YAK-38 Forger (Anti-Government Forces)

The finished model:

In the manga:

The Yak-38 Forger plays an important starring role in the manga during the early stages of the relocation of Area 88 to the mountain base.  Known as “Operation: Skylark” the Anti-Government Forces deploy a squad of Yak-38s to cripple the base’s supply lines.  After they appear “out of nowhere” to shoot down a convoy of C-130s carrying parts and supplies, Mickey and Kim are dispatched to try and source the issue.  Although Mickey eventually figures out they are dealing with VTOL planes (similar to Kim’s Harrier), the tactics employed by the Anti-Government Forces make them hard to wipe out.  Much like the Skylark, which nests on the ground and often lands far away from the nest to help it avoid detection, the AGF forces would use the Yak-38’s hovering capabilities to fly undetected under the canopy of trees to keep the Area 88 forces from discovering their secret base – at least until Kim is able to use the same proximity sensor equipment to infiltrate the area and call in a bomb strike [Chapter 022 (v05c12) “Operation Skylark”].

The kit(s):

• Yakovlev Yak-38 Forger by Tsukuda

The build:

I don’t know why… but I really love the Yak-38 Forger.  I mean, it’s such an odd-looking plane that had a very short and uninspiring career with the Soviet Navy… but still, there’s just something about it.

I think Kaoru Shintani must have also had a thing for the Yak-38, since he devoted a whole story arc to an operation that featured them in a starring role.  Of course, back in the early 1980s when these Area 88 chapters were printed, it was a lot harder to get any information on the Yak-38.  So it seems likely that Shintani was just using the “Soviet Harriers” and their VTOL capabilities for the story-telling aspects.  It’s hard to recognize the Yak-38s in the manga, because for once they don’t really look all that much like their real-life counterparts.

Still, who cares, for whatever the reason, I like them.  So when I ran across a crushed boxing of the Tsukuda kit in a small hobby shop filled to the rafters with boxes during a trip on Taipei, I simply couldn’t resist bringing that treasure home with me.

The kit itself is a bit basic, but definitely workable.  I have no idea why it includes an engine that will be totally invisible when mounted inside the fuselage, so I just left it out and threw it in my spares box.  What was more important to me was to try and correct some of the issues with the cockpit.  It’s a pretty basic tub, so I did my best to slant the backing and add as much detail as I could scratch together.  It made it so the canopy wouldn’t close, but I knew I wanted it open in the end, so it didn’t really matter.

The other major work included boxing in the air intakes and cutting out the side vents – even though they weren’t present in the manga depictions.  For the bottom thrust fans, I repurposed a couple of wheels from an Academy 1/72 scale Spad XIII – worked well enough if you don’t know what they are – so maybe just forget I mentioned that part.

The two things that really gave me the most trouble was the paint job. I’m not sure why, but no matter how well I cleaned my airbrush, the dark sea blue Tamiya paint kept picking up little “sparkles”  and I kept trying to paint them away.  That effectively destroyed my first real attempt at doing an undercoat of shading.  The other thing that was a nightmare was the decals.  After 30 years in the box they were FRAGILE.  I tried to get the red warning triangles next to the air intakes (again, even though the manga didn’t have them) but they turned to dust almost immediately.  I was able to get the smaller decals on relatively easily, but I ended up going through 3 sets of number before I could finally get yellow “21” on both sides.  In the manga, the “31” plane is the most prominent, but “21” seems to be leading the attack, so close enough.  The decals silvered something fierce though, no matter how much decal set I applied, but in the end I decided to just call it a day and walk away before anyone got hurt.

All in all, I’m pretty happy to include this Yak-38 Forger as part of my Area 88 1/72 scale project, but if I run across another Yak-38 box in the future, I may give it another go… did I mention I love these strange birds?

Feel free to lend me your comments below:

The Tamiya paint :

• XF-72 (Cockpit Green) – cockpit
• XF-2 (White) – bombs/missiles
• XF-16 (Aluminum) – wing/tail edges
• XF-85 (Dark Iron) – engines