Yak-23 Flora, Polish Air Force, 1950-1956
The Subject
The Yak-23 was an early jet fighter developed from Yak-17 and used a reverse-engineered Rolls-Royce Derwent turbojet that was produced without license. Only 319 were built because it was inferior to the swept wing MiG-15. Most were operated by the Warsaw Pact nations, with Poland operating 100 for only 6 years.
The Model
The kit is crude, even by 1981 standards, when it was first released. It has very few parts and just as little details. Construction was straightforward and I was pleased that alignment was good and fit was better than I’d expected. I added weight to the nose to ensure it wasn’t a tail sitter. The canopy is thick and anything visible in the cockpit is distorted enough to ensure the lack of details are not obvious.
I did not need much filler and sanding was at a minimum to retain as much of the raised details as possible. Thankfully most of the panel lines do not cross the top or bottom of the fuselage. Paint was simply Tamiya rattle can AS-12, which I believe replicates a reasonable shade of a natural metal finish. It certainly looks like the photos online of the real subject.
Decals were still usable, albeit a bit thin and fragile. The yellow in the bort is translucent, but on an aluminum background it works.
Summary
I purchased this kit in the late 80’s at a hobby shop in San Jose, California. It was one of a handful I found there from this exotic company called “KP” that I’d never heard of before but offered all those Soviet fighters from the 50’s and 60’s that nobody else seemed to offer. I also picked up a MiG-15 and an IL-2 but the Sturmovick wasn’t buildable so went into the bin. This kit was finished in October 2021 as a slammer build, I finished it quite quickly in less than 3 weeks which was made easy by the single color finish. The kit is of course now obsolete due to the Special Hobby release, which I have and will build some day in Soviet markings.
