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Hello to all.I have just finished this one.The Zvezda Su-27SM of the Russian Air Force.I added the quinta 3d cockpit and the master pittotube.Fully rescribed and riveted.Painted in hataka and gunze plus tamiya paints. Regards,Dragan

Dear fellow Britmodellers, here's my 1/72 Amodel Yak-9U. Photos by Wolfgang Rabel. The Yak-9 is one of the most under-represented WW2 aircraft models in 72 scale, with few options available. To my knowledge Amodel's Yak-9U is the only injection-moulded kit of this type on the market. The kit quality is poor, with very soft and shallow engravings, lots of surface irregularities and iffy fit. Shapes and dimensions are not captured perfectly, either. At least the kit decals worked well this time. The model was upgraded with Extratech photo etch (landing gear doors), Reskit wheels, metal pitot tube from the spares box and painted with Mr.Hobby acrylics.

Dear fellow Britmodellers, here's my 1/72 Curtiss P-40M from Special Hobby, built from the box. Photographs by Wolfgang Rabel. The kit is SH72486 "Involuntarily from Russia to Finland", including one Soviet and two Finish marking options. I’m always drawn towards aircraft with red stars so I chose "silver 23" from 191. IAP (Fighter Aviation Regiment) in late 1943. Note that the red stars of the kit are printed out of register! Painted with Mr.Hobby acrylics, weathered with artist oils, sealed with Alclad Klear Kote Matt. Some liquid poly crept between the instrument panel coaming and the windscreen frame, fogging the clear part: Thank you for your interest!

The Hobbycraft kits are getting pretty old now, first being issued in 1992. They build up reasonably well, the only real issue is they lack the cut out in the main gear doors to allow the gear leg to pass through it. You need to make this cut yourself, I chose to simply remove the offending gear doors, call it removed for mud build up. Decals are thick, but the colour is good, I ruined the number on the tail myself to scrounged one from the spares box.

There are two kits of Yak-6 in 1/72 available. One is a kit originating from Alfa company which issued it in 1990, then the kit was reboxed by Zvezda, Encore and Mistercraft, just to name the most popular companies (https://www.scalemates.com/products/product.php?id=130690&p=timeline ) . The the second one by A-Model, which appeared recently (I mean in XXI century ). There are many diffeence between them regarding quality of surface, details etc, however there is one basic difference (at least as I have noticed it: the old Alfa (Zvezda, Encore, Mistercraft) model has fixed u/c wheres the newer one has retractable. Here is plastic of old kit: and here is A-model: No doubts which looks better. Moreover, the difference in u/c is also obvious. However, on the web page http://aviarmor.net/aww2/aircraft/ussr/yak-6.htm it is written: Шасси трехопорное, с хвостовым колесом. Первые экземпляры Як-6 (в том числе и НББ) имели убирающиеся главные стойки шасси с ручным приводом и тросовой проводкой. Однако летные испытания показали, что потери максимальной скорости с выпущенным шасси невелики - меньше 20 км/ч, а надежность самолета значительно повышается. Поэтому от уборки решено было отказаться, и вместо "ломающегося подкоса" убирающегося шасси установили жесткий, изготовленный из стальных труб, систему уборки сняли, а створки ниши заменили легкой дюралюминиевой крышкой. Стойки шасси подкосные, телескопические с жидкостно-газовой амортизацией. Колеса с камерными пневматическими тормозами. Костыль самоориентирующийся, с механизмом стопорения. So it is written, that only few early machines (including well photographed prototype of light bomber) has retractable u/c and all remaining couple of hundreds of produced machines have fixed one. I do not have reasons to not believe the Russian web page on it - but I will very grateful to experts who like to comment it. Especially that on photos the u/c legs looks like undergoing some evolution: A prototype of light bomber with retractable u/c Maybe also prototype of light transport machine (no individual number)- the u/c looks like same with retractabe but but the wheel bay doors are closed, what suggests fixed one: serial machines (please note the strut going outside from leg) and here where if those strut exists there are much more upward I hope some clarification of this is needed not only for me. Best regards J-W

Dear fellow Britmodellers, here's my 1/72 Hasegawa B-25J in colors of the Soviet Air Force (VVS) in 1945. Built with addition of PART photo-etch and CMK resin parts. Painted with Gunze/Mr.Hobby acrylics. Photographs by Wolfgang Rabel. Thank you for your interest in this topic. Best greetings from Vienna, Roman

Dear fellow Britmodellers, here's my 1/72 Special Hobby A-20 Boston with Red Stars. The model was painted with Mr.Hobby acrylics. Photographs by Wolfgang Rabel. Thanks to @Kjetil Åkra, @dogsbody, @DLinevitch for their help in research. This kit was first released in 2007 under the MPM brand. Special Hobby added specific parts for the VVS Version with UTK turret (plastic, resin and etch). Unfortunately the turret transparencies are not as clear as the cockpit glazing, and they don't fit well. The oversized defense gun was replaced with a metal item from Mini World. I scratch-built the life raft in the cockpit with paper tissue. The bomb bay was cut open and loaded with Soviet bombs (from a Tamiya Il-2). Photo-etch from Eduard. Previous owner's markings (RAF?) overpainted. This was a pretty challenging build with poor fit throughout. I'd only recommed this kit to seasoned and very patient modellers. Thank you for your interest, best greetings from Vienna! Roman

Dear fellow Britmodellers, here's my 1/72 Kovozávody Prostějov Ilyushin Il-2M, built with the addition of Quickboost guns and pitot tube. Painted with Mr.Hobby acrylics. Photographs by Wolfgang Rabel. This is a re-box of the Smer kit with new fuselage and some small parts. Parts are well cast with good engravings, and fit is okay. I replaced the kit's gun barrels with resin parts from Quickboost (QB72182). The QB set also includes the pitot tube, which is missing on the sprue. KP also overlooked the prominent rudder horn on the fin. I made a replacement from stretched sprue, dipped in white glue to form a 'drop' shape. I fabricated a sling seat for the rear gunner from a piece of photo-etch. It's barely visible behind the defense gun: I was not too happy with the kit's decals. Maybe I should have stored them in a cooler place (my flat gets hot in summer). Silvering is evident on close-ups. The delicate aiming device in front of the canopy is a photo-etch piece stolen from an Eduard Set for the Tamiya kit (there's two included!). Here's my home-made rudder balance which is missing in the kit. In this close-up, you can see the Red Star decal broke when I gently pressed it into the recess. Weathering on the undersides was done with artist oils from Winsor & Newton. ... and here's his squadron mate from Black See Fleet, which I built in 2019 when the KP kit was released: Thank you for your interest! Best greetings from Vienna, Roman

Hello and thanks for your interest, here's my 1/72 Sword Supermarine Spitfire IXe in markings of 26. GIAP, Leningrad, April 1945. Photo etch from Brengun, metal gun barrels from Master, decals from AML ("Lend Lease Spitfires Pt.1", #72018). Painted with acrylics from Sangyo/Gunze. Photographs by Wolfgang Rabel, IGM Cars & Bikes. To represent the overpainted British Roundels, I tried a new technique: I painted a Black disc the size of the Roundel before applying the main airframe colors. Now there's only a soft shadow line visible. Best wishes from Vienna! Roman

Dear fellow Britmodellers, here's my 1/72 ZIS-6 Soviet Army Truck from PST. Painted with acrylics from Mr.Hobby, weathered with artist oils, pastel chalks and graphite pen. Photographs by Wolfgang Rabel. The PST offering not a very exciting kit, but the only (injection-moulded) option for this vehicle in 72 scale. For today's standards the parts are crude (the kit was originally released in the 1990s) and suffer from flash in some places. I built from the box, adding windscreens from clear foil and etched step gratings. It may look like mirrors are missing, but most of these trucks didn't have any! The kit came with a M30 122mm Howitzer which I will present as a seperate item. Thank you for your interest, best greetings from Vienna!

Dear fellow Britmodellers, here's my 1/72 P-63A King Cobra in Soviet Air Force markings from Arsenal Model Group. I built from the box and painted with Gunze/Mr.Hobby acrylics. Photographs by Wolfgang Rabel. This is my first kit from Eastern European manufacturer AMG. The sprues show similarities to Dora Wings and Avis, seems as if these companies are related. The surface quality of parts is excellent, and fit is very good throughout. The box includes a small photo-etch fret (for cockpit details) and a nicely cast resin radio. Vinyl masks are a nice addition, but they don't work well on curved surfaces. Underwing and belly tanks are provided in the kit. Most photographs of Soviet Air Cobras show them without tanks, so I left them off. Unfortunately the model turned out to be a tail-sitter. I added a plastic stand (borrowed from Hasegawa's B-26) for stability. Thank you for your interest! Best greetings from Vienna, Roman

Dear fellow Britmodellers, here's my 1/72 Kovozávody Prostějov Lavochkin La-5 from 4th GIAP, flown by Y.Dimitri in summer 1943. I painted with Gunze/Mr.Hobby acrylics, decals are from the box. All photographs by Wolfgang Rabel. This is the updated version released by KP in 2020, which differs from the original 2015 boxing by finer surface details. The pitot tube was replaced by a piece of steel wire. I also replaced the tail fin antenna with stretched sprue. The sharkmouth was problematic to apply as it did not want to conform to the engine cowling. I had to use copious amounts of setting solution, pressing the decal onto the surface repeatedly with cotton buds. I was still left with some slight wrinkling. Thank you for your interest, best greetings from Vienna! Roman

Dear fellow Britmodellers, here's my 1/72 Eastern Express Yak-9D (a rebox of the Dakoplast moulds), painted with Gunze/Mr.Hobby acrylics. Photographs by Wolfgang Rabel. I added Extratech photo-etch for interior details, antenna mast and landing gear doors. The sliding hood is a vacu part from Rob Taurus. The kit wheels which are slightly oversized were replaced with Reskit resin parts. Decals from the box worked surprisingly well and represent the aircraft of Mikhail Ivanovich Grib of 6.IAP in 1944. Thank you for your interest! Best greetings from Vienna. Roman

Hello Everybody ... This is my take on a VVS lend-lease Hurricane built for the Brits abroad G/Build. It doesn't represent a specific unit/aircraft. It is my interpratation of a well used Hurricane IIB in Soviet use. I opted to paint it in winter white wash. Specific mods include the replacement of the 8 core .303’s with the heavier Soviet guns, the associated panel lines, & the RS-82 Rockets and Rails. Without further talk I present my white Hurricane. I hope this passes muster. Please feel free to question, comment, or joke. If you’d like to see the WIP please follow the link. Dennis

Hi folks, this is the Special Hobby kit built with CMK sets (Engine set, Landing flaps) that required some surgery, along with Rescue Models Intake and Cockpit aft that improved rather simplified kit's parts. Markings were airbrushed using custom made masks by Omask.cz, based on Massimo Tessitori Soviet Airplane site. The "White 23" belonged to 78.IAP of VVS SF (North Fleet). I also used great Airone Hobby Fabric effect masks. The kit was painted with Gunze Aqueous, Aeromaster and AK Real Colors. Cheers, Libor

Dear fellow Britmodellers, this is Zvezda's 1/72 Petlyakov Pe-8. I picked this kit from an IMPS swap meet many moons ago, for a very reasonable price (around 15€); that's what led me to believe it was either an old mold or a re-box of the Amodel kit. I was surprised to find out that this is a modern state-of-the-art tooling with fine surfaces and sufficient details. Eduard provide paint masks, which I used, given the plethora of small windows and turrets. I used aftermarket decals from AML, which I had bought 3-4 years ago. Their products seem to have a lifespan similar to fresh milk. I have had serious problems with their decals before, and it was troublesome with this sheet as well, with some of the stars and slogans exploding into dozens of fragments when trying to slide them off their backing paper. In the end I had to use what was left, therefore my model has a combination of silver patriotic slogans and white-bordered-stars (which I took from an old Propagteam sheet that worked well). The model was painted with Gunze/Mr.Hobby acrylics. This Pe-8 is currently my biggest 72 scale model, even dwarfing the massive B-24 Liberator on my shelf! To give you an idea of its size, I parked my recently finished 1/72 Italeri Macchi 205 under the wing: All photographs by Wolfgang Rabel of IGM Cars & Bikes, thank you.

Dear fellow Britmodellers, here's my 1/72 Eduard Spitfire IXe, built from the "Royal Class Boxing". This aircraft was flown by Maj. Vasiliy Antonovich Matsievich of 29. GIAP, in 1945. Painted with Gunze/Mr.Hobby acrylics. Photographs by Wolfgang Rabel. Major Matsievich was the commander of 29. GIAP in May 1945. He started his flying career during the Russo-Finish war in 1939/1940, scoring his first two (shared) victories on an I-16. Later in the war, he flew Hurricanes, Yak-9s and the Spitfire. He scored 5 more kills: one Ju-88, one He-111 and three Bf-109s. Matsievich was awarded the Order of Lenin, twice Order of the Red Banner, Order of Alexander Nevski, Order of the Patriotic War 1st Class, twice Order of the Red Star. He passed away in 1981, aged 68. (Source: Soviet Fighter Aces 1941-1945, Waldemar Trojca, VDM) Thank you for your interest, best greetings from Vienna Roman

Finally, let me show something too! The theme is (to me personally the most beautiful WW2 aircraft) the MiG-3 with UBK gun pods that was shot down in the fall of 1941, although there is no information on this aircraft. I based the model on the data provided by the famous Masimo Tessitori on his page ( https://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/mig3/shotdown5/shotdown5.html ) and I won't go into a much more detailed story about the apparatus itself. The model itself is already well known and is the original 1/48 ICM cast. I finished it around 2015 (started 4/5 years earlier), but just now I found it appropriate to take a picture of it: (and to dusted it). As I have listened to all sorts of things over the years, I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised! Despite the strange break down of wings, I had no major problems fitting! The level of detail is at an adequate level and with a little effort it is possible to raise model to a higher category. But to be true, not so new Trumpeter's MiG-3 is better for the class, but IMHO ICM is holding water pretty decent! The paint job is free handed airbrushing and the top greens are Humbrol 151 (or the new 226, I'm not sure but in any case FS34151), and Humbrol 91. The lower mix is Humbrol 65 + 47 in 1/1. Yellow 5 is brush painted. Weathering is a combination of dry pastels, oils, watercolor pencils (silver, green and gray). I had terrible problems with the airbrush because it functioned as a single action gun due to the faulty nozzle. Pardon me for such long story and for the bad photos (and the amount of them)! Hopefully next time it will be much! From https://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/mig3/shotdown5/shotdown5.html

Good day, hobby colleagues! I continue to lay out my builds for you to review. This time - a unique model of the Soviet fighter, who never went into the series, although he managed to fight. Pleasant viewing, thanks for your attention) P.S. I apologize again for the clumsy English. Blame Google Translate

Dear fellow Britmodellers, here's my 1/72 Kovozávody Prostějov Lavochkin La-5F (KPM0174). This is one of the new boxings from KP with updated moulds (finer surface details), released in 2020. I built from the box except for the pitot tube and the tail fin antenna which I replaced with wire. Markings represent "White 94", an aircraft of 159. GIAP, operating in the Leningrad region, in summer 1944. Painted with Gunze/Mr. Hobby acrylics. Photgraphs by Wolfgang Rabel. Thank you for your interest in this topic, best greetings from Vienna!

Dear fellow Britmodellers, I built Brengun's Yak-1 "Aces" boxing with markings for Mikhail Dmitrievich Baranov's "Red 1", flown in summer 1942 with 183.IAP. The kit is a multi-media affair, with plastic, etch and resin parts. Painted with Gunze/Mr.Hobby acrylics, weathered with artists oils from Winsor & Newton. Photographs by Wolfgang Rabel. # Thank yo for your interest in this topic. A detailled build review will appear in an upcoming edition of Scale Aviation Modeller International. Best greetings from Vienna, Roman

Hello, here's my attempt on Valom's 1/72 Yakolev Yak-7 (Late Production) in markings of 728. IAP, 1943/1944. Decals from the box. The kit includes photo-etched details for the cockpit such as belts and instrument panel and resin cockpit sidewalls and wheels (which I did not use because of serious fit issues). Although similar in the sprue layout, this kit is not identical with the Dakoplast and ICM moldings. It's of short-run nature and needs some TLC to build. Painted with acylics from the Gunze/Sangyo range. All pictures by Wolfgang Rabel of IGM Cars & Bikes. Thanks for lookin' ... best wishes from Vienna! Roman

Dear fellow Britmodellers, here's the new 1/72 Zvezda Pe-2 in markings of 34th Guards Bomber Regiment, Leningrad, December 1944. I built from the box with addition of Mini Art defense guns. Painted with Gunze/Mr.Hobby acrylics. Photographs by Wolfgang Rabel. The new Zvezda kit is excellent in detail and fit, comparable to Tamiya offerings. Alternative parts enable you to build aircraft of different production batches. 5 attractive color options are included, 4 Russian, 1 Polish post-war. The kit decals perform exceptionally well. I really enjoyed building this model kit and can recommend it to all modelers with an interest in Russian WW2 aircraft. Thank you for your interest in this topic. Best greetings from Vienna!

Dear fellow Britmodellers, here's the new KP Ilyushin Il-2M, a re-box of the Smer kit with new parts added. Painted with Gunze/Mr.Hobby acrylics. Photographs by Wolfgang Rabel. Hope you like my result, best greetings from Vienna! Roman

Dear fellow Britmodellers, here's my 1/72 Special Hobby P-40K in Russian markings. Built out of the box, painted with Gunze/Mr.Hobby acrylics. Photographs by Wolfgang Rabel. A full build review will appear in an upcoming edition of Scale Aviation Modeller International. With best greetings from Vienna, Roman