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Late War "Fin" 1/48 La-7


Beazer

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"Fin"  The US aircraft nickname for the Lavochkin 7.

Eduard 1/48 which does include a PE set and canopy mask.  I will be adding a set of aftermarket wheels however.

Theres alot of options in this kit that I really like but I am leaning towards White 10 (but need to see if it conforms to GB rules) or maybe do another Tulip scheme with White 12.  Even White 63 makes me indecisive.

 

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Started on the Interior.  Lots of curved PE(soo much fun).  AKAN A-14 Steel Gray used for the interior and will be picking out with silver before adding final painting details.  

 

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Good start Beazer, great subject too.

 

Don't forget, the subject has to fit in with the timelines for this GB which for Europe means...

 

Rule 3.  Equipment and units in use in the month prior to VE Day is acceptable but they must be in the order of battle for VE Day (e.g. between 8/4/45 to 15/8/45).

 

and...

 

Rule 8.  The onus will be on the modeller to provide evidence that their subject is in keeping with the rules.

 

So, white 10 still has to be in service at between April to August 1945 and you need to provide the proof, the kit instructions say 1944.  White 12 on the other hand, was recorded as being at Prague-Kbely shortly after VE-day is ideal (and is more colourful anyway).

 

Welcome to the GB, good luck with your build and have fun,

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Nice start Beazer

 

Great to see the VVS represented. I remember reading Eric ‘Winkle’ Browns autobiography a few years back. He managed to get a flight in an La-7 at the end of the war. He described it as a very good fighter plane but lacking in decent instrumentation and a good gun site. Look forward to following the build. 

 

James

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On 09/06/2020 at 23:26, Wez said:

Good start Beazer, great subject too.

 

Don't forget, the subject has to fit in with the timelines for this GB which for Europe means...

 

Rule 3.  Equipment and units in use in the month prior to VE Day is acceptable but they must be in the order of battle for VE Day (e.g. between 8/4/45 to 15/8/45).

 

and...

 

Rule 8.  The onus will be on the modeller to provide evidence that their subject is in keeping with the rules.

 

So, white 10 still has to be in service at between April to August 1945 and you need to provide the proof, the kit instructions say 1944.  White 12 on the other hand, was recorded as being at Prague-Kbely shortly after VE-day is ideal (and is more colourful anyway).

 

Welcome to the GB, good luck with your build and have fun,

Yes thats what I understood, now just have to do some digging before committing to a particular scheme.

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Here’s the basic cockpit all finished up.

Was able to close up the fuselage and wings but boy were there some gaps that needed filling along the wings where it connects with the fuselage.  
Mr. Surfacer did make quick work of those however.  Also the tail didn’t fit quite perfect so had to use some force and cleanup after the glue had set.

 

The little handles atop the dials flung into the nether regions so I had to make my own with some wire I had.  Looks better either way.  Not even sure what those were on these planes.

Edited by Beazer
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Here she is coming together somewhat decently.

Unfortunately I snapped the prop in trying to clean up the edges so I ordered an aftermarket set which hopefully gets here in time.

The front cowling is being very fussy but I think I figured out what i need to do to fix it so that its flush.

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Primer on and ready for future coats.  I cut out the salt at the end of the air intake and repositioned it for the runway.  The landing gear and bay I’ll end up redoing AMT-7 later.

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50060704881_791e48ef5e_b.jpg

 

Forgot to post photos of the AMT-7 for the bottom fuselage.

I used AKAN to start which I feel is a better match to the original.  However there was some issues with the paint (runny and seemed like there was oil on the surface even though i had cleaned it up previously), now I feel I mixed it properly but instead of water or AKANs acrylic airbrush thinner I used Vallejos.  Not sure what happened there but I decided to cover it up with the vallejo range which is definitely brighter.  

In comparison to AKANs range the Vallejo seems more fresh as opposed to fading.  I will try again on another build with AKAN.  But I will have some comparison photos before this build is over!

 

In general it is tough to look at Eduards colour callouts for this and it seems the actual colours are totally way off than what they show.  Not exactly many references to go by either.

 

Anyways the AMT-11 is on and I presumed soft edges so will be using blu-tac to replicate this.  May be able to get the AMT-12 on tomorrow.

 

Couldnt find any more info on White 10 so have to scrap that and my other option which was flown in APRIL was White 17 so that's a no go.  I mean one could presume...

Either way I'm swinging back towards White 12 as Ive had practice doing tulips anyways on the nose.  Just going to finish up the camo scheme and then decals and seal it so I can spray the red on without wrecking anything.

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15 hours ago, franky boy said:

Nice work Beazer. 
 

You’ve had a busy few days with this build and the pe on your spitfire!

 

James

I have this past week kicked back into full throttle.  Tons of work and gardening unfortunately.


 

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AMT-12 on and the masking was quick but kinda painful.  Might end up having to redo sections how I want.

Also a comparison chart between vallejos and Akans Soviet colours

 

 

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The Akan paints are made after the original color samples found in the russian state library (ex-Lenin-Library).

https://www.rsl.ru/en

You have to keep in mind the scale effect and lighten up the Akan-colors.

The Acrylic colors (water-based) need aprox. 10-20 % white or light-grey to look right.
Just try it on an old model or paper to find the tone that suits you.

(Above informations are from 'Mr. Akan' posted on russian forums)

 

To me the Akan-paints are the best solution to paint a model in realistic soviet/russian colors.

 

 

 

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On 01/07/2020 at 07:25, Beazer said:

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The soft edge came out great.  Still not sold on the colours, man do I need to find a definitive pic or source.

 

On 01/07/2020 at 20:32, Sanjuro said:

The Akan paints are made after the original color samples found in the russian state library (ex-Lenin-Library).

https://www.rsl.ru/en

You have to keep in mind the scale effect and lighten up the Akan-colors.

The Acrylic colors (water-based) need aprox. 10-20 % white or light-grey to look right.
Just try it on an old model or paper to find the tone that suits you.

(Above informations are from 'Mr. Akan' posted on russian forums)

 

To me the Akan-paints are the best solution to paint a model in realistic soviet/russian colors.

 

 

 

One of the very few colour pics of GPW aircraft, taken by an American

 

2015849_ab8d0a90393689ab2b09be5f39e05217

 

From https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hyperscale/paging-yak-9-camouflage-experts-t515783.html

Quote

It's original color Photo. Actually AMT-11 and AMT-12 colors are much darker than they are usually depicted by modelers. Here's an original Yak-9 fin:
2015849_9f4d4507709fa410d2951ae417579a4c

 

The original poster of these images, Sergey Kosachev, runs Vector resin.

HTH

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50089397372_22af721b66_b.jpg

 

Thank you all for that information.

I'm working on the tulip noseart.  Decided to use the kit decals as a framework.  Then my intention is to mask for white and then mask for red and voila it should come out great...at least I hope so.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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Some progress on the tulip.  The white part seems too thick so I may redo the lines and camo around that part.

The Akan AK II Red looks and sprays great.

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