The Little World

Pavel and Sergei – the crew of the Encore Models Yak 6.

I recognised them – they used to work for FROG in the 60’s, and flew nearly everything that company produced. It was hard work – the long hours wore them down so much that their faces fell off.

I suspect that the two rolls of material down their chests are meant to represent Mae West life preservers. A bit pointless for the crew of a Soviet transport plane on the steppes…but I’ll paint them up to represent two rolls of raw bread dough and let it go at that.

Kneading the dough will give them something to do, as the Encore people have not provided any control columns, wheels, or foot pedals. The seats look comfortable, however, in a sort of squeezy way.

And yes, I have the jar of money saved up for the kit of generic 40’s pilots that some wise Ukrainian or Czech moulder will produce. They’ll not be standing around in heroic poses – they all be seated in pilot’s or gunner’s positions and there will be 48 of them in the kit. Light grey plastic and finely moulded…

And I’ll buy five packets.