Yak-7 Correction Set

Gremlin Models to the

Reviewed by Brett Green

ICM's 1/48 scale Yak-7 kits are nicely detailed and inexpensive kits, but they suffer from some accuracy problems. These are associated with the profile of the fuselage, the oil cooler housing, the propeller blades and the spinner. 

Gremlin Models of Yugoslavia released a full 1/48 scale kit of the significant but neglected Lavochkin La-5 early last year. Now they have turned their attention to the Yak-7. Considering that the ICM kit has many positive aspects, Gremlin Models has produced a simple yet substantial conversion to correct the outline accuracy issues while using most of the ICM kit parts.

The main parts are total replacements for the kit fuselage halves. The principle differences are the repositioned and resized cockpit opening, the slightly squared-off nose and the different leading edge profile for the fin. A new reshaped rudder, spinner, propeller, oil cooler housing and canopy are also included.

Research for the correction set was undertaken with the help of factory drawings, photographs and preserved examples of the Yak-7 family at the Yugoslav Aviation Museum.

My references are ambiguous (to say the least) about the shapes of some of these components, but some areas are definite improvements. These include the positioning of the cockpit, the shape of the spinner and the new propeller blades (the prop blades are just plain weird in the ICM kit). I am not suggesting that other details are not accurate, but it is certainly possible that variations existed along the production run. The shapes depicted on the Gremlin set seem to be most applicable to a Yak-7A, but check your own references carefully when depicting a particular aircraft.

The definition of the resin is a bit disappointing. The parts have a waxy texture. Thorough cleaning is soapy water will be required. Surface detail on the ICM kit is very crisp for panel lines and the distinctive fabric covered rear fuselage, but much of this crispness is lost in the resin replacement parts. It will be a fairly simple matter to restore panel lines and hatches using a scriber, but there is no easy way to reproduce the fabric texture.

Nevertheless, the resin is quite thin and only displays one pinhole in the whole set. There are also no casting blocks, so cleanup will be very fast.

Two vacform replacement canopies are supplied. They are not bad - fairly clear but they do lack definition for the canopy framing.

All the resin pieces are complete replacements for ICM parts, so almost no surgery to the kit will be required. Almost, but not quite. The propeller blades will have to be sliced from the hub to be replaced by Gremlin's individual resin items.

This is an interesting correction set that will certainly give you a unique Yak-7. All of the outline problems noted by Mike Good in his 1999 review of the kit are addressed, and a few more besides. A few minutes with some soapy water and a few more minutes with a scriber should improve the standard of the resin parts.

If you do decide you want one of these Gremlin correction sets, you'd better get in quick. Only 100 are being produced!

Recommended to experienced modellers and Soviet WWII enthusiasts.

Thanks to Aleksej Ilic of Gremlin Models for the review sample

Gremlin Models are available via email enquiry to Gremlin Models

Review and Image Copyright © 2002 by Brett Green
Page Created 16 January, 2002
Last updated 22 July, 2003

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