Category: Soviet aircraft
-
Yak 23 – Part Two – The Target

When there is nothing more left to get out of the toothpaste tube. The USAF had ways; ways of getting information from enemy air forces. In the case of the Royal Air Force they just bought the plans for the Merlin engine and turned them over to Packard for production. They boxed up all the…
-
Yak 23 – Part One – Front Line Fighter?

Provided you are smart enough to put the front line as far away from you as possible. This was the thinking of the Soviet VVS when they donated Yak 23 fighters to the Poles and Czechs in the 1950’s. The Soviets had the MiG15 to defend the Motherland against the west and the inferior Yak…
-
The Humble Modeller

How to beat ’em to the bottom. A reader of one of my other blogs writes that she is a humble person, but content. I believe she is telling the truth, and I salute her for the honesty. Many people could never bring themselves to this idea and would react badly if you mentioned the…
-
Petlyakov Pe-8 – Part Seven – One Of A Hundred

No, I’m wrong. One of 93. The Soviets only made 93 of this bomber. They made them with three different engines, and experimented with the rest of the structure as well. One was used as a trans-oceanic transport to deliver Molotov to the UK and the USA…but the rest were used in penny packets for…
-
Petlyakov Pe-8 – Part Six – Squeeze Me, Baby!

I feel like I’m going to split. The central bomb bay section of the Pe-8 dictates the spread of the fuselage. Had I not included the interior, and just decided to join the fuselage halves without cutting the bomb bay, all this post would not have happened. As it is, it did. as much as…
-
Petlyakov Pe-8 – Part Five – A Wing And Several Prayers

I am never so nervous as when I see a plastic model aircraft with a multiple-part wing. I don’t mean a top and bottom – that’s normal. I mean a top and bottom outer, top and bottom inner, internal brace, wheel well, separate nacelles, and no cementing tabs. Add two gun positions and it starts…
-
Petlyakov Pe-8 – Part Three – Stein’s Bomb Dump

And if that title doesn’t get me on an FBI list, nothing will. The explosives you see in the heading page are Soviet 250kg types – roughly equivalent to a British or American 500 pounder…though I don’t know if the fillings had equal explosive power. They will be attached to the bomb bay former and…
-
Petlyakov Pe-8 – Part Two – Well, No Escaping It…

Sooner or later I was going to have to start the kit. The box had to be opened and the sprue trees taken out. All 870 of them…The AS truck had already been built as part of a Soviet airfield but the main monster remained. Amodels are flashy mouldings., and slightly friable plastic. Many of…
-
Petlyakov Pe-8 – Part One – Metro’s Bargains

Metro Models In Melbourne have a sale every now and again – chiefly the models that have sat in dusty neglect on their shelves. I take advantage, as I am also dusty and sit on a shelf much of the time… In this case the original price was some $ 60 and they applied a…

