Monthly Archives: October 2010

Zvezda La-5 – Painting

The Lavochkin La-5 is very similar to the British Spitfire in that, with the exception of a marking here or there, one plane looks more or less identical to every other plane. These weren’t the flashy P-47s and P-51s of the USAAF, with elaborate nose art and squadron markings. Late-war Soviet fighters gained a bit more leeway, and a lot of them began sporting more colorful cowls and elaborate markings as they achieved air superiority. But the La-5 was a mid-war fighter, and you could pretty much get one in whatever color you wanted, so long as it was green, black and blue.

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Soft Masks: Child’s Play

I hate masking. Of all the various aspects of modeling, it’s probably the task I enjoy least.

Unfortunately, until model paints are replaced by nanotechnology and little pigment robots that can lay down exactly where you tell them with no hint of overspray, masking is a necessity.

With the Eduard Yak-3 and Zvezda La-5, I’ve recently found myself tasked with masking soft-edge camoflage for the first time since my return to modeling. (more…)

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Zvezda La-5 – Cockpit and Main Assembly

When I was researching Zvezda’s La-5 prior to ordering, I kept coming across three broad areas of agreement.

  • First, in terms of detail, the La-5 and La-5FN before it represented a huge leap forward for Zvezda and marked them as a kitmaker to watch.
  • Second, in terms of engineering, the kit is…ambitious.
  • Third, fit can be a nightmare.

Throughout the build process, I’ve found two of those three to be true.

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Eduard Yak-3 – Cockpit and Main Assembly

Eduard’s Yak-3 may not compare to the detail and complexity of their more recent releases (the superb Hellcat kits come to mind), but for all its simplicity it’s still a competently detailed and engineered kit.

The first thing that strikes you about this kit is the extremely low parts count. The entire kit comes laid out on two sprues of a hard, shiny, somewhat thick-feeling plastic, and one clear sprue for the canopies and armored glass.

Overall, the detail level is solid. Some areas seem to have received more attention than others. There are a few major disappointments. The main landing gear struts, wheels, and lack of splitters in the intakes being the worst culprits. (more…)

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