Category: Russian models
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Yakovlev 6 – Part Three – The Beauty Within
The crude nature of some kits is so overwhelming that many people just cannot bring themselves to build them. This is the result of the continuing development of the hobby over the last 70 Years. We in the west have benefited tremendously from the initial efforts of the British, American, and French firms that took…
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Yakovlev 6 – Part Two – The Amphibious Twins
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…
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Yakovlev 6 – Part One -The Orphan
I discovered this Yak 6 model sitting forlornly under a pile of junk in the storage room of the model club. There are any number of derelict kits in there – some abandoned half-built, and some just unwanted. The simple ones could be turned into basic trainers for young modellers, but the dreadful short run…
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Politically Incorrect Modelling
Model kit building can be a harmless hobby or a fiendish socio-political plot. It all depends on who is telling the story. In Australia we are currently out of favour with Communist China, and seem set to be castigated further as a pact between the UK, US, and Australia is established. As a side-show, the…
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PZL Gull Wing – Part Three – Those Decals
Okay, let’s talk dirty. I’ll start. Polish and Russian decals. Sorry to be so brutal, but the topic needs addressing. In the past I have wished to address the makers of some Polish, Ukrainian, and Russian plastic model kits and send them the sheets back with suitable curses. The problem has not so much been…
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MiG 17 – Part Four- The A-Team Moment
I love it when a plan comes together… The Egyptian MiG 17 sitting at Schmattarim Museum Is not the same as the one at Hatzerim Museum. Not at all. There is no Arabic writing on the nose. The wheels are still Soviet Green*. And it has not totally faded out in the Negev sun. But…
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MiG 17 – Part Three – Dam Those Wings
I have always thought that wing dams were an admission of error on the part of an aircraft designer. Yet they feature on any number of Eastern and Western jets – mostly the ones that have swept wings. You may know them as stall fences or barriers. They keep the air moving back past the…
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MiG 17 – Part Two – Smarter Than The Average Bear
Look here, Prague. The Russians – crude stumbling peasants that they are…drunken, covered in ice and angst…can make a cockpit tub that fits into the fuselage first time. The tub is a precise moulding and the partitions that hold it in place allow both sides of the fuselage to approximate without gaps. It’s almost as…
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MiG 17 – Part One – I Buy By Price
And I buy cheap. My trip to the hobby shop was for paint – of course I detoured into the kit aisle, and of course I looked over all the 1:72 offerings there. The shop is one that I rarely get to, so it may contain things not seen before. This was so, but while…
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Petlyakov Pe-2 – Part Four – Yet Another Soviet Triumph
Pardon me if I start to sound a little cynical – I’ve been reading Soviet accounts of their air force in the Great Patriotic War. In various articles I’ve been told that three separate Soviet aircraft were the most produced planes of all time and won the war. The articles originate from within what was…
The Little World 