recently finished hobbycraft La-5(what it said on the box) but in doing research it looks more like a La-7. im hopeing you guys can help me out. painted with MM enamels and built with a true details cockpit. it came with a 1-peice canopy that i sawed into 3 and sanded down and polished so it wasent so thick. exaust stains were added with one of those tamiya wethering masters
all comments welcome
Excellent work! I like the weathering on this bird, subtle yet effective. As for which variant it represents, I can’t help you on that one.
The Hobbycraft kit is more of an La-7 than a 5, the best -5FN is a new kit by Zvezda that is very detailed but a bit fussy to build, anyway that’s the way it looks to me in the box. Like the Spitfires by ICM. The wing roots and some of the panel lines are a bit iffy on the Hobbycraft kits, but for many years we were lucky to have them and they are not bad to build.
I would suggest you revisit the rake of the main gear struts, they look too vertical to me. Looks like you worked hard to make this the best presentation you could. The paint looks like a hard working Russian should. Thanks for putting up the pictures for us.
Nice work on the HobbyCraft kit, an oldie & pretty basic kit but it builds up nicely. I’ve always thought it was more LA-7 than 5. Gavia (Eduard) makes a very nice LA-7.
Regards, Rick
The LA-5 and the LA-7 were very similar, the LA-7 was just the ultimate refinement of the LA-5. (Mostly aerodynamic refinements without any redesign of fundamental components.)
A list of some of the changes:
The long supercharger air intake fairing was removed from the upper centerline of the cowling and replaced by a flush intake on the port wing root and the oil cooler intake was transferred from the bottom of the cowling to a position under the fuselage level with the wing trailing edge.
The cowling itself - which on the LA-5, comprised of four hinged and two fixed sections - comprised only two segments aft of the front ring.
Continuous taper was applied to the wing center-section leading edge - the sharply tapered root leading edges of the LA-5 being eliminated.
Tail wheel retraction was restored and hinged flaps were attached to the fuselage centerline to enclose the previously exposed portions of the main wheels when retracted.
There are probably a few details I failed to mention but this should cover the main changes.
The references are from “Soviet Air Force Fighter Prt.1”.
In my estimation your cowling fits that of the LA-5.(Actually it appears to be a bit of both but it leans more towards the 5) Your wheel wells are also modeled after the LA-5. I would say this kit is the 5 and not the 7. You just need to add the supercharger air intake and trunk fairing to the upper cowling. The manufacturer of this kit made a small mistake, but that is easily corrected when putting this kit together. You also need to add the starter dog to the nose. That should do it.
thanks all. i agree it does seem to be more La-5 than La-7. last night going through the box i found the air scoop for the top of the nose. i guess thats what directions are for[:-^]
i think ill leave it as is. i never try to mess with a good model and this seems to be one of my better ones
Nicely done. I did the Gavia kit a while back and it was advertised as an La-7:
IMO it is a far better kit than the Hobbycraft offering.
I own the Hobbycraft LA-7 kit. It’s a fairly simple kit with no frills added. I recently bought a Legends cockpit for it, after taking a good look at the Legends cockpit I decided I didnt care for it. I will scratch build what I need and use a few parts from the Legends box.
This thread has piqued my interest in this kit and I started working on it last night. (Not much work but some.)
Nice build Manstein.
very nicely done, I like the subtle weathering and paint scheme, thanks for posting! Cheers