A Pair of Trumpeter Yak 18s
By James Merrigan
I thought you might be interested in my latest project, the Trumpeter Yakovlev Yak-18A which I built straight out of the box, and since I can't leave well enough alone, a kit bashed Yak-18P single place aerobatic trainer.
The Trumpeter kit makes up into a very nice model of a much used but little modeled aircraft. The Trumpeter kit also provides a clear plastic cowling so that the detailed five cylinder engine can be seen. As you can see by the attached photos I finished the model in Chinese colors and markings.
As I was checking my reference material, I noticed that Yakovlev modified the basic Yak 18-A design into a single place aerobatic trainer. Basically what Yakovlev did was to re-engine the aircraft with a more powerful nine cylinder radial engine, and eliminate the front cockpit. I did pretty much the same thing.
The first step was to enlarge a side view drawing of the Yak-18P to 1/32nd scale, as a guide for cowling size and configuration, cockpit and air intake location. One thing that stood out in all the photos of the Yak-18P was the annular fan used to cool the tightly cowled engine. My fan came from a FW-190 which just about hid the engine. The cowling was fabricated from an Excedrin bottle. I covered and filled the front cockpit, and detailed the rear cockpit. The finish and markings are based on several photos of the real aircraft.
The model has been available here in New Jersey for at least a month. In my opinion it is an excellent kit, the cockpit can be super detailed with three piece control panels, tons of knobs and levers, and the same goes for the engine. All control surfaces are movable. The kit is a tail dragger, but the tri-gear conversion probably wouldn't be that hard. I for one was too lazy, the conversi.on would require a recess on the under side of the nose aft of the cowling. the nose gear like the main gear is still visible when retracted.
The Yak 18A is a completely fabric covered airplane except for the cowling, that pretty well dictates that the Yak 18P will be an early version. The kit provides decals for Russian, Chinese, and North Korean versions.
© James Merrigan
This article was published on Wednesday, July 20 2011; Last modified on Saturday, May 14 2016