Yakovlev Yak-9T - Soviet fighter

The Jak-9T modification is designed to strengthen the fighter's armament for potential combat against new German tanks. For this purpose in the new model, marked with the index "T" ("Tank"), a 37 mm caliber NS-37 cannon is installed in the inter-cylinder cavity of the V-shaped engine. Serial production of the Yak-9T took place from March 1943 to June 1945 at factory no. 153. A total of 2748 airplanes were produced. Began to supply combat units in early 1943. Since the end of that year, these fighters have been successfully used in the Black Sea against enemy transports and warships. In addition, the Yak-9T was often used in operations to intercept bomber raids and attack enemy railway installations and warships. From August 17 to September 18, 1943, 12 Yak-9Ts conducted military trials together with three Yak-9Ds in the 18th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment on the Western Front. The appearance of these fighters at the front caused a severe moral shock to the enemy pilots and greatly facilitated air battles for the USSR pilots of other types of fighters, who operated together with the Yak-9T. Until then, FW-190 pilots, armed with very good weapons, bravely went to counterattacks with Yak-1 type fighters. After the encounters with the Yak-9T, which ended sadly for the Germans, they began to avoid head-to-head air battles with any Yak-type fighters. The experience of combat use of the Yak-9T showed, that its armament, consisting of the NS-37 cannon and the UBS machine guns, was very tactically successful. Just one cannonball hitting an enemy plane would usually completely destroy it. And armor-piercing cannon shells easily pierced the 30 mm thick armor on top of German tanks from a distance of 500 m and an angle of attack of 45 degrees.

A well-detailed and well-designed model of the fighter, that recreates Senior Lieutenant D. Tormachev airplane from 267 FAR, which this pilot flew in Romania in June 1944. The pilot received this type of fighter in April 1944, when his regiment was rearming, Tormakhov's 3rd squadron received 12 fighters with the inscription "Liberated Donbass" ("Освобожденный Донбас"). The model is easy to "used", colorful, the instruction drawings are informative and perfectly show the assembly process. The model is suitable for modelers of any experience, only advanced beginners and modelers with little experience are recommended to work under the supervision of a more experienced colleague and do the detailing of the interior of the model cabin, the chassis, its panels and niches, released brake panels, transparent cabin cover as an option: it will work - great, it will not work, always it is possible to make a model with an opaque cabin canopy, retracted chassis and unreleased brake panels.