Military Model Scene

Title:  Spotlight on Yakovlev Yak-3

Author: Artur Juszczak

Publisher:  MMP

ISBN:  978-83-65281-48-7

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This is the first of this Spotlight series from MMO books that I have had a look at.  The author is one of the co-owners of the MMP publishing business and features his own great passion, a series of excellent colour profiles.  In this case the topic is the WW2 Russian Yak-3.

It is a hardback book and when you open it, you find it presented in a Landscape oriented set of pages.  The opening page is text giving the overview of the history of the type, the numbers built, armament, development story and lists the main Russian aces who flew the type.  This is followed by 42 pages of excellent colour profiles, each page devoted to one drawing plus details of the pilot/unit it flew with plus in some cases an additional detail image of a particular element of the specific artwork applied to the airframe.  It also details the colours used in the colour scheme illustrated on each one.

This will be interesting for the aviation historian but I think the heart of this one lives with the scale modeller.  The various profiles offer all sorts of alternative markings and colour schemes that you might like to try, a chance to make a difference to what you may find supplied within a commercial kit.  Among the many units which are featured that used the Yak-3 are not only RUssian Air Force machines, but also some used by the Yugoslav and Polish air forces, plus the group of French pilots who went to fight on the Eastern Front in the 'Normandie-Niemen' regiment with their red/white/blue banded spinners.  If you want something even more colourful, the last two feature aircraft used in aerobatic teams at the end of the war.

Excellent quality artwork that is a pleasure to see in it's own right, but the sort of images to give plenty of inspiration to modellers as there are some good kits of the Yak-3 on the market these days.  The quality of the profiles reflect the obvious passion for them in the artist/author.

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Thanks to MMP Books, who kindly provided my review copy.

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Robin