So it's been about a year, I thought I would update this.
My mission is to make models, in the "gentleman's scale" of 1/72 (for reasons of both space and budget) of most of the important fighters and light bombers of the middle years of WW2, say mid 1941 through mid 1943. I'm not a fantastic modeller, I don't even own an airbrush if that tells you anything, so I'm not creating works of art, I'm just trying to put together and paint reasonably accurate examples of the key aircraft that were duking it out during the tipping point of the war, so that I can look at them all in the same scale and get a better feel for it all.
When I started this project I noticed to my surprise, given how many models and model companies are around these days, that a lot of really key aircraft are very hard to find in 1/72, some in any scale at all. I've been learning and finding what I can, and I've made a few more kits since the last post.
So first, I made that IAR-80, and though my skills are very limited, I'm quite happy with it. (It's about a year old so it's very dusty in the pic but maybe one day I'll acquire a case to keep them in so that doesn't happen. )Sadly that company Sova-M (whoever that actually is) seems to make very few if any other WW2 planes. It was a good kit, fit together well, seems to be accurate, had nice decals and came out looking nice (again, given the inept construction and brush painting).
Next, one of the biggest holes in my list: the Russian fighters. Mid-war Soviet fighters are extremely hard to find good kits for. The only really ubiquitous one is the Yak-3, which seemingly every model company makes. The Yak-3 is a fantastic, elegant aircraft, but it went into action in 1944. I think we need some representation for the fighters that did the most to win the war against the Germans during the crucial years of Stalingrad and Kursk. Next most popular after the Yak-3 are La - 7 or La - 5FN, the latter being close enough to my period that I bought one. All the other Yak fighters the Yak 1 (8,700 produced), the Yak 7 (6,399 produced) and even the mighty Yak 9 (16,000 produced, through 1951) are very difficult to find a good kit for in the gentleman's scale, and are fairly rare even in 1/48 or 1/32. The very ubiquitous LaGG-3 is also rare (though I made one of the cheap Eastern European kits of it) but the MiG-3 for some reason seems popular and you can find them. Maybe because it looked cool even though it was crap. I'll probably get one eventually.
My focus though is on the key front-line designs that really helped turn the tide. I found two fairly rare kits for important mid-war Soviet fighters worthy of attempting to build, and made the mistake of trying to do them at the same time thinking they were both oldish kits and looked pretty simple. The first was an old Zvezda La-5FN kit and the second was a Brengun Yak-1 "1942 edition". The Zvezda went together easily but lacked a lot of details or parts, though the actual real WW2 fighter was fairly bare bones. For example the kit didn't have any cover below the back part of the canopy, it was just open down into the fuselage. I thought that was a mistake and cut out a piece of paper to put in there as a panel. After I had already glued the canopy in place I found photos of real La-5's where this was actually open. I guess that is one way to save weight!
All in all the Zvezda La 5FN was a good kit, because it fit together fairly well and looks reasonably accurate. But it's one you'd probably want to get some aftermarket parts for if you were trying to create a masterpiece. I'm pretty sure it's an old one because their more recent kits (like the Yak-3, Fw 190, Bf 109F-2, and Ju 88 that I have made) are all excellent and have far more detail.
The Brengun Yak-1 kit was different, I still enjoyed making it, but it went together at a much slower pace than the La 5 mainly because 1) it had a lot more parts (not a bad thing necessarily), 2) many of those parts were photo etch or resin (also not necessarily a bad thing but not my favorite) and 3) most of them didn't seem to fit together that well. I wasn't sure if the bad fit was due to my poor
skillz or the actual kit itself, but it was a struggle for me I started them both simultaneously and tried to make them in parallel, the La 5 was already done when I was still struggling to fit the wings and fuselage together on the Yak. Eventually out of impatience I basically gave up on sanding and puttying and shimming with some of the more egregious seams remaining (as you can see in the photo). I also personally find photo-etch and resin to be a bit of a struggle, particularly resin for some reason... there was a moment where a resin wheel was superglued to my fingertip which I shudder to remember... that again is probably just due to my clumsiness.
So I'd say Brengun is worth buying if you want a Yak-1, it is an interesting challenge and will give you something that looks about right. It also includes a couple of different canopy variations which is nice. But I think a cleaner, easier kit would be good to have. So far I have not been able to find a Yak-1B (quite different and far more capable than the earlier Yak-1), a Yak-7B, or any of the several important variants of the Yak-9 in 1/72 except for the ICM, Roden, and / or Valom kits which I'm leery of. MPM, Revell Germany, Zvezda, Eduard, or Airfix, are you listening? (I know probably not). Anyway, it would be nice to have some better options. The Yak-9 is a hugely important aircraft in WW2 it's ridiculous that we don't have a nicer kit available.
But yeah I know, those are Soviet planes, Russians and even Central Asians flew them. Many people don't agree with me that they were great planes with great pilots. Ok. But how about this - who can find me a current, reasonably accurate mid-war P-38? or really any P-38, in the gentleman's scale?
I searched and searched for a 1/72 P-38, and I found two so far, neither really acceptable. One was an ancient, I think 1960's vintage Hasegawa, which has the benefit of being a very rare early model P-38 (even though it was with these that Bong and McGuire ran up their astonishing victory tallies). I have made the Hasegawa one, and tried to dress it up like a weather worn New Guinea veteran, the other one which I bought but haven't made yet is a Hobby Boss (Chinese) which is one of those weird kits with like 5 parts. Though this aged Hassegawa P-38F will do for the time being, like the first couple they sent to Port Moreseby, more and better options are badly needed! I'm not satisfied and am still searching.
Summary and whingeing
Overall, I feel like several key planes are either missing or poorly represented in this scale. I'm not satisfied with my
Aichi D3A so I bought another Fujimi one which is hopefully a little nicer than the old one I made, I bought an Italeri
Bf 109F-4 but it has poor reviews. Seeing as this was the German pilots favorite fighter, and the most important type during the most crucial years in Russia and the Middle East, there ought to be more and better kits. The Zvezda 109F-2 is great but the F-4 was more important. We'll see what I can do with the Italeri maybe it's good enough. The lack of
P-38s is ridiculous. There should be a few mid-war types to represent the struggle in the Pacific and in the Med where this type was fighting very hard. And I still think we need a lot more Soviet fighters. We still need a ggood
LaGG-3 kit (I'd say at least 2 or 3 variants) we need a good early
Yak -1, a good
Yak-1B, a good
Yak -7, and at least two variants for the
Yak-9, probably 3 or 4 would be ideal (early Yak-9, Yak-9T with the big 37mm gun (3,000 produced), Yak-9D or DD, and Yak-9U).
I'm making a few more bombers and have come to the conclusion that the
Martin Baltimore was probably the RAF's single most important type in the Med, followed by the
A-20. Fortunately though they had been rare for a long time, MPM has made a very nice looking early A-20 kit and also a later war one. I'm doing the early / Med kit soon and will post here when I do it, it looks great in the box. For the Baltimore only Azur and Frog seem to make them, I don't really know if either kit is very good but both are pretty expensive. I'm leery.
Aside from that, I found a Revell Germany Ventura, pretty rare bird - I was looking for a Hudson which I found but only after this one was made.
And Zvezda makes a very nice Ju 88, not a very rare kit and it shouldn't be, as it was a very important aircraft to the German War effort, particularly in the Med and Russian Front.
And Tamiya made this (to me) quite nice Il-2 kit though I didn't do a beautiful job of it. Fortunately the Il-2 doesn't seem to be rare in this scale.