Soviet Aces - Eduard La-7 in 1/72 - COMPLETED

[Ventsislav Gramatski]

Opening my first build project in the Aircraft section with Eduard's La-7 in 1/72! This kit was bought way back in 2006 and has been languishing in various storage places until I returned to the hobby last summer. So, with optimism that I will get this finished before 2030, let's start!

 

 

This is one of Eduard's earlier kits and features the company's well known fine engraving and good surface details, and includes a photoetch set. While not bad it has its fair share of problems, namely: 

 

1. Grossly incorrect propeller spinner shape

2. Undercarriage front legs are 2mm to tall

3. Incorrect cowling shape, which is also 2mm short

4. Incorrect front windshield shape

 

Like another kit that I own - Academy's much maligned 1/72 Spitfire Mk XVI - it can be built easily if one is willing to ignore the inaccuracies. I plan to fix these issues. Great thanks to @warhawk for providing some excellent sources to make this possible! This will also be the first time I'll be using photoetch and I trying to reproduce the riveting on the metal parts of the plane.

 

The plane I plan to build first is White 49 of 156th IAP flown by Senior Lieutenant Mihail Zelenkin from October 17th 1944 to the war's end in Europe.

 

Zelenkin was the unit's top scoring pilot with 32 kills (28 individual and 4 shared). He began active combat in January 1942 and could be considered a highly trained Soviet pilot, having received two year's worth of training, with several hundred flights and about 80 flight hours total on trainers and fighters. He flew on all types of Lavochkin fighters and was released from active duty as a fighter pilot summer 1945 due to suffering several cranial pain while flying after a serious accident while taking off on August 27th 1944 (his La-5's propeller lost a blade). After the war he briefly trained future pilots, became a painter and passed away peacefully in June 1991. If you're interested, sources for the man and his machine.

 

I chose Zelenkin's plane because I wanted a model sporting the beautiful, flashy unit markings of 156th Elbing IAP without doing yet another small scale version of Dolgushin's far more famous White 93. Additionally, there are several photos of White 49 from various angles that probably make it the most historically accurate color profile of the regiment.

Edited December 27, 2022 by Ventsislav Gramatski

[Ventsislav Gramatski]

Unfortunately, the build is starting off disastrously! I first sprayed the interior with Mr. Hobby acrylic White followed by a coat of AK's Real Color A-14 Interior Steel Gray. Lastly, a gentle dark acrylic black wash was applied. I then began adding the photoetch. My first encounter with it tells me I am not a great admirer of PE - yes, it is very detailed but very fiddly to work with and wouldn't hold with the CA glue I have! And I remember I used to wonder when I was a kid at people who scoffed that details in 1/72 were far too small for their sausage-like adult fingers... ah, time flies! Again, Eduard's La-7 kit doesn't have the cockpit details exactly correct, however most of the small parts are duplicated - bless Eduard! - so you can add additional levers and pipelines using them.

 

Anyway, I got to here:

 

 

The rear of the cockpit noticeably lacks any details. The real thing had the radio set sitting on a frame behind the armored plate bolted to the rear of the pilot's seat and the plane's ribbing could be seen. Not being satisfied with this, I initially designed a simple 3d model, however my FDM printer couldn't handle the printing. Instead of changing the nozzle to the smallest 0.2mm one I have and changing my PETG (240C degree print temperature) roll for a simpler PLA (200C), I decided to build the frame from photoetch frames. The way the fuselage and wing assembly is designed on the kit makes creating the internal framework quite difficult.

 

Well... it kind of worked but due to the glue not holding some horrible looking streaks showed through. Worse was to come, I tried to clean the glue streaks using solvent and lightly resprayed with AK's A-14... until the paint turned to powder. I thought AK's Real Colours were enamels due to the smell and I diluted it with turpentine instead of the Mr. Colour solvent, which is running low. Bad decision! Worse, I was very tired after a very intensive day at work and working on the kit until late in the evening, I tripped while returning the pieces to the box, dropped it and broke all my hard work to pieces.

 

With the the cockpit in ruins, I sighed and decided to strip the whole thing and start anew. I managed to salvage the rudder pedals from the carpet monster and carefully reattached them. The broken pilot stick was cut off, the leather housing at the base was carefully drilled with a 0.3mm microdrill and a new stick that was made from 3d stretched print filament inserted and glued in place. I also sat down and did some research on how to attach photoetch - turns out, varnish is recommended, so I used that for the PE part on the stick. Here it is:

 

 

The surface damage is caused by the chemical reaction with the turpentine but will be gently cleaned with 2000+ grit sandpaper once the fuselage and wings are assembled. Luckily, the damaged is limited to a section where there's a single panel line on the original kit.

 

 

The cockpit sides with almost all PE parts reattached. After taking the photo I carefully cleaned up the CA residue around the port side cables and sealed them with gloss varnish. All of these parts will be repainted by hand, while I'll reuse two of prepainted ones (spares) from the kit's PE set on the starboard side. Notice the interior of the cowl cooling flaps showing my desperate attempts to glue the PE assembly in place - I do not know if it was my inexperience or the kit's poor design as there are no internal supports or framing to hold the flaps - but I had a horrid time attaching these in a semi-open position. This is the final result from the exterior - again, these were gently cleaned up with a sharp blade, fine grit sandpaper and solvent after reviewing the photo.

 

 

Two pieces survived the debacle unscathed as I did not respray them - the instrument panel and the pilot's seat which was fully assembled with the armored backing plate and seat belts.

 

 

Edited April 2, 2020 by Ventsislav Gramatski

[warhawk]

Nice work on the exhaust pipes!

[Ventsislav Gramatski]

Some progress from last evening. I decided to actually sit down and put some effort in the cockpit, so I made a simple 3d model, changed the printer nozzle to the smallest 0.2mm one, reloaded with PLA filament, re-calibrated it, and after half a dozen test prints, I managed to get a decent internal framing structure! Test fitting shots below, before print stringing / flash was cleaned. I still need to add the upper vertical U- shaped rib and the radio set rack.

 

 

 

I also added some exhaust pipes behind the PE flaps, only adding the most outwards pairs (they should be 7 on each side) - you can barely see inside anyway but I wanted some detail present. More like I know it's there more than actually making any sense! They also add some basic support to the PE parts, as I dread the possibility of breaking them off while assembling the fuselage.

 

 

Edited April 4, 2020 by Ventsislav Gramatski

[Ventsislav Gramatski]

The pilot's office is pretty much done. I had great difficulty determining the exact position of the radio set. I couldn't find a single photo of the area behind the pilot's seat, neither on the Internet, neither in the reference literature I have - Yakubovich's and MBI's monographs on the La-7. It seems that the radio equipment had been removed on both the Monino and Prague exhibits, as it's not present on workarounds. This is likely why Eduard's La-7 is so scarce on details behind the pilot's seat, it is based on the Prague model and MBI's research, and these do not have any!

 

Finally, I opened a PDF of an Soviet La-7 manual and, behold, on page 176 - "the radio transmitter, receiver and motor generator are placed on a special lafette, positioned on an upper fuselage panel between ribs № 6 and № 7." Technical drawings in the manual show that rib № 5 is where the pilot's seat and armored head glass are located, rib № 6 under the rearmost canopy section, and rib № 7 where the radio mast is located. 

 

 

I adjusted my framing piece and glued a panel made from an old diskette tin label. The radio equipment was also 3d printed. It's very simplified but still better than nothing!

 

 

The cockpit pieces were then sprayed with Mr. Surfacer 1200 and when that dried, AK Interactive A-14 Interior Steel Grey. Note if you ever start using 3d printed parts - they are very porous and gulp a lot of paint to get an even, solid coverage - always prime them! I then re-attached all of the PE parts and painted those already in place with 000 and 00 brushes. AK's paint failed me yet again! I needed to touch up a few places on the starboard fuselage and it would always come too dark and shiny off the brush, regardless of how well I've mixed or thinned it. Finally, I had enough and mixed my own 1:1 color match from an assortment of paints on hand (Agama Medium Grey, Tamyia US Marine Green, Humbrol acrylic black and ivory). This horrid mix actually brushed on beautifully and once dried, I couldn't see any color variation. Sealed with a brushed solid matt varnish coat and went to sleep. Today I've done a simple dark grey wash using enamels and gently dry brushed the raised panels with white oil paint. I'll leave all of this to dry and will spray a thin coat of matt varnish to seal.

 

 

Overall, I feel that I've managed to salvage the situation. 

 

Unfortunately, my plans to use only Eduard's kit won't work. Zelenkin's victory count is not only higher than Dolgushin's but it seems that all his victory stars were read (or with only 4 white, for the shared kills). The kit has a single decal sheet when I had expected two to cobble the stars together. Next week I'll have to brave the horrid weather and corona virus outside and venture to a hobby store to get KP's old La-7 kit (now re-boxed by MisterCraft). I can use the decals (it has markings for Dolgushin's White 93), the spinner and canopy are much more accurate in shape, and maybe the undercarriage legs.

Edited April 5, 2020 by Ventsislav Gramatski

[Ventsislav Gramatski]

Build progress rather slow thanks to a bad case of food poisoning on Friday evening, and general lack of motivation at the moment. I assembled the fuselage and it turned out that I had glued seat position wrongly - it should be flush with the armored rear plate and fuselage sides.

 

So it went from this..

 

 

... back to separate parts, and again to this:

 

 

To boot, I the location of the starboard PE part for the trim wheels given in the instruction is wrong! 🙄 It should be right next to the pilot's right leg rather than behind the the seat. The instructions also provide for one trim wheel PE part to be used, when the real thing had two - one for the elevator trim tab, one for the rudder trim tab. So, with careful tweezers work and steady hands I managed to glue two PE parts in the proper position - also note the corrected seat and armor plate :

 

 

I had some fitting issues and you can see the obvious results of using putty. I used diluted Mr. Colour putty that was than sanded down with 500, 1000 and 1200 sandpaper. I am thinking of ways to add raised detail back to the cowling support rings, as much as I tried, some was lost during sanding. Suggestions? 🤔

 

Also started work on the second La-7. Having acquired some knowledge using PE and the deficiencies of the of the kit with the first plane in the kit, this second a lot better and cleaner. Cockpit details, all finished and varnished, only an enamel wash to go and cowling exhaust PE attached, and I can start assembling it.

 

 

[Ventsislav Gramatski]

Okay, long time without any updates on this! Unfortunately, this was my second time spraying camouflage with an airbrush, and I made a total mess out of it. I wasn't sure whether to go freehand or with masks, so tried both and it turned out well but there were several bad places. So I decided to go back and redo them, and I learned that Hataka's Blue line paints (for brush use) tend to become brighter when thinned, at least with pure water or Mr. Color's acrylic thinner. The result was a blotchy camo, which I decided to strip... which resulted in the canopy frames becoming loose, and the cockpits becoming damaged. Long story short, stripped and cleaned everything, disassembled both and rebuilt them again. I lost the rear-view mirrors, which isn't fatal - there's no photographic evidence of either Alelyukhin's or Zelenkin's planes having one installed. I also had to make a new glass head armored plate for one of little La's, because the original piece got fogged up by the thinner.

 

And, after yet another mess (I was seriously considering just throwing them away), here we are! Camo in place, first coat of gloss and decals. I plan to spray another coat of Mr. Color gloss varnish and once this dries up, start weathering them. 

 

White 49 of 156th IAP flown by Senior Lieutenant Mihail Zelenkin. I used a "white 4" decal from another plane on the decal sheet but this had a red outline and turned out too thin after I cut it off. I then masked and oversprayed with white to more closely match the thickness of the white 9. May have gone a bit overboard though!

 

 

 

 

Photos show the real White 49 fitted with bomb racks under the wings but the Eduard kit doesn't feature them, and I wish to avoid further misadventures, so I didn't bother adding them - anyway, they were detachable.

 

White 14 of 9 Guards IAP flown by Major Aleksey Alelyukhin, deputy regimental commander. Alelyukhin was a very experienced pilot, having flown in combat since the Winter War. By the end of the war he had 40 individual kill claims and 601 sorties flown. His La-7 was built with donations. Photos of the real plane here.

 

 

 

Unfortunately, the port side instruction decal isn't correct - it should have white outlines rather than a brighter red hue. 

 

 

You may also note my first and so far, not that great attempt at riveting on the metal paneling below and in front the cockpit. 

 

Zelenkin's La misses the victory star markings - unfortunately, not only are there not enough the red star victory markings on the decal sheet (31 for Zelenkin) but they are not of the same type. Wondering if anyone can suggest a decal sheet for Red Airforce victory markings in 1/72? As it stands, I can't finish White 49... 

Edited October 5, 2020 by Ventsislav Gramatski

[Ventsislav Gramatski]

Well, after more than two years in limbo, I declare this one (almost) completed!

 

After my last post back in October 2020, I had yet another mishap where the paint peeled off after masking for some detailing. At this point, I just gave up and threw them back in the box. Fast forward to May 2022 when I finally got the mojo to sit down and tackle the whole project again.

 

I worked on this on and off again until a few weeks ago, when I finally completed the antenna rigging on White 49. The two machines had different antenna rigging evident on photos and I believe they were from different Series (again, thanks to @warhawk for his help with scale plans).

 

Both 9 GvIAP and 156 IAP operated from a number of forward airfields, the machines being in the open in wet and cold conditions during the last few months of the war, so I went heavy on the weathering, particularly on Zelenkin's White 49 as the latter was in service since early Fall 1944. 

 

Alelyukhin's White 14 shows more grime from muddy airfields but I went easy on the exhaust stains to represent it closer to photos.

 

The canopies ended, unfortunately, somewhat fogged up and yellowed. I try to console myself that this is accurate as Soviet plexiglass quality was notoriously bad and it would turn yellow and loose transparency within weeks in service but it's more wishful thinking, to be honest...

 

As U2 sing, I still haven't found what I am looking for and White 49 doesn't have the signature victory markings on the port side. Maybe someday I'll find a suitable decal sheet?

 

Hope you like them!

 

White 49 from 156 IAP, Winter 1945

 

 

 

 

 

 

White 14 from 9 GvIAP, Winter 1945

 

 

 

 

Edited December 27, 2022 by Ventsislav Gramatski
Added photos of White 14

[warhawk]

Nice job overall.

The corrected cowling evidently improves the look of the kit.

 

Unfortunately, the WIP photo links are all dead for me.

Edited December 27, 2022 by warhawk

[Herb]

Excellent, thanks for completing the project!