klugi
Airman 1st Class
The Yakovlew Yak 1, was originally called the I-26, it was developed at the OKB 115 facility which was headed by Alexander Yakovlev. Having no prior experience designing fighters Yakovlev was ordered to build the new aircraft by Joseph Stalin personally. The maiden flight took place on the 13th of January 1940. Numerous snags did not allow the prototype to pass the national tests. During the trials 123 different deficiencies were discovered. Regardless of these issues the prototype was ordered into a serial production, various corrections and alterations were made during production. Aircraft of the same series often varied depending on which fixes were applied. The Yak-1b, mistakenly called the Yak-1M for many years, was a lighter development of the original. The turtle deck was cut down, a bubble canopy was installed, and the armament was modified among other numerous changes.
The 1st Fighter Aviation Regiment of the Peoples Republic of Poland began its existence in 1943 as the 1st Independent Fighter Squadron at the Grigoriewskie airfield in the USSR. After an influx of volunteers it was decided to reform the squadron to regiment strength of three flights. Most of the candidates had no pre-war training as the vast majority Polish pilots had escaped to the west after the fall of Poland in 1939. Those who did not were executed by the soviets in the Katyń Massacre of 1940. The units ranks were bolstered by Russians of Polish descent. The command positions were given to Russians with front line experience. The unit trained on UT-2, Yak-7 and Yak-1 aircraft retired from front line duty. In 1944 the unit was re-equipped with brand new Yak-1b fighters and sent to the front.
White 48 was donated by Wolf Messing, a Polish ex-pat living in the Soviet Union who made his living as a clairvoyant. It is said that his connections went to the very top of the Kremlin. The aircraft was intended to go to the most senior Polish pilot and as such it was given to Medard Konieczny, one of two pre-war Polish pilots in the unit. The aircraft received a foundation slogan in Polish and Russian, it indicated that the fighter was a gift to Polish pilots from a Polish patriot. White 48 was slightly different from the remainder of the units aircraft as it was manufactured at a different factory. According to Medard Konieczny, who eventually became the units political officer, the slogan was painted over before the unit deployed to the front. An interesting fact is that another of the units Yak's also received the same slogan at a later date. White 13 was decorated with the inscription and given to a "star pupil", Edward Chromy, during 3rd flight's ceremony for completing fighter training. According to Konieczny, after deploying to the front white 48 sustained moderate battle damage. The plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire and flew home in a constant side slip, after landing safely at the field he discovered that a part of the elevator had been shot off. Crew chief Józef Trzeciak repaired the fighter over night and the plane survived the war without further damage.
Building the Accurate Miniatures Yak-1b was a lot of fun, it was also quite a challenge. I tried to build it as close to the real aircraft as possible but the lack of documentation and the fact that changes were made during serial production of the original made the task very difficult. I used the following sources during the build; Skrzydła W Miniaturze Jak-1M - Zbigniew Lurnac, Monografie Lotnicze Jak 1 Jak 3 - Robert Bock, Lotnictwo z Szachownica, Nr 51 - Jaki Wolfa Messinga - Wojciech Zmyslany, I also received extensive help from modeling friends on the forums. Some of the modifications and additions include; separated control surfaces, new control stick, cockpit equipment, seat belts, modified exhaust, turbo charger intake, machine gun trough, gun sight, landing gear struts, brake lines, tail wheel doors, pitot tube, antenna attachments, canopy leaver and the formation lights. The model represents the aircraft in the autumn of 1944 while operating from the muddy grass strip in Zadybie Starye, Poland, before the liberation of Warsaw.
Here are a few shots from the build
And here is the completed kit
A few closeups
And finally one more "period" shot.
Cheers
Well done.
