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.