Pavla 1/48th Yak-7 Upgrade Set By Gary Byrne

Contents: 23 parts on 17 carriers cast in cream coloured resin
Pros: some excellent parts for the landing gear
Cons: some parts appear to be duplicates of kit parts.

he Pravla Models update set for ICM Yak 7s contains a new radiator, ailerons, horizontal stabilizers and elevators, rudder, “weighted” wheels, landing gear bay door covers including actuators for the smaller doors, complete tail wheel assembly, scissor links for all three struts and a detail insert for the oil cooler. Some of the parts are extremely fine and delicate. In my set the tail wheel scissor link had broken and the two gear door actuators had come off the carrier resulting in the loss of one, however my set did have to travel from the Czech Republic to Canada.

There are some very nice replacement parts in this set notably the main gear improvements. The bay doors are paper thin and nicely detailed on both sides and the wheels are well detailed and have a natural “weighted” look – even the tail wheel has a slight bulge. The horizontal stabilizers and elevators are cast separately to allow them to be modeled in a raised or lowered position and parts are appropriately grooved and rounded along the edges where they meet.

All the control surfaces have had notches added to improve their look. The radiator has had the shape of the cap corrected and interior detail added.

Upon comparison of the resin parts to the kit parts it appears to me that the kit control surfaces and radiator were used as the model for the cast parts. This is where I have a problem with the update set. Other than the details noted above no other improvements were made to the control surfaces, stabilizers or radiator. They are in fact identical in every other way.

I would have expected to see the same level of detail that is shown on gear bay doors on all the parts. For example I would have expected a replacement radiator to have captured the slightly rounded shape and subtle taper that should be there or a replacement rudder to have corrected the location of the trim tab.

I have mixed emotions about this set because there is a lot of good stuff in here. It just seems to me that if you are going to release an update set then all the updated parts should be made as accurately as possible. If you are looking to improve the look of your Yak 7’s landing gear or if you want to reposition the elevators and don’t want the cut them off yourself this set will definitely help but if you are looking for a correctly shaped radiator or better looking control surfaces this is not the kit to buy.