Thanks to Devil505 for finding me the info for this skin. There is some debate in Soviet aviation forums as to whether this aircraft had the early war green/black scheme or the late war grey/grey scheme. The only known photo shows the aircraft had early war borderless red stars but the new grey colours began to appear a couple of months earlier than the new white bordered stars. I've decided to go for the early war colours as it seems more likely paired with the early war markings.
This is the Yak-9T of Ivan Stepanenko of the 4th Fighter Aviation Regiment in based on the Southern Front in 1943. Stepanenko flew his first sortie with the squadron in early 1942 flying Hawker Hurricanes before switching to Yak-7B and later the Yak-9. He scored his first kill in the summer of 1942 and continued to score heavily despite two trips to hospital to recover from wounds received in combat. In mid 1943 he received one of the first Yak-9Ts and used this well into 1944. By the end of the war he had been credited with 32 kills and had risen from an enlisted pilot to the rank of Major.
