Peanut Scale Yak-3 – All Done!

It’s no secret that I am a big fan of Peanut Scale models. And I really like to make WWII fighters in Peanut Scale – they don’t always win against bigger models in Combat, but they can shock the troops when you get a good flying one.

Back in 2018, I went to the AMA Indoor Nats in Rantoul, IL. There I met George Nuñez, who drove up from Florida with a car load of models (he probably had 20 models with him!) One of those that caught my eye was his Peanut Yak-3. Not only was it cute and clean little plane, but it flew great (he beat my Barracuda in WWII Combat). I asked him about it and he said his son, Jonathan had designed it.

George Nuñez at Rantoul in 2018 and some of his models. Note his Yak-3 front and center.

I always meant to ask Jonathan about it, but many things got in my way. Eventually, his plan was published in the Nov/Dec 2019 issue of the NFFS Digest. I contacted Jonathan and asked him if I could kit his plan and he consented. It took me a little time, but I finally got the plan redrawn (I redrawn plans to create the parts). I made some minor changes (replaced the hollowed out block for the lower cowl to what I call stringer/formers and some other minor changes). Then I had to convince myself to start building. Once I did, it went really quickly – just a few days from nothing to covered model. Final weight without rubber is just a smidge under 9 grams.

By the way, I grabbed the tissue patterns from the asisbiz website – a site for computer gaming skins. This is a great resource for WWII tissue layouts as the entire surface of the gaming aircraft needs to be covered, just like out models – and those artists go into great detail.

While my model hasn’t hit 20 seconds, yet, I know it will. At 9 grams without rubber, it is just too light to test outdoors – even light breezes carry into the trees surrounding my yard.

Here is a link to the short kit, complete with vacu-formed canopy and spinner: (HERE). You can download the tissue print file, too (HERE).

Here are my build photos.