Hi Sergei, I just wish Zvezda would provide a closed fuselage and separate parts for the all panels apart like in the pix ... hard to tell if the fuselage is any better or worse *** Else I am a fan of the latest Zvezda 48 scale kits .... so where is my Su-2!!! all the best Steffen *** just meant as a little provocation

Hm, that is tempting for sure... I smell another superdetailing project in the air! Will probably grab several kits to use all the decals in the stash!! Thanks for the news! All the best, Entoni

How's the fit on this kit, actually any Zvezda kit? I havent tackled a Zvezda.

Hi Sergei, I just wish Zvezda would provide a closed fuselage and separate parts for the all panels apart like in the pix ... hard to tell if the fuselage is any better or worse *** Steffen [/quote] The idea that the Zvezda kit will repeat the silly tapering/tear-drop shape of the Eduard Yak-3 (from the firewall back, like the AM Yak-1, all due to wrong drawings) is borderline ludicrous when you consider the excellence of their La-5FNs and their Me-109Fs. However, the cross-section of their early La-5's canopy seemed very odd to me (very, very wide and flat, much more so than the La-5FN, despite the fact they should be near identical?!?), so like everybody else they are not imune to errors... I just don't think its realistic to expect them to dwell in the same depths as Tamiya's Il-2 and its 1/53 scale canopy... Given the credit this maker has earned the hard way, it is much more reasonable to assume this new Yak-3 will be one of the best 1/48th WWII kits ever released. You can even expect fit to be flawless and the engine panels to fit closed without trouble as well. Don't believe any of the stories that the La-5FN doesn't go together flawlessly. Their kits tend to be complex but sound. Gaston

You're right about other subjects being needed. Personally, I'd have appreciated a Yak-11, which was much more widely used (by twenty countries!) than the Yak-3. But of course I understand, trainers aren't everyone's cup of tea. You never can tell, though. Maybe we'll get that 1/48 "Moose" yet. How hard would it be for someone to produce one, if they're doing the Yak-3 already? And about that Il-28 "Beagle", wow, how cool would that be in 1/48 scale? I can only hope to have one, in this lifetime. But investing in those big molds would be quite a gamble.

You may not be aware of this, but the Yak-3 is probably the most popular Russian fighter of them all: It is widely seen as the ultimate Soviet WWII fighter, the only one about which specific Luftwaffe instructions were supposedly issued "to avoid combat below 4 km with Yak fighters without an oil cooler below the nose". I actually think it is a bit overrated, as it came into service very late, June 1944, not 1943 as often misquoted, and it didn't quite have the superior performance its stripped-down design would make one assume... It was very short-ranged and prone to structural failures in high speed hard maneuvers, and really only marginally better than the also lightweight family side Yak-1b that it was derived from (The Yak-7/9s being the "heavy" side of the Yak family). Its smooth soap-bar appearance (which I like less than the the rest of the Yak family) makes it quite unique among all WWII fighters, and its close association with the Normandie-Niemen is a big plus to its popularity (compared to other VVS types). I would have preferred a decent Pe-2 myself, but if you limit yourself to WWII fighters, there are few out there with more varied and more colourful schemes. Gaston As for there being nothing wrong with the Eduard kit, look here what it actually needed for any kind of accuracy in the fuselage: LINK Pretty hair raising, and way beyond my love of the subject... G

Detailed photos of model kit (big size):

The prop blades are not terrible but have too much taper near the tips: This is accentuated in the sprue image by the pitch of the prop blades, but other photos do confirm they are slightly too narrow near the tip if not overall. The one-piece spinner/blades combo is very weird. Gaston P.S. Not related, but I can't wait for the Vector G-2 conversion for the Zvezda 109F...

Many thanks Alexey for sharing this stuff with us.