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Pavla’s 1/72 Yakovlev UT-1

By Chris Banyai-Riepl

History

In 1936 the Yakovlev design bureau came out with a single-seat training aircraft designed to help bridge the gap between primary trainers and fighters. The outcome of this was the UT-1 trainer, a low-wing aircraft powered by the M-11E radial engine. This plane was so pleasurable to fly that it quickly found its way to the top of the training rotation and was often the requested mount for many commanders throughout the VVS. During the war several were armed with machine guns and rockets and used in the ground attack role. Total production was over 1200.

The Kit

There is only one other 1/72 UT-1 kit that I’m aware of, and that’s the nice but hard to find NeoMega resin kit. This kit is likely to have a much better distribution and its plastic construction is likely to go together easier as well. The first thing that I’m struck with upon opening the box is that this is a very small airplane! You get one tree of dark gray plastic parts, a couple of vacuformed canopies, and a handful of resin detail parts. There’s not much to this model so construction should go pretty quickly.

Starting with the innards, you get a pretty nice one-piece resin tub, complete with seat & control stick. In fact, the only part for the interior that isn’t attached to this is the instrument panel, of which there are two, as this kit provides two different variants. The engine is a very nice assembly, consisting mostly of resin. You get a resin engine and a resin cowling, the latter doing an excellent job of capturing the interesting shape of the front end. This completed assembly then fits on your choice of two fuselages, depending on which version you want to do. The main difference between the versions lies in the tail, with the UT-1.02 having the same style of tail found on the later Yak fighters.

The wing construction is done in three pieces, with the one-piece lower wing incorporating part of the lower fuselage. This will eliminate any question of dihedral, always a tricky problem with limited run kits. The landing gear comes in a variety of flavors, with either spatted or unspatted options as well as wheeled or a ski version. Other bits for the wings include rocket armament and machine guns for the UT-1b.

Like most other Pavla kits, this one doesn’t provide all the pieces depicted in the instructions, but rather includes notes for pieces to make yourself. While it’s a little annoying to not have everything you need in the box, Pavla should be commended for including instructions and dimensions for the parts that need to be scratchbuilt.

The decal sheet is rather small, but so is the plane! You get no less than four options, two of which are camouflaged and two that are a bit more garish. The camouflaged ones are painted in green and black over blue, with white numbers on the rudders. One is with unspatted wheels while the other is with skis. Both of these are UT-1bs and can therefore be outfitted with that neat weaponry. The sole UT-1.02 prototype is the one that was present at the Yakovlev OKB museum and is painted light green over blue, with a red and white striped rudder. This is the only one with the large tail. The final example is finished in white with red trim and is easily the most attractive of all four schemes. The decals are well printed and should go down without any troubles at all.

Conclusion

While not a mainstream aircraft, the UT-1 is an attractive little plane and the heritage to the later Yak fighters is apparent. While building this diminutive model isn’t going to be the easiest of projects, at the end you’ll have a very nice replica that will look great next to any VVS aircraft.