Ever since I’ve seen Ye-166 (actually a Ye-152-2) at Monino museum near Moscow, I wanted to build a model of it. Unfortunately no-one would release such a model… well, not until recently. Modelsvit released not only the “father” of the family, the Ye-150, but also I-3U, which preceded the heavy interceptor program, and they promised to bring us other models of this program as well – I just hope crisis in the Ukraine will not impact the release schedule too much.

Mikoyan-Gurevich-Ye-150

MiG Ye-150 – author unkown

Ye-150 first flew in July 1960. While it bears the resemblance to the MiG-21 fighters, it is a much much bigger beast altogether. Just the information, that it is powered by an enormous Tumansky R-15 engine (of the MiG-25 fame), tells something. While the flight testing was plagued with extremely short lived engine (this early versions of R-15 had barely enough service hours for a ground check and one flight), aileron buffeting and other problems, the aircraft did achieve several successes – the highest speed achieved during testing was M2.65 using less than half a throttle, while the service ceiling of around 70.000ft (21.000m). Weapons systems was never integrated and flight tests ended after a little more than 40 flights.

Modelsvit’s Ye-150 is a typical short-run model. Some modelling experience is required as parts need to be cleaned up and the fit is tricky with some components. Especially troublesome was exhaust area (you can see it in the WiP section of this site), wings to fuselage join and the canopy area. Panel line engraving also lacks the finesse of their Su-7/17 kits and is a little bit on the heavy side. Model was painted with Alclad Polished Aluminium and finsihed with Alclad Semi-Matt coat.

And you have to admit it – it does look like it’s gonna punch holes in the skies, ain’t it?

And three of the Soviet X-fighters of my collection.

Je-150-10