel was replaced by steel when the rubber one on the prototype melted from the engine exhaust heat. Early in testing the Yak-15 had been found to be an excellent design, and was ordered into production even before testing was completed in May 1947. The fighter was equipped with two NS-23 23mm cannon with 60 rounds per gun. The Yak-15 was the lightest operational jet fighter ever built. Along with the Swedish Saab 21, it was the only piston-powered production aircraft to be successfully converted into a jet. A Yak-15 was also the first Soviet jet aircraft to be successfully refueled in flight. 280 are believed to have been built before production terminated during 1947.
The Czech Model kit is a short run multimedia kit with 34 injected molded parts (3 not used), 17 resin parts and a vacuformed canopy. I wouldn't have paid the original asking price for this kit but when Squadron had it on sale for $2 I figured what the hey !
Clean up will be the biggest time eater on this kit and the plastic parts are pretty flash laden and may take longer to clean up than the resin parts which look quite nice. I hope they fit as well as they look
I'm going with the camo finish since the time frame is still close to the end of WWII and red is not one of my favorite colors to paint and the short time allotted will not allow much time for playing with NMF's so let the games begin....
The kit and obligatory date stamp...
The Yak-15 was a straight forward adaptation of the Yak-3 fighter with the engine removed and mated to a Soviet built copy of the Junkers 004B engine used to power the Me 262. Despite the dramatic change in engines, no real difficulties were encountered, and the loaded weight of the Yak-15 was actually found to be less than that of the Yak-3. To expedite development the all-metal rear fuselage, horizontal tail, and main undercarriage, as well as for most of the wing of the Yak-3 was used. The front of the welded-tube fuselage truss was considerably modified to carry the Jumo engine, which was hung underneath on rubber shock-absorbing mounts. The vertical tail was slightly enlarged and skinned in metal, as was the heavily modified nose cowling surrounding the engine, which retained a Riedel two-stroke piston engine starter in the nose 'bullet'. The wing spars were strengthened, and the front spar was curved in an arch over the engine. A third fuel tank was also installed above the engine. The rubber tail wheel was replaced by steel when the rubber one on the prototype melted from the engine exhaust heat. Early in testing the Yak-15 had been found to be an excellent design, and was ordered into production even before testing was completed in May 1947. The fighter was equipped with two NS-23 23mm cannon with 60 rounds per gun. The Yak-15 was the lightest operational jet fighter ever built. Along with the Swedish Saab 21, it was the only piston-powered production aircraft to be successfully converted into a jet. A Yak-15 was also the first Soviet jet aircraft to be successfully refueled in flight. 280 are believed to have been built before production terminated during 1947.
The Czech Model kit is a short run multimedia kit with 34 injected molded parts (3 not used), 17 resin parts and a vacuformed canopy. I wouldn't have paid the original asking price for this kit but when Squadron had it on sale for $2 I figured what the hey !
Clean up will be the biggest time eater on this kit and the plastic parts are pretty flash laden and may take longer to clean up than the resin parts which look quite nice. I hope they fit as well as they look
I'm going with the camo finish since the time frame is still close to the end of WWII and red is not one of my favorite colors to paint and the short time allotted will not allow much time for playing with NMF's so let the games begin....
Paddy?
