LaGG-3 "44 Fighter Regiment"

I came across this ICM kit for $10 while taking a weekend trip with my wife and I couldn't pass it up. ICM doesn't have the best reputation, but this kit was well detailed and overall quite good. It is definitely not for the beginner modeler because it does have some semi-serious fit issues at the engine cowling and trailing edge of the wing roots, as well as a lot of flash. Another area to watch out for is the fit of the wings and fuselage; the fit is too tight and causes the wing dihedral to vanish. There are also a couple of sink marks under the cockpit, but all of these problems are solvable. The pros to this kit are all the different cowling and exhaust options provided and a well-detailed cockpit. With a bit of research, know-how, and enginuity one can make almost any version of the LaGG-3 from this kit.

Another thing about the ICM kit is that the "Series" designations are confusing and probably incorrect. The LaGG-3 series assignment is very convoluted and depends on where and when the aircraft was made. I found a source that can help explain the early LaGG series with drawings of aircraft from each factory and may shed some light on why there is such a wide range of styles and explanations for them. Click here to link to this sight.

I chose to do "White 14" of the 44 IAP stationed near Leningrad in the fall of 1941. My original source (clike here to linke to this source) states that it was made at State Factory 153 in Novosibirsk. Having lived in Novosibirsk, this was the main reason I chose the subject. However, after some more research, it appears that the aircraft was made at Factory 23 in Leningrad, which makes sense since it was stationed at Leningrad and the oil cooler intake, tail wheel, and radiator outlet cutout are consistent with those produced at this factory.

The paint scheme uses the standard Green/Black colors, but is unique in its application. My original source calls it a "Bukhanova tiger-stripe" cammouflage, and this may be the real test to see which source was correct; where was Nadia Bukhanova working at the time this aircraft was produced? Either way, I used the kit stars and painted the white 14 numerals using a sticker stencil drawn from MS Paint. I really like this kit, and if you're willing to do a bit of research, you can modify this kit to whatever early-series LaGG-3 subject you wish.

Il-2M Shturmovik "White 24"

Rarely is the tail section of a model the point of interest, but I really like the uniqueness of this aircraft. The kit is from Eduard and it was rather fun to build. The build was quite complex but everything seemed to fit very well. I really liked how the radiator ducting went together to make a very realistic engine cowling.

The wings were nicely done, but I think that I put them together out of sequence and had to work a little harder to get them to fit right. The cockpit is also nicely done, and I really liked the tailgunner's compartment.

I chose this option from the kit because of it's unique scheme (apparently the Soviet Navy had a liking for dramatic paint schemes). Eduard's explanation for the differnt tail section was multiple repairs on the forward fuselage and wing areas. This may be true but my theory is that this aircraft suffered significant damage to the tail section and was replaced with a good tail section from another damaged aircraft, afterwhich, the crew added some personal markings of "For the Honor of the Guard" on the port side and "For the Motherland" on the starboard. This makes sense to me because the majority of the aircraft is painted in the earlier AII Green and Black scheme, where the fuselage tail has the later Raw Sienna color added. Also, photo evidence shows that the starboard aileron has been replaced and appears to be painted Raw Sienna.

Anyway, this kit came out beautiful and I really like it, eventhough the Il-2 has got to be one of the ugliest aircraft to come out of WWII victorious.

La-5FN "White 25"

This is a 1/48 Zvezda kit that I had to get when it was a new release. However, I needed to get through some of my other inventory and refine my technique before I was going to tackle this beauty. This was a very good kit, but like the Eduard Fw 190, a bit over-engineered especially in the engine and gun compartment areas.

The kit was designed to have an open gun/engine compartment option, but I saw two problems in Zvezda's execution. First of all, the removed panels on the kit are not depicted how the panels on the actual aircraft are removed to get access to the cannons or engine. To a modeler who is trying for accuracy, this would not do. Secondly, there is no firewall barrier for the cockpit, and I'm quite certain that the actual aircraft had one. This could have been aleviated by scratch-building with some styrene, but I didn't feel it was worth the effort with the first problem still to tackle. Needless to say, I omitted a lot of the engine pieces as well as the cannon pieces and just closed it all up. The cockpit was a little bit over-engineered as well but the execution was superb. I added the Eduard color update set which combined with the kit pieces made for one of the best cockpits I have ever seen. One other problem with this kit: the devise attached to the prop. spinner is depicted as a fan, similar to the Fw 190; these were actually closeable shutters that were fixed to the engine to regulate engine temperature and did not spin. A few modifications were necessary to fix the problem but were easily implemented.

The overall fit of the kit was good; I had to use a bit of super glue to fill a slight gap in the lower fuselage area and where the gun panels met with the rest of the fuselage, but mostly I had no difficult problem areas. There were a couple of sink marks on the outside fuselage pieces under the cockpit, but these were filled with super glue and sanded out fairly quickly and easily.

I used the kit decals. By the time I got to build this there were a couple of aftermarket options available, but they cost more than the kit and I'm on a budget. Good to know that the decals were actually quite good, if a little bit transparent.

I chose the bottom option from the kit, I liked the red nose and white tail, and I wasn't too impressed with the lion head decal or the Guards emblem decal for the other two options. I used Model Master Russian Topside Blue for the undersurfaces, FS 36375 mixed with a little bit of FS 36320 for the light grey, and FS 36118 mixed with bit of dark green for the dark grey. I used MM Italian Red to match (as closely as I could) the stars from the kit. Overall, this turned out to be a beautiful model. I now want to do an La-7 to round my family of Lavochkin fighters. Maybe I can find an Eduard Weekend edition out there somewhere.