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I bought the Collect-Aire resin YF-23 when it came out, I think in 2002.  Big price, big box and some big hunks of resin, it was awesome. Although well designed and molded it did require extra skills and I was fairly new to resin, I think at that point I had made a handful of resin kits including Collect-Aire's MiG-19, which was fairly straightforward. For those who never built any kits by this company the detail and quality differed substantially. Their YF-23 was good however, good cockpit, decent shape, metal gear, rubbish missiles and wheels and a good attempt on the decal sheet (it had decals for the two prototypes plus some for an active duty what-if - Hobbyboss only had what-if decals so this project is made easier thanks to the more accurate Caracal decals release).

A really great effort by Collect-Aire considering how much reference was out at the time and the budgetary limits of a small company.  The nearly 20 year later Hobbyboss offering didn't have those limitations and while applauding them for making the kit it does have a handful of odd errors. More on that later. 

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My plan in 2002 was to make a what if F-23A so I had made it an Eduard F-22A instrument panel and was going to rework the missile bay. With the Paul Metz YF-23 ATF book arrival, (a Northrop ATF test pilot) I now had good published detail shots of the two aircraft prototypes, called PAV 1 and PAV 2. I had the HobbyBoss kit in the stash and got out the (fuselage assembled) Collect-Aire and decided it was time to get them done.  I didn't want to correct both kits to look like each other- too much work, merely make them each as close to a prototype as possible. The ATF competition made this a little easier: both the YF-22 and the YF-23 prototypes were also using two different engines each (P&W and GE were competing for the winning design contract too).  Visually the only difference was the size of the engine exhaust area, the P&W engine was a little bigger and so its exhaust area was wider.

The Hobbyboss was better for the PAV 2 because it has the sawtooth detailing on top and seems wider because it's shorter.... With the outer fixed flap on the PAV 2 and the movable ones on PAV 1 I hope the two will look a little more similar in size.

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The PAV 1 also had operating weapons bay doors and no sawtooth engine detailing, so Collect-Aire (resin) was better for that aircraft.

Here I've used Milliput underneath the HB fuselage because there are strange fictional shapes above the intakes that needed to be sanded down.

 

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Some fuselage modifications below. The left side is untouched, there's a strange square ledge that shouldn't be there, on the right side it has been sanded away as well as some of the squared off engine hump.

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The modified shape on the bottom, top still showing original.

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The Collect-Aire had nice full intakes with good sized compressor blades, the HB started well but ended in small oval wall. I cut off the ends and found some tube extensions that did the job and looked much better.

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HobbyBoss did a good job with the cockpit instrument panel but everything behind the seat was a strange bit of fiction. Collect-Aire did a pretty good job with the whole thing, their metal instrument panel was ok, a bit small and the detail soft, I had filed it down to remake the displays but instead I made a resin copy of the HB one. It looks much better in scale and accuracy.  

I plan to have both canopies open so at least now each cockpit will look similar. Next step is rear cockpit details to be added. The C-A has the right architecture and will be easier to modify, the HB is pure fiction and will need more work.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've made some progress on the double build.

All ready to paint and.... My reshaping of the HB intakes didn't take well to tape. Easily fixed though.

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That repair made and the cockpits are pretty much finished and I finally got some painting in.

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I decided to get the HB nearly finished first so I can concentrate on the Collect-Aire with it's dropped flaps and it's weapons bay.  Caracal decals pretty accurate and went on fine.

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A painted kit needs landing gear so I plumbed up the landing gear for both. HB did a great job on the gear. They added the connections for the red nose gear shimmy weight added to both aircraft but not the scissor link itself. I guess they thought it was one of those oleo attachments often seen on museum aircraft and omitted it.

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Wheels are from vintage Monogram F-18s.  I used the SAC gear for the HB but honestly I think the plastic might be stronger.... The idea was to make both landing gears match and the SAC was for the C-A but there's no way that soft powdery metal would hold up the 1.6lb (700g) of resin. I keep having to bend it back into shape from handling the model. I gave up on SAC years ago but still have some to use up but this gear design doesn't bode well. The Collect-Aire is proper metal and although less detailed it should have no problem.

Note for PAV 2 The forward area of the weapons bays are not serrated. The intakes need re-profiling and the nose needs a strong arm of sandpaper.

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This shows how big it is, the new J-20 below is huge too. HB YF-23 on the bottom, Hasegawa F-22 in the middle and KH F-35 on top. few6qUe.jpg

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Flaps attached and the vac canopy successfully cut out (they provided 2) on the Collect-Aire and it's front section attached. 

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