| Robert Panek "Yakovlev Yak-9U & P" | Published by Mushroom Model Publication in Poland in 2006. You get 112 high quality and slickly produced pages consisting of type history for the first thirty pages illustrated with black and white photo's. However, from that point onwards you get nothing but colour starting with colour photo's from the Korean War. Then there is a big section of colour walkaround photo's of examples at the Aviation Museum in Monino, the Gynia Museum in Prague and the Polish Army Museum in Warsaw. From page 86 onward you get a whole load of original colour artworks of different machines. The colour walkaround photo's from the present day preserved machines are compared to similar black and white shots from wartime examples. There are also scrap views and sketches of certain features such as the engine. This is as much as you could possibly hope for from a book for the modeller and is highly recommended.
| Squadron/Signal "Yak Fighter In Action" | Published by Squadron/Signal in 1986. Written by Hans-Heiri Stapfer with illustrations by Don Greer and Joe Sewell. Fifty-eight pages gives you a center spread of colour artworks. This volume covers I-26 prototypes, Yak-1, Yak-3, Yak-7, Yak-9, Yak-11, Yak-15, Yak-17 and Yak-23. The last three are early jet fighters. E ach subject has a good three view line-drawn layout that could almost pass as a scale plan. As usual for this In Action series you also get a reasonable selection of sketches showing the major differences between each type. Photo's are large but grainy and indistinct. Not bad although there is better available.
| Polygon "The First Yak" | Published by Polygon in Moscow in 1995. Entirely in Russian, this is widely regarded as the definitive work on the Yak-1 by the VVS model-making community. You get 136 pages in a good contemporary feel. The texture is semi-glossy and the photo's are all in black and white. The photo's are excellent but not in a walkaround style. The shots are of wartime origin but many sho w Yak-1's in a factory production line setting being manufactured or being repaired in the field. However they are not always well reproduced. However you do get an impressive twelve pages of scale plans and diagrams that are said to be of high quality. Additionally there are seven pages of colour artworks at the rear. This is a must have for any modeller serious about producing a Yak-1 but the lack of an English translation limits its appeal.
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