Decal Sheet Review:  VVS Fighters, Part V

[All decal sheet scans have been deliberately skewed and distorted at random angles to dissuade illegal reproduction or Copyright infringement by any such parties. The precise line and measurement of any specific marking, therefore, should not be taken literally from these illustrations.]

   AeroMaster has released this new sheet of VVS fighters based on profiles out of A.V. Stankov's book "Porshnevie Istebiteli Yak; Perioda 1941-45 v Polkakh VVS  Vol.2" ("Yak Piston [engined] Fighters of the 1941-45 Period in VVS Regiments  Vol.2") [Ukraina i Mir 1999]. Stankov has served in the Ukrainian Air Force Command, and is a technical consultant to several journals and other publications on modern VVS subjects. Alas, he has no specific expertise in Great Patriotic War era subjects, and this fact is reflected in the volume at hand.
    Stankov was clever in retrieving photographs from collections that are unusual and unexamined by normal VVS historians. Many of the pictures published in "Yak Vol.2" appear to come both from individual pilots (whom Stankov did interview), and also from curious sources like magazine and newspaper archives. These are invaluable in that they were previously unknown, and show interesting subjects. However, they are also difficult in that the vast majority of these photographs were taken with the low-quality, high-sensitivity journalistic type film that I complain about at length on this site (and elsewhere). These images are extremely poor in virtually every respect, and are very difficult indeed to analyze with any accuracy. Compounded by Stankov's lack of GPW-era VVS research credentials, the results in "Yak Vol.2" are not inspiring.

    Alas--and this should in no way be construed as a criticism of AeroMaster--the resulting decal sheet, based on this volume, reflects many of Stankov's errors. That being said, the decals themselves are quite excellent, are said to apply and adhere well to all prepared surfaces, and do not 'silver' or bubble with the application of solvents.

    Let's turn our attention to Stankov's profiles, and the resulting schemes.

Decal Sheet Schemes

1. Yak-1B "White 5", Nikolai Zotkin, 427 IAP. Despite the existence of overwhelming evidence on the printed photograph for shading and the effects of lighting, the numeral "5" has been interpreted as being silver in color. This idea is utterly insuperable, and the hue value present on the picture in no way matches the appearance of AII Aluminum on any film type; it is certainly white. There is also no hint of a black border around the national star on the fuselage side, which is a plain red type. The star on the fin/rudder is trimmed in white again, with similar observations on a spurious 'silver' interpretation. The upper view of the camouflage scheme as drawn by Stankov is incorrect. The actual scheme present is a rather 'messy' version of a common 1943 Saratov pattern in AMT-6/-4/-7. The cowl and spinner are completed in red.
2. Yak-9U "White 29", Georgiy Stepanov, 151 GIAP. The decals set provided for this machine are excellent, and modelers will have no trouble producing an authentic version of this aircraft with them. The side camouflage profile provided by Stankov is quite beyond comprehension, and should be ignored. The markings, however, are expertly drawn. The spinner appears to be white in color; I cannot imagine how the artist decided that it was blue. The color scheme here looks to be a 1944 Omsk applied pattern in AMT-12/-11/-7.
3. Yak-1B "White 47", Yakov Kutikhin, 156 GIAP. The two photos published of this aircraft are amongst the worst of the entire "Yak Vol.2" book, and this makes any analysis quite difficult. The evidence on the pictures points to a Black over Green scheme, almost certainly AMT-6/-4/-7 given the date. There is no evidence of AII colors, including AII Dark Green. The visible pattern does not correspond to any known Factory application, and there is evidence of considerable re-painting. As such, a field applied camouflage is likely, but the pattern suggested by Stankov seems thoroughly improbable. Once again, there is no evidence for black borders around any of the nation star markings; these are clearly plain red types. The 'eagle' and 'arrow' artwork is well completed, and seems to be accurate.
4. Yak-1B "White 38", A. Shokurov, 156 GIAP. The available photograph of this machine is completely useless. Showing only a close-up of the nose and pilot, and being of the poorest possible quality (over-exposed journalist type film with bad camera settings), no critique of the scheme is possible; it remains unknown. One might note Stankov's continuing use of the ridiculous nomenclature "Yak-1M" as a guide to the accuracy of this scheme.
5. Yak-7B "White 32", E. Shutov, 29 GIAP. No photograph is provided of this aircraft, and therefore the scheme remains unknown. Stankov cites the Production Number for this machine as No.4415332; if true, the machine would have been painted in a Black/Green (AMT-6/-4/-7) livery, not in greys (AMT-12/-11). One also hopes that the resulting trim color is a printing difficulty in the book "Yak Vol.2" and was intended to be yellow, and that Mr.Stankov is not seriously suggesting that the spinner and rudder were painted with 'Safety Orange'.

Summary
    AeroMaster's sheet "Falcons of the Red Star, Part I" is another fine decal effort led astray by rather dubious resource material. AeroMaster should be congratulated for releasing another set of nice VVS decals, however. The accuracy, registration, and properties of these sheets are quite good, and I (for one) look forward to the work of this company when more accurate sources of information on VVS aircraft emerge in print.