I can't honestly claim this was a fun build, but it's finally done and came out decent if not contest-worthy. Clunky cockpit elements and basically trial-and-error locating the side consoles; significant gaps at the wing-fuselage joins; solid plastic wing root intakes that had to be drilled out and shaped; etc. I used some Czech-produced photo-etch seat belts, resin main wheels from Barracuda, resin prop/spinner from Vector, and a couple of vacuform canopies from Squadron. I don't enjoy dealing with the latter, but I wanted the canopy open, and the kit piece is grotesque, especially the windscreen.
Paints are AKAN acrylic lacquers. As in other VVS projects, I found them delightful to apply, but fragile to handle afterward: picking up the model repeatedly by wing leading and trailing edges will quickly wear the paint off. Even trying to be careful, I had to reapply paint to various areas more times than I would have wished. All the decals are from Begemot's amazing 3+ page set of Yak-7 markings including the stencils and the wing fuel gauges. There are virtually no wartime photos I could find of Yak-7 UTIs; the few I found of the later Yak-7V had no plane numbers, so I didn't apply any.
Cheers and enjoy.
Pip