At the Richmond model show some weeks back Devin Edwards and I ended up buying a box of models for $10.00 of which I immediately sold one for $2.00, taking our grand total purchase cost to $8.00. After dividing the box evenly between us, we each ended up with 14 kits, meaning a per kit cost of $0.29USD/£0.18/€0.22!
The following is a Yak-9 that was part of my haul:
It is a long way from perfect, but for the cost, a pretty good learning tool. The kit wasn't too bad for the most part, but there were some areas that needed work. The most effort went into the canopy. The raised portions for the framing were, IMO, way too big and poorly defined. I ended up sanding them off then sanding the canopy down with successively finer grit sandpaper, then polishing it with toothpaste (works good and it's minty fresh!) then dipping the whole thing in future. It worked pretty well and I think I could have gotten it clearer if I'd put more time into it. The framing was then redone with Tamiya tape cut into strips and put in place. Overall, a big improvement to the kit part. The cockpit also needed some work, I added the control stick and some dials to the instrument panel as the kit had neither. Those parts are really simple which is fine because with the canopy on you can barely see them.
Anyway, a fun little side project in which I probably spent more on paint and glue then the kit itself!
Matt
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