Lavochkin La-5FN (VVS)
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Kit Review
This is an all-new tooling from KP's new owners, Legato/AZ Model, and it is also offered separately in La-5 or La-5F versions all of which use the same basic moulds with additions or omissions. The main sprue is dark grey coloured and contains 25 parts, whilst the clear sprue offers four parts. Surface detail is restricted to raised panels, joints and things like the landing flaps and control surfaces, as the small scale does not lend itself to moulding panel lines that will look at best like trenches!
Assembly is shown in 14 stages in the instructions and this starts with the interior, which has a floor/rear bulkhead unit with separate control column, seat, rear armoured glass and instrument panel. The wing is solid and one-piece, onto which goes the assembled cockpit unit. The fuselage halves are then made up and placed over the top of the wing centre section to make up the bulk of the airframe. The tailplanes are separate and have locating tabs to help installation. The undercarriage comes as separate oleo legs, doors and main wheels, all of which are nicely moulded with no sign of flash. The propeller however does have flash along the edge of each blade, so this will have to be cleaned up before assembly. The final addition will be the canopy, which comes as a closed one-piece unit, or a two-piece unit depicting the hood in the open position. This is extremely good on such a small scale kit as this.
The kit offers three decal options; 'White 14', flown by Capt. K. Evstigneev, 178th GIAP, spring 1945. This aircraft is AMT 11 Blue-grey and AMT 12 Dark Grey camouflage over AMT 7 blue; 'White 76', flown by Maj. I. Vishnyakov, 171st IAP, summer 1944, again in the same two-tone grey over blue scheme; 'White 57' of the 32nd IAP, summer 1943 in an AMT 4 green and black over AMT 7 blue scheme. Colour references in the instructions are given for Humbrol or Agama paint ranges. The accompanying decal sheet is well printed, with perfect register and colour and the carrier film is thin and very shiny, so it should no be too difficult to disguise under a coat of varnish.
Conclusion
A very neat kit, that has surprising levels of detail for the small scale. It can certainly be highly recommended to all modellers concentrating on 1/144th scale or to all VVS fans.
Our thanks to Kovozavody Prostejov for the review sample. For details of this and all KP products visit their website at www.kovozavody.cz.
This is an all-new tooling from KP's new owners, Legato/AZ Model, and it is also offered separately in La-5 or La-5F versions all of which use the same basic moulds with additions or omissions. The main sprue is dark grey coloured and contains 25 parts, whilst the clear sprue offers four parts. Surface detail is restricted to raised panels, joints and things like the landing flaps and control surfaces, as the small scale does not lend itself to moulding panel lines that will look at best like trenches!
Assembly is shown in 14 stages in the instructions and this starts with the interior, which has a floor/rear bulkhead unit with separate control column, seat, rear armoured glass and instrument panel. The wing is solid and one-piece, onto which goes the assembled cockpit unit. The fuselage halves are then made up and placed over the top of the wing centre section to make up the bulk of the airframe. The tailplanes are separate and have locating tabs to help installation. The undercarriage comes as separate oleo legs, doors and main wheels, all of which are nicely moulded with no sign of flash. The propeller however does have flash along the edge of each blade, so this will have to be cleaned up before assembly. The final addition will be the canopy, which comes as a closed one-piece unit, or a two-piece unit depicting the hood in the open position. This is extremely good on such a small scale kit as this.
The kit offers three decal options; 'White 14', flown by Capt. K. Evstigneev, 178th GIAP, spring 1945. This aircraft is AMT 11 Blue-grey and AMT 12 Dark Grey camouflage over AMT 7 blue; 'White 76', flown by Maj. I. Vishnyakov, 171st IAP, summer 1944, again in the same two-tone grey over blue scheme; 'White 57' of the 32nd IAP, summer 1943 in an AMT 4 green and black over AMT 7 blue scheme. Colour references in the instructions are given for Humbrol or Agama paint ranges. The accompanying decal sheet is well printed, with perfect register and colour and the carrier film is thin and very shiny, so it should no be too difficult to disguise under a coat of varnish.
Conclusion
A very neat kit, that has surprising levels of detail for the small scale. It can certainly be highly recommended to all modellers concentrating on 1/144th scale or to all VVS fans.
Our thanks to Kovozavody Prostejov for the review sample. For details of this and all KP products visit their website at www.kovozavody.cz.
