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Hi folks, Well I mentioned in the Revell C-17 thread that I was working on the 1/72 Anigrand kit. I have a thread running over at ARC but since a lot of you don't frequent that forum I thought I would run a thread here as well. Since the issue of the 1/144 Anigrand kit and now the Revell kit the short comings of Anigrand's monster are becoming well known (to me at least). So a summary of the work so far. Cockpit/Nose. The kit's nose is too bulbous, so I fill the inside of the cockpit area with 5-minute epoxy and started sanding. This shot shows the modified side on the left after this shot was taken I sanded it a bit more to flatten it a little more. This also shows the left side wind root moved back, more on that later. No picture thanks to Photobucket ...C-17/wingrootcomparisonsm.jpg The windscreen panels are the wrong size and shape, took 3 goes to get the position and proportions about right. The nose profile also needs reshaping. The clear piece on the kit was deceiving as the rear window actually should be about 10mm forward of where the kit has it. It looks a mess at the moment but I hope after a primer it will be better (I hope). You can also see how much resin I have removed, the cockpit walls were about 2mm thick! No picture thanks to Photobucket ..C-17/windscreenrework2sm.jpg Wing Root The wings are about 25mm too far forward on the fuselage so the root was removed and shifted back 25mm. This shot shows the move in progress, I cut a section out, removed 25mm from the back end of it, moved the root forward and glued the 25mm slab to the front. It needed to be reshaped to fit as well (I used an orbital sander to take the excess off ). No picture thanks to Photobucket ...C-17/RootmovedbackSM.jpg This shot shows the root moved and compared to the Revell kit. No picture thanks to Photobucket ...C-17/cutting.jpg Tail Fin Started with this (below) shape is out, who would have guessed? No picture thanks to Photobucket ...C-17/TailbeforeSM.jpg After some putty, cutting and sanding... the rudders will be posed offset. No picture thanks to Photobucket ...C-17/rudder3sm.jpg Sponsons/Wheel wells This is where I am up to now, Where do I start? Well let's see... the main well is short by 10mm and too far forward my 3mm. As a result, the paratroop door behind the sponson is also out by about 3mm, the auxiliary gear doors also need moving and I had previously noted the shape was out as well. Which means that the locating holes for the main gear legs are too far forward by about 5mm... are we having fun yet? So the Aux door I cut out on the other side is wrong and will need filling and moving to the correct location. I also found another issue with the height of the well opening on the sponson (outboard side), it seems to be too tall, At this point I am not going to change it, all it may need is some card to fill the top edge of the opening and removing some material for the outboard gear doors. I may revisit it later. On the picture below you can see my scribbling, the dotted lines show the current scribed positions of the aux and para doors, I have also drawn in the sponson extension. The hatched areas are what I need to cut out/off. No picture thanks to Photobucket ...C-17/RHSponsonSM.jpg Rear Ramp I decided to open it up and used the kits panel lines as a guide, turns out they are wrong, so I have remarked the lines and will have to cut more (hatched area). No picture thanks to Photobucket ...C-17/RampmodsSM.jpg So there you go, that is where I am at, I have a day at a model show do a building demo tomorrow so I will be updating the other side cockpit windows, modding the sponsons and openning up the ramp area. Wish me luck!

It is a well-known fact that I *never* finish anything, mainly because I'm waiting for the opportunity to use my airbrush, but the Hobbycraft Lavochkins have a particularly troubled history with me... the first one went straight into the bin because it would not look right. A couple of years later and with more reference (remember the days before the Internet?) the second one was made into a passable resemblance of Kozhedub's plane, only to mess up the finish. What's left to do but to try, try again? I started this project when the Hobbycraft kits were the only game in town in 1/48, not only for La-7, but for GPW Soviet fighters aircrafts in general! (Remember their I-16?) The weak points of the kit are well-known by now: tail fin, canopy, fuselage, gun bulges, Karman, wheel wells, surface detail in general. In the meanwhile the Gavia kit had become available, but their 3-gun version costs like a mortgage (for an extra bit of resin), so I converted mine since I was going to perform surgery on the cowling anyway. So nya-nya-nya-nyaaa-nyah to them. This is where I am now... Whoops. I made the reinforcement strips by eye and by memory, and they're too wide. The interior is not terrible, and the control stick is even right for this version, but the Legend set was so cheap... My first attempt was not so great, however. I ripped the parts off the fuselage (that's why the starboard one has a hairline crack), sanded them MUCH thinner, as in i-can-see-my-thumb-on-the-other-side thinner, put them back. Lots better. This is the point that's stalling the build... I've corrected the wheel well outline (see the white bits at the back?) but making the vanes has escaped me so far. (It's also the reason why the companion of this kit, a razorback La-5, is slowly decomposing in the loft). I've seen Milliput being used to make rather complex shapes, and I'm going to try that next. Bit of work done today... remedying the fuselage shape: