This is an Armenian Air Force Yakovlev Yak 52 trainer. It's based on an old Amodel 1:48 scale model kit of this standard Soviet/Russian type which can still be seen all over the aviation world. It's widely used outside the military in the civilian world as well; I met a guy only this week who has flown it himself and he said it was great fun - as it happens, it's fully certified for aerobatics.
I've just finished this model at long last. You may wonder why it's
taken me so long, beyond the usual slowness and distractions. It was
mainly because of the challenges of it's being a 'short run' kit. No
locating pins, poor fit etc. And in particular the poor quality of the
plastic. I broke the legs a few times, again even after taking these pictures - now, you 'might' notice extra plastic around the nosewheel. And with great care and a tiny drill, I've put a pin through the leg and wheel on the starboard side. Also there was the quite
unnecessary split of the canopy into five pieces. You may reasonably
assume this was to help someone wanting to display the canopy open; but
you couldn't do that, because the opening sections were too thick to
ever look right stuck further back above the other sections. And then there's the tailplanes... Uh, these kept coming off. They seemed to need only the slightest touch to want to detach themselves from the fuselage. The problem was mainly having no tab or anything, just blank facing surfaces to glue. I suppose I could have been more competent(!), but when you're on the job you're more concerned with making sure they're centred and symmetrical.
Anyway, moaning aside, I'm pleased with having at last made a fair model of an Armenian Air Force plane. I have a small fraction of Armenian genes in my makeup so I've taken an interest in the country. I found the relevant decals in a set from Linden Hill, part of a series they did of aircraft markings from former Soviet republics; the Yak 52 here was a legacy of those earlier times. Most of Armenia's stock is aging. They don't have the resources to upgrade their military in any useful way, and recent events have shown that anything they put up into the air is liable to be shot down by the vastly superior Turkish military. Linden Hill's markings went on well, but most of the decals were actually from the original Amodel kit , ie the Armenians retained most of the original Soviet markings and only changed the national markings and identification numbers. I did use those decals - most of the red you see on the top surfaces - because masking would have been a difficult job; but inevitably I had to touch up gaps etc, and the red I had wasn't as close in tone as I'd hoped. Oh well, maybe it's less obvious to other people :)
A couple of views of the cockpit, halfway through construction. Main details missing here, apart from the canopy, are the extra instrument boxes above the main instrument panels, which you can just about see in the other pictures. I had to partially scratch those; the kit offered inadequate pieces compared to what I could see in photos of the real thing. However, overall I thought what the Amodel kit offered was pretty acceptable, considering, for the scale. Seats and belts and side panels, in plastic and PE, and the main instrument panels are nice. A lot of it is reasonably visible through the canopy, absolutely what you want with a trainer type like this. But it was essential to find photos of the actual interior. Thankfully, there's a lot available online.
Anyway, moaning aside, I'm pleased with having at last made a fair model of an Armenian Air Force plane. I have a small fraction of Armenian genes in my makeup so I've taken an interest in the country. I found the relevant decals in a set from Linden Hill, part of a series they did of aircraft markings from former Soviet republics; the Yak 52 here was a legacy of those earlier times. Most of Armenia's stock is aging. They don't have the resources to upgrade their military in any useful way, and recent events have shown that anything they put up into the air is liable to be shot down by the vastly superior Turkish military. Linden Hill's markings went on well, but most of the decals were actually from the original Amodel kit , ie the Armenians retained most of the original Soviet markings and only changed the national markings and identification numbers. I did use those decals - most of the red you see on the top surfaces - because masking would have been a difficult job; but inevitably I had to touch up gaps etc, and the red I had wasn't as close in tone as I'd hoped. Oh well, maybe it's less obvious to other people :)
By the way, the roundels don't seem to be those currently favoured - red, blue and orange, in a different order - so this scheme must date from a period when there was much mind changing. The decals were tricky to apply, because the red dots were separate (common practice for decal makers, because there's always a risk of slightly off centre registration, which sticks out like a sore thumb when it's red).
A couple of views of the cockpit, halfway through construction. Main details missing here, apart from the canopy, are the extra instrument boxes above the main instrument panels, which you can just about see in the other pictures. I had to partially scratch those; the kit offered inadequate pieces compared to what I could see in photos of the real thing. However, overall I thought what the Amodel kit offered was pretty acceptable, considering, for the scale. Seats and belts and side panels, in plastic and PE, and the main instrument panels are nice. A lot of it is reasonably visible through the canopy, absolutely what you want with a trainer type like this. But it was essential to find photos of the actual interior. Thankfully, there's a lot available online.
The pilot figure has been
waiting for ages to be used in this. It's actually a representation of
a character from an old film, supposedly a Georgian helicopter pilot.
But roughly the right part of the world. And I painted him up as if in
Armenian Air Force uniform. A shame he's not wearing a jacket, but I found picture references for that shade of blue, and for his cap. A small annoyance about accessories: I'd have loved to include more detail scattered around the 'grass', but there really isn't much I could find, in 1:48 scale. Ideally there'd have been a dog or a cat or something, but no, not a one. Perhaps I should have looked harder. But I still think 1:48 scale - increasingly popular as modellers find large scale kits are too much for the smaller houses they've downsized to - deserves more attention from the makers and suppliers of details and accessories.
I have one other kit to make, appropriate for Armenian markings. An Eduard kit which looks like a higher standard altogether... It'll happen 'in due course'. For now, despite all the unwanted repairs I had to make, I'm very pleased to have produced this relative rarity. And in the extremely unlikely case that any real Armenian Air Force officer chances upon this page, let me apologise, I am sure that no Armenian officer would wear his uniform as casually as this gentleman does!
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