Far-Ranging Yak

Historical Background

In 1939, Alexander Yakovlev designed a tandem-seat advanced trainer, designated I-27 (and then UTI-26). Armed with a single 7.62 mm ShKAS machine gun in the cowling, the aircraft was later redesignated Yak-7UTI. In the meantime, a team from Factory No.301 headed by one K.A. Sinelshchikov, was detached from Yakovlev's OKB to supervise the production of the aircraft. A Yak-7UTI was pulled off the production line was fitted with an armoured backrest plate over the rear position, self-sealing fuel tanks, three launch rails for RS-series rockets, a 20 mm ShVAK cannon firing through the propeller spinner and two ShKAS machine guns. This particular aircraft was gibven the designation Yak-7/M-105P (as it used that particular Klimov engine). When informed of the changes, Yakovlev was sceptical. However tests showed that the new aircraft performed better than the Yak-1, LaGG-3 and MiG-3. The aircraft eventually entered production, from August 1941 as the second member of the Yakovlev fighter family.

Like most aircraft, the Yak-7 also has a number of variants, one of them was the long-range -7D and -7DI. The -7DI was further lightened with increased usage of duralumin in its construction, allowing a number of modifications being made upon the basic design, and, perhaps most importantly, allowing greater flexibility. Now designated Yak-9, the aircraft was placed into production in October 1942. The Yak-9 can be fitted with two types of wings, five different engines, six different fuel tank combinations and seven types of armament configuration (including anti-tank). The first production version was powered by a Klimov M-105PF engine rated at 1,180 hp and the typical armament fit was a 20 mm ShVAK cannon (120 rounds) and a 12.7 mm UBS machine gun with 200 rounds in the upper decking. The wings have that distinctive Yakovlev-designed shape while visibility was better than previous Yaks because of the usage of bubble canopy.

The Yak-9 entered service in October 1942 and its first action was during the Battle Of Stalingrad where apart from air superiority missions, it also undertook light bombing, anti-tank escort missions, reflecting its versatility. It excelled in low-level operations where it was faster and more maneuverable than the Bf 109, although armament was a bit inferior. As with the Yak-7, a long-range version of the Yak-9 was developed as Yak-9D. The -9D has its fuel capacity increased from 440 liters to 650 liters, allowing a maximum range of 1,360 km. Lack of suitable radio navigation equipment meant it was mainly used as a short-ranged fighter. Nevertheless it was further developed into Yak-9DD with fuel capacity of 845 liters, giving it a maximum range of 2,285 km. It was mainly used to escort Peltyakov Pe-2 and Tupolev Tu-2 light bombers although the Yak's speed advantage was marginal over the two bombers. The -9DD was also used to escort USAAF's B-17 bombers taking part in the so-called 'shuttle bombing' missions.

The Yak-9 was provided to Soviet client states post-war and received the NATO ASSC name of 'Frank' and was used during the Korean War. A total of 16,769 Yak-9s of all types were built from 1942 to 1948.

The Kit

The Yak-9DD was one of ICM's early efforts, being released together with Yak-9T and Yak-9K in 2000. The parts count was pretty low : 55 parts in dark olive green and 2 in clear styrene. The advantage it has over other kits was the presence of an engine block, allowing 'opened engine panel' style of display preferred by certain modellers (admittedly, the detail isn't up to much, but you do get an engine as basis. The cannon barrel was also included. Furthermore the ailerons and the rudder were positionable. There are however some flash on my example, notably on the engine air intake. Sink marks were also evident on the fuselage and wings. One thing I was warned through reading online reviews (and one I have never experienced before) was the presence of oily residue of the mould release agent and my particular example as no different. The olive green parts feature nice (but not as nice as the Japanese companies') panel lines (where appropriate as the Yak was partly made from wood). The small, flat-finished decal sheet provide markings for three aircraft:

- White 2, unknown unit, 1944 (grey/blue)

- White 21, Normandie-Niemen Regiment, 1944 (2-tone grey / blue)

- White 86, Warzawa Fighter Regiment, 1944 (black/green/blue)

Construction

Before saying anything else, let me start by saying that this was one of my earliest kits done after I decided to re-enter the hobby back in 2001. It was only this year that I managed to write about the experience. Anyway, since ICM includes the engine block, construction started there. The engine was painted Steel (even though I intended to have the cowling panels closed) while the cannon barrel was painted Gun Metal. The engine/cannon assembly was then set aside while I work on the cockpit. Not surprisingly, the cockpit is very spartan, with just the floorboard, the seat, control stick and rudder pedals. Despite that, the last two mentioned were quite fragile and I managed to broke the rudder pedals. The cockpit parts were painted overall XF-53 Neutral Grey with the seat back and the top of the control column painted flat black. The engine block and the cockpit was then tested for fitting. I found out that the engine prevented the fuselage from closing up properly so it had to go. The fuselage can now be closed up properly.

However I was now presented with another problem; the exhausts were supposed to be mounted onto the engine block! I solved it by cementing the exhausts to the separate engine access panels. I still goofed by not placing a blanking plate plus I most probably have placed the exhausts too deep inside the opening. When trying to fit the panels onto the fuselage, they still did not fit properly. The solution: remove all the stringers from the opening. Even this did not completely eliminate the fit problem. The wing halves were mated together and then cemented onto the fuselage. This however resulted in gaps along the upper joint (I should have checked first and perhaps cemented the upper wing halves to the fuselage first). The separate ailerons were cemented in neutral position (they should never both in up or down position!) Fitting the rudder, tail planes and the oil cooler intake finishes the pre-painting build. Oh did I mention about sink marks? There were a number of nasty ones - one on each of the horizontal tail and another inside the carburettor intake. The ones one the tail were filled but I simply paint the inside of the intake flat black to hide the imperfection. 

Painting and Decalling

After looking at the options available, I decided to paint the Yak in the green/black colour scheme of the Warzawa Regiment. I weren't sure of the nearest Tamiya equivalent for the Russian Underside Blue but decided that X-14 Sky Blue with several drops of XF-2 Flat White was the best (I actually have trouble looking for the best colour; in some photos, they look akin to lightened X-14 but in other photos they look similar to XF-23 or RLM 65). X-14 has a gloss finish and while glossiness is good for decalling, I toned it down by adding X-21 Flat base, making it semi-gloss. The black was painted using Tamiya XF-69 NATO Black while XF-5 Flat Green was used for the green portion. The prop spinner was painted Flat White overall before being masked and painted a mix of X-7 Red and XF-7 Flat Red for the red portion. Once the paint has dried, the decals were applied. As mentioned before they have a flat finish, but nevertheless are fairly thin. There is however registration problems with the large VVS stars on the fuselage. I also managed to have the right-side fuselage star and number lower than the actual positions!

Finishing

As usual, this process was started by preparing and assembling the landing gear. All the landing gear parts were painted XF-22 RLM Grey and Gunze 8 Silver for the relevant parts. The completed landing gear was then cemented to the surface with no problems. However, the smaller of the wheel bay doors have no 'hinges' to be slotted into the lower wing surface whatsoever and they were merely cemented onto the the latter. The canopy was another item which did not sit properly in its place. I was thinking of drilling the hole for the cowl machine gun but with the rather shallow firing troughs and a short pin vise drill, I did not proceed. I decided to forego the panel line wash was not done as per my usual practice due to shallow panel lines and proceeded straight to spraying the model with Flat Clear, finishing the build.

Conclusion 

Some companies hit it with the crowds with their first release. Although ICM eventually won many people over, their first venture wasn't really a success. The kit was pretty problematic with (some) fit issues, nasty sink marks (perhaps I should call them 'holes'), an apparently wrong canopy shape and the oily residue. Nevertheless I for one welcomed the Yak-9 as no other manufacturer has released any version in 1/48. Though I haven't seen them, I believe the Alanger dan Ark Model releases used the same mold as the ICM one. The inclusion of the engine is interesting although the execution was rather disappointing. The kit is still very buildable although I do not recommend it to complete novice.