Roman Schilhart Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 (edited) Dear fellow modellers, here is my first contribution to Britmodeller. May I present my 1/72 Lavochkin La5FN. The kit comes from Czech manufacturer AML and is labeled as “Specialist’s Set”. It is indeed a multi-media affair, containing injection molded plastic, resin and a vacu canopy, but no etched fret. It was one of the first real short-run kits I ever did; the instructions are quite vague, there are no locator pins, and fitting the assemblies was rather difficult and time consuming. A lot of time had to be spent on dry fitting, filling and sanding. As with most short-run-kits, the majority of parts has to be thinned and sanded to get a reasonable fit. This starts in the cockpit area, where you will have to thin down the inside of the fuselage halves to make the resin sidewalls fit (which require sanding as well to thin them down to scale appearance). The cockpit floor had to be shortened by 2mm each side at least, otherwise the fuselage will not close. Installing the wheel wells requires major trimming on the inside of the wings as well as on the resin parts for the wells themselves. The kit comes with a well-detailed engine, but none of it can be seen once the fuselage is glued together. Small bombs are supplied, but their wafer-thin fins broke when I was trying to remove them from the resin block. I believe this kit has some shape issues, most notably the air intake on the cowling. It should be more flat towards the back section, something I realized too late. The decal sheet is generous, giving you 12 options in total; 11 for First Czechoslovak Independent Fighter Squadron planes from World War II plus one Czech post war example. I chose the mount of Captain Frantisek Fajtl, who flew this plane at the time of the Slovak Uprising in September/October 1944 from Tri Duby airfield in Slovakia. I painted with Haarder & Steinbeck airbrush using Mr. Hobby colors, referring to the color suggestions of an Eduard La7 kit. Weathering was done with oil paints. Modifications on the original kit: replacing the pitot tube with wire and adding brake lines. With best regards, Roman Schilhart Vienna, Austria Edited June 29, 2011 by Roman Schilhart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr.Jellyfingers Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 (edited) Very nice and welcome to BM ! Si. Edited June 29, 2011 by Dr.Jellyfingers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 Nice work and welcome to BM Roman. One of those, "Is that really 72nd scale?" builds that makes me check the description to be certain it isn't 48th or larger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbuna Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 (edited) A lovely build...welcome to BM. Edited June 29, 2011 by jimbuna Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitfire Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 Fantastic work. Cheers Den Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul A H Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 Nice work and Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deon Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 Nice work, I have a soft spot for the LA-5 ( lost my vac form cherry to one) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonymousDFB1 Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 Nice work, I like it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BasicModelling Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 Absolutely stunning... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPNGROATS Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 Roman: Very nice model...and, welcome to this forum... Cheers, ggc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now