Introduction
The following introduction is as supplied by ICM:
The Yak-9K is a front-line fighter with heavy cannon armament. It became a continuation of the Yak-9 fighter line and a modification of the serial Yak-9T aircraft. Its feature was a 45-mm gun NS-45, which was placed in the ‘V’ of the engine and fired through the gearbox shaft. To reduce the force of recoil when fired, the barrel of the gun was equipped with a clearly visible muzzle brake, which absorbed up to 85% of the energy of the shot and was the main visual difference of the aircraft. The armament also included a large-calibre UBS machine gun. Shooting from a cannon and a machine gun could be conducted simultaneously, and they could also be used separately. The ammunition consisted of 29 cannon shots and 200 cartridges for the machine gun. Powerful gun armament made it possible to hit enemy aircraft with a single projectile. These aircrafts were involved in combat operations at the front and were recommended for adoption as one of the main types of fighters. However, its 45 mm gun was underdeveloped, and despite its powerful armament, the fighter was only produced in a small series.
Review
ICM has released the second of their 1/32nd scale Yak 9 fighters; a superb aircraft of its time from most accounts. This release is packaged in the usual style with the kit parts packed in a single bag; I would like to see this approach modified to help protect the mouldings from damage due to becoming locked together or warped due to pressure from all of the sprues being packed together, fortunately the kit parts here look to be as they should. The decals are protected by being inserted into the instruction booklet and so safe unless made damp. The flip top cardboard tray is a good packing method and is finished off with a separate card lid.
The interior of this model has a portion of the tubular frame that gives the aircraft its strength, and these also have a good number of parts to dress the cockpit up. The seat has a nice level of detail, but ICM has again not provided any harness detail, which I feel is a must for models in this scale. The instrument panel has a good level of moulding were dial detail is concerned, with a decal provided to lift that detail further. I myself would look for an aftermarket instrument panel, as I feel this would improve the office greatly. One area that has changed is the shelf set up behind the pilots seat tah holds the radio set and accumulator.
Also included in this release, is a model of the engine that incorporates that large cannon that made this aircraft such a formidable aircraft in both the tank killer role and a fighter as one round was very able to bring down an enemy aircraft. The moulded detail is good by my judgement, but extra work will be required to dress the engine up such as wiring and fuel lines. The barrel of the cannon will not need the muzzle drilled to improve the detail of this 1/32nd scale offering as it does not protrude and so cannot be seen. I suspect that a replacement barrel sets will become available for this model in time.
Looking at the exterior of the model, and the hard and soft areas you will find reasonable texture and very nice small and shallow panel lines. ICM has considered the modeller who wishes to display the engine bay, providing ammunition cans for the weapons mounted in the engine bay, and even the support frame underneath the top engine cowling is provided as an option. The intakes have a reasonable level of detail as regards the radiators, but again this could be lifted via the addition of aftermarket parts. An aspect of this model that I like is that the lower half of the wing is provided as a single moulding to which you add one of the wing spars and also panels that sit within the wheel base, adding a particularly nice level of detail to this area. The wing spar that is included helps support the upper wing surfaces, and interestingly also the pilots controls are mounted to the lower wing before being mated with the fuselage.
The flight controls of this model aircraft are provided separately, enabling the modeller to decide how they wish to represent. Moving back to the main undercarriage, the legs have reasonable detail having separate torsion links and nice detail on the doors on both faces. The wheels are provided in two halves, which could make it difficult to hide the seam line between the parts due to the nice detail provided. However, the wheels are not weighted and I do not know if the torsion links are correctly angled for a vehicle in flight or on the ground.
ICM has provided three finishing options for this release which are as follows:
Yak-9K, 274th Fighter Aviation Regiment, August 1944
Yak-9K, 43rd Fighter Aviation Regiment, 1944
Yak-9K, 812th Fighter Aviation Regiment, Germany, 1945
The decals provided have been printed to a high quality, and running a finger over them I can only just feel them on the carrier paper. an interesting change is that the Soviet stars are no longer shown on the finishing options only indicated as is the case with the Swastika.
Conclusion
This is the second Yak-9 from ICM in 1/32nd scale and changes are small even for those that know what changes to look for; if the engine is not exposed then the changes become even smaller. So with that said how do I feel about this release? I like 1/32nd scale as my eyes are not as good as they used to be, and can you really have too many models after all. I really do wish they would address the lack of harness detail in this releases and all of their kits in this large scale. Looking at what is included I am pleased and see no major hiccups during the build process. The decals are off a good quality and do not need to be replaced. For those looking to expose the oily parts of the model a lot has been provided although you could always choose to provide extra details.