1/72 YF-17 Cobra

[colargol]

Hello,

 

new project for me: building two kits in parallel ... one of them will be the second prototype of the YF-17 (the first one being a twin seater Viggen).

 

The basis of the build will be the Heller F-18 kit. I've build it when a was a teenager, and I remember that it didn't look like a F-18, but more like a YF-17 or a prototype of the F-18 (I had build an Hasegawa before and was able to compare both).

 

I will use the Schiffer book on the subject.

 

 

I was expecting to have some diagrams and 3-views plans in this book, but it is not the case. So I will use a lot of what I find on the internet (like this galerie) ... some picture are more or less correctly aligned with the axis of the aircraft and will be used as guide.

 

There are A LOT of difference between the F-18 and the YF-17. A LOT ! I think I will discover some of them during the build ... for instance :

- the nose is more pointy and looking down. Lucky me, the Heller kit is more or less in line with the YF-17 nose direction.

- the LEX are shorter, with bigger gaps

- the back spine is different (at first, I thought it would be the biggest part of the build)

- the belly, more round on the side

- the landing gear bays positions

- the landing gears

- the wings and their position

- the engines exhaust

- the "vertical" tails

- the "horizontal" tails

- the cockpit

- the air intake position

 

A LOT !!!!

 

I've started with what I thought was the biggest challenge (because I didn't have noticed at that time that the air intake are not in the same place ...), the back spine.

 

Using a picture at the correct scale, I identified the aera to remove

 

 

At first, I wanted to keep a part of the upper front, but it was destroyed during a sanding session.

 

 

I started the sanding of the nose, to have it more pointy (yellow arrows)

 

 

For the LEX, I've used the pieces from the kit. In the version I've build like 30 years ago (indeed, I was a teenager for a long period of time ...), the gap between the fuselage and the LEX was huge (unlike on a "correct" F-18) but unfortunatelly for me, Heller corrected that and I have to cut the piece to form the gap (1.5 mm wide). On the left, the original piece. On the right, the modified one, with le LEX shorter, rounder (top pink arrow) and with a 1.5 mm gap (yellow-orange arrow). The small vent on the bottom was sanded (bottom pink arrow)

 

 

Then I modified the main fuselage pieces, suppressed the arresting hook (orange arrow) and sanded the middle of the belly (white arrow). The back spine of the Hornet was suppressed as well as its extension on the airbrake (light green arrow). I have also represented the part of the gap of the LEX on the back piece of the fuselage (clear blue arrows)

 

 

Then I've started the representation of the upper part of the fuselage that will be below the back spine (yellow arrows)

 

 

The boundary layer traps are represented using 1.5 mm Evergreen pieces (pink arrows). I will represent the air intake closed with protection, so I don't have to represent the inner part of the air intake (it was a hard choice). I also opened the engine exhaust area (green arrows)

 

 

It can be noticed that I've closed and cut a part of the kit main landing gear bays, to fit with the YF-17 configuration. Below, this is the internal structure of the main landing gear bay aera. At this time, I thought I would used reinforcement pieces (pink arrows) to fix the main landing gear. A priori, it will not be the case.

 

 

Below, it is the cockpit aera. I have not totally decided if I will represent the canopy open or not. Open, it is possible to see the work on the cockpit, but I think it is breaking the shape of the plane. Closed, the shape of the plane is conserved ...

 

 

 

 

side consoles (in grey) are from the Academy F-14 kit (spare pieces)

 

I carry on with the top part of the cockpit

 

 

 

I haven't start the HUD area because I don't know yet if I would represent one. Indeed, in the first time, the YF-17 had no HUD and a normal two tones scheme. Then, the lips of the air intake were painted in black and some two tones grey rectangle areas were painted on the wings (tricky to paint). Then the HUD was installed. After that, the two tones grey turned to clear grey (easier to represent, but still not very easy).

 

So I don't know yet which version I want to represent ... or represent a totaly crazy what-if with the original two tones scheme AND a HUD. Crazy me !!!!

 

Well, I carry one ...

 

This is more or less the final stage of the cockpit. The throttle was made using the kit stick. The stick itself comes from a Italeri F-15E. The rudder pedals are from a Eduard kit for the Heller Viggen. I will have to replace the landing gear handle (red arrow)

 

 

Last step (more or less) before the first painting session: the ejection seat. I decided to represent the rail separately, to make the painting process easier. I've used the bottom part of the kit piece, with some modification. The seat is a Stencel SIIIS-3 (more or less a SJU-4) a little bit different from the one the first Harrier.

 

 

 

I hope you'd like it 😉

 

colargol

[Thadeus]

Oh my. This is totally insane. I love it. I don't know if I ever seen or heard anyone attempting to make a YF-17 out of any Hornet kit.

[flagon21]

Amazing job so far

[colargol]

Thanks 😉

 

I thougth I was going to start the painting process, then I discover that the size of my kit was not correct. Compared to a plan with an actual length scale on it, I see that a 10 m length was represented by 14.1 mm on my plan, whereas it should be 13.88 cm ! By comparing the plan to the correct scale, I saw that the front part was correct in shape and size, the aft part to (including the position of the wings (leading edge) and the "vertical" tails). So I decided to cut 5 mm in the center of the aircraft ...

 

 

I joined the two part using some reinforcement (black arrow)

 

 

And that's it before painting (I hope ... top is not glued). I've already prepared the front part for the device to separate air flow.

 

 

colargol

[colargol]

Hello and happy new year !!!

 

I carry on with the painting. I started with a layer of H77 (tire black from Gunze) diluted with 90° alcool to have a matt finish. I do that because I think it helps for the next layers of color and it turns the styren more opaque, so less toy-ee

 

The next layer is mostly H308 (even if my bottle of H308 seems a little bit too light ... the Gunze color are not very stable between bottles ...) but the rails of the ejection seat are in H338 (light grey). After a light dry brush (Humbrol 147), I finished the painting of the seat using a small brush and Prince August paints (Vallejo Metal Color for the metallic ones)

 

 

The handles come mostly from a pre-painted Eduard kit for F-14. The big handle on the side is made in Evergreen styren, the black stripes are made with a fine marker.

 

For the cockpit, the process is the same, except that the consoles are painted with the airbrush, after masking. After a dry-brush (Humbrol 147 + 130), I put some colors. The central alerte panel is painted (after the light dry-brush) using Tamiya clear yellow (by brush). The instrument panel is painted in black by air-brush (H77), then the grey is painted using a brush (Prince August 50). Future (Klir in France) is used for the glass, including the vertical fuel indicator on the right side of the panel.

 

 

small assembly ...

 

 

 

And this is it, with the seat and the top aft not glued (blue arrows)

 

 

à bientôt

 

colargol

 

 

[phantom]

Very nice start.

[Ikon]

A lot of work, but it is coming together.