Yak-1 or Yak -1b

[Bob D]

Hi guys

I recently discovered the delights of BRS (which led me to Black Seas as well … yikes). Fantastic little game.

I am thinking about getting some Russians, but am curious about the Yak-1 and Yak-1b: I believe the b was an improved version but essentially looked identical, so am surprised that there are two separate models (rather than just having a card in the expansion pack for the variant), given that none of the other planes have two versions yet – for instance, the Ju87B used in the BoB, and the Me109G, would justly have their own models as they look different from the models released so far.

So why do we have these two models? What is the difference? Was there a quality issue with the earlier Yak-1s?

Cheers

—Bob

[Nat]

Hello and welcome,

So the Yak-1, is plastic and has a the fuselage thats higher and runns up to the back of the cockpit.

The Yak-1B model was originally metal in the Falcon Sqn box, but has now been done in Warlord Resin as both a sqn & ace box. The aircraft it self has a lower fusalage and a buble cockpit…. and can be used for the yak 3, 7 & 9 vairients which have cards in the expansion pack.

side note – the expansion pack is 6 aircraft vairient that WL dont currently have plans to make but expand the airforces.
side note 2 – falcon squadron, lead by Johnny Red is from a british comic series and was made as a small ‘here you go’ with a true to story collection of aircraft… these have now all been redone in WL Resin and released as their own squadrons which is why the soviets have more squadrons that the other nations.

EDIT – oh the Yak 1 was errated to be 28 points not the original 19 that some people have on the cards.
rules wise the yak 1B loses a negative trait. and costs 31 points per aircraft

• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Nat.

[Nat]

ok… a little bit more digging shows that WLs 1B is visually more like a 3 or 9 version.

the Yak 7 looked more like the Yak 1 (in fact the Yak 7 reached the front lines before the Yak 3)

As said the cards for those types are in the Soviet Red Army Expansion Pack

[Bob D]

Hi Nat

Thanks for the detailed responses: exactly what I was looking for. Yeah the Yak variant numbers are slightly confusing! But damn: this means I have to have both 🙂

Cheers

—Bob

[Bob D]

How do you rate the metal and resin models by the way? I only have the plastic ones: the Spits are a bit bendy, but the Hurris, Me109s and 110s are fine and all of them are nicely detailed; but I have heard mention of poor details on the ‘hard’ materials, and even somebody at WL told me they are having a few teething problems due to the small scale …

• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Bob D.

[Nat]

I don’t have any of the resin ones. With the metals apart from the balance issues (they topple over all the time unless at neutral) I don’t have an issue with them as a gaming piece

[Bob D]

Ouch! Really? Is that why the extra large bases are needed?

[Bruce]

Yes – the metal-cast minis are much, much heavier than the soft plastic (Spitfires, ME109s) or the hard plastics (Hurricanes).

[Nat]

There are a couple of posts on this forum about fitting weights to the bases… I normally fill them with bluetac…

[Bob D]

Ok, well if the blue-tac works then that sounds like a workable solution. I’ll have a look through the forum as you suggest. Why didn’t they stick with the hard plastic, as they seem perfect?

Do you think it likely that WL will re-release the metal planes in resin at some point? I am totally new to WL so have no idea how they go about things (though they have been extremely helpful in the comms I have had with them so far).

[Nat]

They’ve had production bottle necks with all their game systems so started with metal for the aircraft (the original soft plastics wasn’t a success as you’ve noted)…the issues with metal we’ve covered so at this forums suggestion they looked at doing the aircraft in resin instead.

The bluetac might have worked because of the Mats I normally play on down the club

[Jesse]

I am under the impression that the plan is to replace the existing metal aircraft with resin ones after the current supplies run out.

[HellRaiser 7]

Hey Nat,

Thank for posting about the Yak-1 having the wrong points. I just got two box sets of them and couldn’t believe the low points. I actually came to the forum just to ask about the low Yak-1points. Is there a BRS Errata out?

• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by HellRaiser 7.

[Nat]

If you go to the facebook group – ‘Blood Red Skies Ready Room’ and look in the files section there is a FAQ file (latest is March this year) by Andy Chambers (the Author of the game)… I dont have access to my PC so cant upload it..

 

however here is the errata

 

• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by Nat.

Attachments:

1. BRS-Errata-25-04-19.docx

[Koin-Koin]

Hi everyone,

 

I’m happy to see some activity around here (been quiet a lots myself).

Regarding plastic/metal/resin here are my thoughts:

– plastic are pretty nicely done even if there’s some wings warping (could be easily fixed with hot water). I tend to prefer those as they have deep grooves and are easier to apply wash. Also, tehy are toys, so I don’t mind putting them loose in a box.

– metal are nice but the details can be a bit too subtle to my taste sometime and makes me struggle with washes (better painters seem to deal nicely with this).  Also, I had quite a lot bended models in my collection (all of them until WL resin came out so far) but nothing I couldn’t handle. Just don’t be surprise if you have some. And they requires some mould lines cleaning. Once painted, you need to take more care of them than the plastic ones.

– resin (not the WL one), I have the extra Defiant (before it was release in squadron) and it’s a nice detailed model but I prefer plastic for all the reasons above.

– WL resin, no thought here as I stopped buying BRS models as I still have too much to paint. But I’d like to have some to make my own opinion.

 

My understanding of why plastic then metal is : the initial plan for BRS was to make a ‘nice little game’ so plastic China production to propose a cheaper product. But the game (or maybe just the models) was much, much, much more successful than anyone expected so WL had to get production to local. And what WL makes is not plastic, it’s resin and metal. Resin being usually more expensive and models expected to drop a lot on the table seems to be two good reasons to choose metal.

Now, WL get there new magic resin so it was natural to move to this.

 

Adding some weight on the bases is the way to go. As mentioned, check the forum about it. Since WL now offer an official solution on the webstore.

If you can drill, just go to your local HW store.

 

About the Errata, there’s a FAQ thread in the forum where the last version is regularly posted.

You’ll find last year version on the official site but it’s rarely updated the forum thread is the place to go.

[Author]

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