Yak-9P by Fly Model

**mor54** · #1 10-19-2008, 10:19 AM

Hi, this is another model I whant to share with you. It was an on / off model for more than a year.
Yakovlev Yak-9 fighter, was the most produced Soviet aircraft, apart the Il-2. First flown in 1942, met in battle for the first time over Stalingrad. It's development continue with the post-war –P model, encountered in Korea.
The –P variant model at a 1:33 scale, is part of Fly Model No.111 double kit. The model is good, with a very detailed cockpit. Usually acrurate, but has its small mistakes. Printing is good, but the greay camouflage was a disappointment. Instructions are in Polish with a number of diagrams – aircraft top, profile and detailing for cockpit and landing gear.

Most of the model was built "as is". Fuselage is build from 9 sections, bonded to each other with tabs. To mask the connection line, both edges were painted with the same color as the fuselage, and let it dray before bonding. Mating of the sections was good.

Mating the wings to the fuselage was good, but the wing's fairings at the trailing edge were not acurate, and need to be ajusted, the added area was pained with gray Acrylic paint.

The propeller and spinner are built "as is", and the spinner was rounded by filling with Humbrol filler, and smoothed with fine glass paper. In this way, spinner shape is accurate, and the bonding line between the parts is not visible.
Cockpit was very detailed and accurate, canopy was done from 3 parts. I used a transperent sheet, cut and bended to the required shape, it was no easy task to bond it because it was to flexible.

The landing gear was scratchbuilde - weels are made of card rings with 1mm diameter diferens, bonded together and then filled to the right shape with a filler and smoothed with fine glass paper, and painted black. The retraction mechanism required an Internet search for drawings and pictures.

Original model painting was a very un-attractive gray. I whanted to add another color to it, without re-painting the all model. After a long Internet search I have found picture and profile of a read nose Yak-9P aircraft, don't have any information in which squadron it served.

As a conclusion, this model is good, detailed and accurate, and can be build "as is", or with detailing. To mee, it's major deficiency was the poor camouflage, it was easely improved, but it pot the model "on hold" for a long time.
For an experienced modeler, the drawing are good and detailed, and the Polish instructions should not be a problem.

Shalom Mor

**Dragos** · #2 10-19-2008, 12:29 PM

Excelent work!

**redhorse** · #3 10-19-2008, 01:38 PM

Very nice, I especially like the detail in the wheel wells.

**Sakrison** · #4 10-20-2008, 04:33 AM

I built the La-5 from this kit a few years ago. The fit was good and the artwork was consistent with Fly-Model's older kits. It was one of the first paper models I built and I'm still pleased with it.
--David