discussion Eduard 1/48 Lavochkin LA7

[yak face]

Heres one I dug out of the loft , the oldest resident of my stash ( hence the state of the box !) . I bought this kit about fifteen years ago. Its the Weekend version of the Lavochkin LA 7 , a kit originally tooled by Gavia in 2001 but reboxed by Eduard first in 2006 in this guise and many times since in profipack and weekend versions .
This being one of the very first Weekend offerings it only has the one decal option , an aircraft flown by Amet Khan Sultan , a Crimean ace with 30 kills to his name .
The kit is nicely detailed but as I needed belts anyway decided to get the Eduard etched fret for it so a few more bits will be used to lift the cockpit a little .

 

[flyjoe180]

You are also on a busy building streak Tony. This looks a nice kit.

 

[PaulTRose]

Nice

Ww2 Soviet aircraft are so interesting

 

[yak face]

Off to a flying start with this , the photo etch provides plenty of bits for the cockpit , most of which I’ll use - daft things like levers that are 1.5 mm long with a contact point of about 2 microns obviously will be ignored !
The main things are the belts and instrument panel and there are a few bits to go on the cockpit sidewalls . The pe rudder pedals were cut and folded but just looked too flat and weedy so the kit parts were used instead . Fuselage can now go together and the wing top and bottom has already been glued .

 

[flyjoe180]

Off to a flying start Tony. Some of the detail provided is ridiculously small, good call to omit them.

 

[Ernie]

Nice start. The etch set sure added a lot to the cockpit, well worth the effort.

 

[yak face]

Airframe together now and canopy masked and fitted ( well, the front and back sections)
The gunsight was fixed before the canopy went on with the reflector lens being replaced with a piece of holographic confetti , as the kit one had a ruddy great seam running down the middle of it .
The front of the cowling is red on this scheme so this was primed white and will be painted red and masked up before the main airframe gets primed black .

 

[flyjoe180]

Masking complete, you can breathe now Tony.

 

[Jim R]

Looks a nice kit. Certainly seems to have gone together well. The cockpit PE has added some nice detail. As usual with PE frets they do seem to delight in filling the corners with ridiculously tiny parts.

 

[colin m]

Top work Tony. It doesn't look a bad fit for an older kit..

 

[yak face]

Looks a nice kit. Certainly seems to have gone together well. The cockpit PE has added some nice detail. As usual with PE frets they do seem to delight in filling the corners with ridiculously tiny parts.

Yes jim there were some ridiculously small parts , impossible to use . The belts were a bugger too , the lap belts consisted of two parts each , one had to be threaded through the buckle on the other - madness but I somehow managed it

 

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Late to the party on this one Tony. Chair now pulled up.

 

[yak face]

Primed up now ,next up is the first colour AMT 7 fir the undersides . I’ll be using the Hataka late soviet colours set .

 

[flyjoe180]

Looking forward to your reveal of another excellent paint job Tony.

 

[yak face]

Paintwork commenced with the light blue undersides followed by the light and then dark greys. White tack was used for the masking to get a soft edge and everything looked great ……. BUT … because I’m in an out building with a tiny halogen heater and its very cold and damp outside I thought I would put the recently sprayed model near the heater to help the paint dry properly . You know whats coming next .
Yes , I got distracted doing the Typhoon nav lights and when I came to take off the masking on the LA 7 the left hand front of the fuselage looked a bit weird . It must have got too hot and melted a bit . It didnt look too bad and if you didnt know you probably wouldn't notice it , but I DID know and it would bug me to death so its been masked up and a big dollop of filler applied .Hopefully I can restore the shape and touch it up .

 

[scottie3158]

Hopefully the repair will work mate.

 

[Steven000]

Ship happens Tony, I'm sure you'll manage, camo looks great btw, cheers

 

[yak face]

Hopefully the repair will work mate.

Ship happens Tony, I'm sure you'll manage, camo looks great btw, cheers

If you can cast your mind back Ive done this trick before , on the MiG 21 for the group build a good few years back