Just arrived…
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Lots of nice stuff. Especially that book on Greek Phantoms. I’m always hopeful to see one when we’ve been on holiday to Crete and Rhodes, but only F-16’s and Hercules. Saw a few interesting things when we landed at Chania a couple of years ago. US Navy Orion’s, C-17’s and I think RC-135’s. But sadly no F-4’s. There were some old classics (F-104, T-33, F-5 and a pair of F-84’s) at Malema airport when we drove past on a tour, but the guide warned me not to take any photos unless I wanted a visit from the MP’s!
Anyway, got both of these on a whim from evilbay.
Decals look to be still useable. Not sure about the colour scheme though. Boxart shows a green mottle over aluminium, instructions are green over amber grey or aluminium. Would be nice to do the mottle, but will have to do some digging I think.
And secondly, Hobbyboss’s 1/48 Yak-38. Not my usual scale, but we don’t have a good one in 1/72 available.
It’s an odd looking thing, but the kit looks brilliant and I’m looking forward to building it.
I may now have to buy a 1/48 Sea Harrier to display with it.
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Yes! Brother and stepbrother 
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Stephen here’s a YouTube video of an exercise in Greece this year, some very dirty Greek F-16’s and some Greek F-4’s amongst lots of other nations aircraft. Worth watching even just for weathering modern fighter ideas.
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Thanks. Some good close up reference shots there. Cool to some from the Middle East too. The Qatari Rafale is very nice looking!
Nothing to fancy by some standards but it sure is Phantabulous to me…
If you want to build Kai then this is one copy to have in your hands. It was a hard one to get a hold off at reasonable price but God smiled down on me and I found it for $24 shipped including.
Normal, this copy runs north of $80 on any given day. So, I am thankful
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In fact it was an mitigated load of rubbish.
A little harsh. The article is pretty much a rehash of Cold War western propaganda. Nothing new that hasn’t been said since the 80’s. Just a repeat of the limited ordnance and lack of radar. Even the first generation Sea Harrier suffered with the same limited ordnance and didn’t really become as capable as it could untill the SHAR2 and Aim-120. And the GR.1/3 didn’t either and they’re roughly comparable in performance to the Yak. Pegasus was a more powerful engine certainly, but range, payload weight and variety was just as limited.
Soviet fighter doctrine put a big emphasis on ground control interception, so in it’s primary role of fleet defence, probably wouldn’t have been a huge problem. A handicap yes, but would still have been able to do it’s job. In fact Yaks did make an interception of aircraft from the Enterprise in '82. The R-60 was a good missile. The article is very dismissive calling it ‘tiny’.
I’ve always regarded the Yak-38 as being an interim type until the 141 came into service. Wasn’t perfect, but not as bad as often claimed. Had a few interesting features like the computer controlled landing and an automatic ejection system. Would be interesting to know it’s accident rate compared with the first generation Harrier.
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Propaganda?
The facts.
The Yak-38 ended up becoming one of the most useless naval airplanes ever put into service.
Despite the cosmetic similarities to the Harrier, the Yak-38 used a different lift jet system. Yakovlev engineers placed two small thrust vector jets at the end of the fuselage and two lift jets behind the cockpit. Due to differences in engine design, the Yak-38 used much more fuel than the Harrier during takeoff. This significantly limited the combat range of the Yak-38 to only 1,300 kilometers (800 mi), and that was without any weapons. In hot weather, the total possible flight time dropped to only 15 minutes, making the airplane completely useless as a fleet interceptor.
Beyond the dismal endurance, the Yak-38 suffered from engineering flaws and an overly simple design. With only four weapon pylons, pilots barely had any armament. To save weight, designers elected to not fit the Yak-38 with any radar beyond a rudimentary range finder, a huge disadvantage in modern aerial combat. Even if those systems had worked, which they did only intermitently, the Yak-38 was still an absurdly dangerous aircraft to fly. The lift jets only had a working life of 22 hours before needing a complete overhaul and were prone to failure if the intakes ingested too much gas. Losing just one lift jet doomed the airplane. To limit fatalities (there were many), Yakovlev fitted the fighter with an automatic ejection seat that would fire if the airplane rolled more than 60 degrees to either side during takeoff or landing. That system got good use.
Propaganda?
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To be fair the short engine life was not a specific of this aircraft. I remember reading that Czechoslovak ground personel in 1945 having to take care of both soviet and british made planes complained that soviet engines lasted only a quarter of time the british had.
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What I mean is the article is just a repeat of what I’ve been seeing since the 80’s when little was known and the western press was very quick to put it down (as they were with a lot of Soviet kit). It’s not offering anything new that has become available since the collapse of the USSR when more details became known. I’d be surprised if this wasn’t a copy and paste job. Ergo, the same Cold War propaganda.
The article doesn’t go into any real detail with the facts and figures as you have. I’m on my lunch break at work, so I haven’t got the time to do the in-depth research. Would be interesting if you could post the links for me to have a look at.
I’m not disagreeing with you. As I said, it was far from perfect. It’s still an interesting aircraft and I have a soft spot for the strange and unusual. And until the F-35, was the only other VSTOL fighter besides the Harrier to see service. So, it’s going in the collection!
I’m not quite sure why you’ve taken it so personal?
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Model Rivet Maker Tool with Handle for Model Hobby Craft Building Accessories Tool (Set S4)
‘Disc Diameter:8.5MM Rivet Wheel Size: 0.85/0.9/1.0mm Disk-S-Set4’
Note: If you plan on ordering any of these sets, pay very close attention to the image roll-over descriptions. I originally purchased Set S1 which was extremely tiny — hard to tell until set is in hand. I placed a new order for Set S4, did an easy Amazon Free Return and my card was refunded quickly. The new item arrived within three days. HTH.
—mike 
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Well, i’m not sure it can be ‘harsh’ or propaganda, if the aircraft was demonstrably as bad as the ‘propaganda’ suggested?
Anyway, apologies if my missive came across badly, however, I did feel that you were being rather too dismissive of the actual facts. I was in and around ETPS for several years, the aircraft’s many failings were well documented there, including a summary of its first crash, occurring on 26th of October 1978 killing its pilot. It is thought (solid evidence is hard to come by as you might imagine) that at least 12 pilots were killed flying it, mainly due to a loss of control as one engine would invariably overheat and cause asymmetric thrust - which was unrecoverable.
Yes, it is an unusual aircraft, and certainly i’m sure you will enjoy the construction of what you rightly point out, was the stepping stone to the '141.
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This decal set came in the mail yesterday… for use with the F-4B/N kit that I picked up a few weeks ago
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I know it’s got wings but it’s a funny looking aircraft!
Just arrived from ‘Sprue Brothers’ (not just for aircraft)…
‘ASKT0014 ASK/Art Scale - Razor Saw Radius Ultra & Extra Smooth 100/65 Teeth 2pcs’
—mike 
…
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There is a tool DSPIAE doesn’t make? Wha???
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Ordered “two” many ejection seats…
so…
and these options from Caracal
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