Amodel 1/72 Yak-28IM Brewer C Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

The Yak-28 family was an incremental improvement over the Yak-27 series. The most notable visible difference between the two types was the Yak-27 had mid-mounted wings and the Yak-28's wings were shoulder-mounted (not quite high-wing mounting).

The Yak-28 was a twin-engined airframe that was adapted to a variety of roles. The Yak-28P (NATO Codename: Firebar) had the nose section occupied with a large air intercept radar. The remaining Yak-28s were based on the light bomber airframe (glass nose instead of radome) and had the NATO Codename: Brewer.

The Yak-28I (NATO Codename Brewer C) was the first successful version of the light bomber with a lengthened nose over its predecessors. It carried its bomb load internally and had a navigation radar that would enable the aircraft to attack any target, day or night, good weather or bad.

The Yak-28IM was a modification to the type which added a weapons pylon outboard of the external fuel tank which could carry a UB-16-57 rocket pod (16-shot 57mm rockets). This adaptation expanded the Yak's capabilities to include fighter-bomber. The aircraft (as well as all Yak-28s) was powered by a pair of Tumanski R-11 turbojets, the same engine that powered the early MiG-21s. In fact, I had always thought that the Yak-28's engine nacelles looked like MiG-21F fuselages.

Amodel has released an interesting variety of Yak-28s to date, including the Yak-28 Firebar, Yak-28I Brewer C (light bomber), Yak-28R Brewer D (recce aircraft), and Yak-28PP Brewer E (ECM aircraft). I happened to spot a new release notice for a Yak-281M on one website, so out of curiosity, I checked out the listing and found it to be a typo for the Yak-28IM Brewer C (fighter-bomber).

Molded in white styrene, the kit is a typical limited production model that will require a little clean-up and dry-fitting of parts, but nothing that would cause any difficulties for a good modeler. The kit features a simple cockpit with ejection seat, floor, side consoles and control stick. The bombardier/navigator's seat attaches to the front of the nose gear well.

The weapons bay has a reasonable bomb suspension unit inside that would look fine should you opt to display the bomb on a trolley provided in the kit. The weapons bay doors can be positioned open or closed.

The flaps can be positioned up or down (take-off position). For some reason the ailerons were molded separately while the elevators and rudder are molded in place.

The UB-16-57 rocket pods are mounted between the external fuel tank and the wingtip landing gear struts. (The Yak-28 has a similar landing gear arrangement as the B-47 Stratojet.)

Markings are provided for two examples:

• Yak-28IM, Blue 22, Soviet Air Force
• Yak-28IM, Blue 35 w/'Otlichnij' (Outstanding) symbol on the nose

Here is an interesting cold warrior that would definitely turn heads among the usual routine of MiGs and Bf 109s on the contest table. This kit is recommended!