Lavochkin Alert! (best WWII single engine fighter?)

[Edbert]

This ride, the 'La-7' was the most dominating of all WWII era fighters in my online dogfighting experience. On top of that, it was about the last gen of Russian designs that were not fugly, at least for several years.

I bought a kit for$15, it included an Eduard PE kit. This is my first kit from Academy, it is a 1/48 and looks to be a very simple kit, albeit missing lots of details. I need a simple kit for a change of pace, too many stalled or mojo-killing project at once, need the bleach.

 

[Edbert]

Cockpit was the worst, the actual gauge pod wasn't terrible, but it was incomplete and just a flat bit glued to another flat bit. The Eduard dash helped a lot!



Biggest issue for the cockpit though...there were no rudders, nothing, not even some lines on the floor. Really?

You can see above there's a fairly complex for 1/48 mechanism there for rudders now.



The seatbelts are from the Eduard kit too.



There was an attempt made to mold into the sidewalls some sort of controls. We got rid of those and used the PE. Above is the port-side controls.


Some similar constructs on the starboard side above. This will have to suffice, it is much improved over the boxed bits alone.

 

[BarleyBop]

I need a simple kit for a change of pace

Uh-Oh. That's what I said about my Topolino. 2 weeks. Simple kit.

 

[blakeh1]

Great upgrades

 

[Edbert]

I mentioned a lack of detail, I'll stand by that, but there are examples where the details are good. I think this picture shows what I mean.



Underside panel details and particularly the dive brakes are good, but look at those wheel wells, just...nothing.

So all one can do is keep going. I spent about a day on the cockpit, plan was to completely knock this little guy out in a few days.







It might look like I totally ignored seams, and some I did, but not all. Just trying to keep with the quickie approach. Can only expect so much from a $10 kit, and the fit of the parts was better than I expected.

 

[Edbert]

Painted the white bit of the tail, ummm, used white.



Also added white to the nose, but did not snap a piuc of the masking. Idea was to allow the final color (red) to pop and not see camo underneath. It worked, I can say that. What I did not anticipate was the white leeching through or whatever happened to lighten up the red. I use XF-7 with only thinner.



The overspray of the white is quite obvious above, it was on both wings. I decided, hey...there's a gloss coat down, just wipe it off with a bit of diluted alcohol.


I swear, the chemistry of this hobby is my biggest hurdle.



Yup, the clear coat was acrylic!