The poor guys at Zvezda released this excellent kit just before "things went south" last year. For those who may be concerned about dealing with a company based in "that place," Vlad at Eduard says "they're OK," which is good enough for me. I found this last year through a dealer in Poland. Then I learned Eduard was doing some aftermarket for it, so I decided to wait for those items.

The Eduard aftermarket I have used here is a Zoom instrument panel - these are always good in any kit for enhancing the cockpit. I used it and the accompanying photoetch seat belts. I also have a set of 3D hollowed exhausts I will use, and 3D resin wheels which do look better than what's in the kit - though what's in the kit is more than adequate.

The kit can be built either with everything open in the nose, or closed up. If you choose to open it up, you have the makings of a great diorama of an airplane being serviced, and ICM even has a set of Soviet Red Air Force figures, so you don't have to go digging around.

Before proceeding further, this is one of the fiddliest kits I have done; it's so fiddly, the Eduard guys would say "this is pretty darn fiddly, you know?" so if that's not your thing, this is the a kit from the Wong Foo King Hobby Shop for you. If, however, you want to have what is without a doubt the best Yak-9 kit in 1/48 scale, this is what you want. The Modelsvit Yak-9 series - Yak-9D, -9DD and -9T released three years ago have been considered the best out there, and they were, till this showed up. Construction is from the inside out and you have to bring your A-Game to the project. All the parts - all of which are delicately done in soft plastic to make things a little more difficult - have to be absolutely cleaned off. You need to test fit and be sure you have read and understood the instructions before applying glue. You have to assemble with real care. Hamfistedness will get you sent to bed without any supper. If you do all this, the result is worth the extra effort, at least to me.

The decals are OK, but I have the old Aeromaster "Fighting Yakovlevs," which has the boxart airplane, the well-known "22" Yak-9D from the Black Sea Fleet on the Southern (Ukraine) Front, summer 1944. Do use the color plan the kit provides, do not read the Aeromaster paint guide, that's from back before there was real knowledge of Red Air Force paint and camouflage.

So, here we go.

1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

The first step in assembling the airframe is to assemble the upper wing parts. Be certain to scrape down the interior of the trailing edge of the lower wing part so that you will get a good fight fit of the upper wing, since you have the lower trailing edge as part of the upper wing to get a knife blade trailing edge. If you don't do that, you will lose all the detail of the flaps trying to get rid of the seam that runs through the flap area.

When you attach the upper wings, they must fit TIGHT! Get that lower rear area of the flaps so everything is in tight. Then the same with the leading edge, so the location for the leading edge intakes has no ridges. If you do not do this, nothing will fit. Practic getting everything tight because you need to do that throughout this assembly.

Once the wings are done, attach a fuselage half. Get everything glued in solid - all the edges of the cockpit interior, etc. get the nose area glued tight. Let that all set up solid before attaching the other fuselage half. If you do this, everything will fit and you will only use perhaps a little CA glue along the rear upper centerline seam - if you get it really right, you won't even need to do that.

1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

Great entry and ditto progress, my friend @tcinla! Great build details, as well!

Looking superb so far, my friend @tcinla!

Painted - my mixtures for Soviet colors. Managed to find (and correct) some assembly mistakes.

5 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Definitely sporting the distinctive and beloved soviet shades, my friend @tcinla!
Looks super!