Lavochkin's Wooden Wonder

Historical Background

Lavochkin's La-7 was the last in the line of the aircraft family starting with the LaGG-1 in 1938. The LaGG-1 (and its successors) were made of laminated wood to save strategic materials and was powered by a Klimov M-105 inline engine. Although promising, the LaGG suffered from being underpowered and lacked agility and range. It was then replaced by the LaGG-3, a modified LaGG-1 design with lighter airframe and more powerful engine. But the improvements were insufficient and the LaGG-3 remain woefully underpowered. In early 1942, Lavochkin design bureau engineers, Semyon Lavochkin himself and Vladimir Gorbunov (Mikhail Gudkov has pulled out of the project) attempted to rectify the problem by installing a more powerful Shvetsov ASh-82 radial engine on the LaGG-3. The attempt was sucessful with tests pilots claiming the LaG-5 superior to Yakovlev's Yak-7. In July 1942, Stalin ordered maximum production of the La-5 (the 'G' had been dropped by this time). By 1943, the La-5 had become the mainstay of the V-VS, yet its designer and the engineers at the Tsentralniy Aerogidrodinamicheskiy Institut (TsAGI) felt that it could be improved upon. The changes included complete sealing of the engine cowling, re-arrangement of the wing centre section to accommodate the oil cooler and the relocation of the engine air intake from the top of the cowling to the bottom to improve the pilot's view. The aircraft was evaluated between December 1943 and January 1944. Using the standard La-5FN engine, the test aircraft had a top speed of 684 km/h at a height of 6,150 meters, 40 km/h faster than standard La-5FN.

Lavochkin had been monitoring the TsAGI's improvements and in January 1944, built an improved version of the LA-5, incorporating all of them. Lavochkin also incorporated lighter, but stronger metal wing spars. With Soviet strategists now confident that strategic materials supplies were no longer an issue at this stage of the war, Lavochkin was able to replace some wooden parts with alloys. Lavochkin also added some other changes such as the oil cooler was moved to the wing roots, the wing/fuselage fillets were streamlined, each engine cylinder had its own exhaust pipes, reduced number of engine cowling covers, rollbar added to the cockpit, longer short struts fitted to the landing gears while having the tailwheel was shortened, improved gunsight and a new propeller blade were also installed. Armament was three Berezin B-20 20mm cannons. The aircraft was called etalon (standard-setter) and made nine flights between February and March 1944. It however proved to be near-equal to the TsAGI's test plane. It was 180kg lighter and climb faster than the TsAGI's aircraft. Speed was only marginally slower at altitude. The tests validated Lavochkin's changes and the aircraft was ordered into production as the La-7. However the B-20 cannon was not ready for production and production La-7s retained the two ShVAK cannons of the La-5. The first five La-7s were built at Zavod No.381 in March 1944 and three were accepted by the V-VS in the same month. The quality of the early production aircraft were however less than the etalons due to issues with the engine, defective propellers and incomplete sealing of the cowling and fuselage.

After the problems had been rectified, the La-7 underwent combat trials with the 63rd Guards Fighter Aviation Corps in September 1944 and the results were mainly positive. The new aircraft surpassed its immediate predecessor in terms in speed, maneuverability and landing characteristics. Pilots however recommended that changes should be made to the armament and an urgent fixing of its engine.  In the one-month trial, the 63rd GvIAP shot down 52 Fw 190s and 3 Bf 109Gs, while losing 7 (out of 30) of their number. The 156th Fighter Aviation Corps of the 4th Air Army was the next unit to receive the La-7 in October 1944. The engine still gave trouble however and at one point, the 156th had only 14 aircraft serviceable. The engine, the 14-cylinder Shvetsov ASh-82FN, provided satisfactory service in the La-5FN. However, the lower position of the engine air intakes in the wing roots made it easier for the La-7 to ingest sand and dust. The engine problems (among other causes) remained until the end of the war when on 9 May 1945, only 169 out of 967 La-7s were serviceable. The Soviet, and indeed the top Allied ace of World War 2, Major Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub flew the La-7 and scored the last 17 of his 62 air-to-air victories in it. His last 'kill' was a Messerschmitt Me 262 piloted by Unteroffizier Kurt Lange of 1./KG(J)54 over Frankurt on der Oder on 15 February 1945. Outside the Soviet Union, The La-7 were only used by Czechoslovakia. Before the war's end more than 2,000 airframes were delivered, but only 74 of the originally-intended 3-cannon version managed to be delivered by May 1945. Production continued until 1946 with a total production of 5753 aircraft built at Zavod No.381, Zavod No.21 (Gorky) and Zavod No.99 in Ulan-Ude. By 1947, La-7 has completely disappeared from service.

The Kit

The Academy La-7 is another of their reboxings of Hobbycraft's kits. The original was released in 1990 while Academy released theirs in 2002. In a nutshell, we have a kit released in the 21st century but with early 1990s characteristics. The kit consists of 55 parts spread among three light grey and one clear sprues and a decal sheet. From casual inspection of the parts, it looked like it's going to be a rather simple build. The cockpit looks spartan with not much details and there is no details whatsoever in the wheel wells. While the cockpit were simplified, the fabric effect was exaggerated; in fact they look unrealistic. But with extra work and some aftermarket help, it could be made into a beauty. The decal sheet provides two rather colourful marking options. The first was White 93, Lt. Col. Sergey F. Dolushin, 165 IAP, April 1945, Germany and the second was Major Ivan N. Kozhedub, 176 IAP, Spring 1945, Germany. And as usual, I was suspicious of the quality of Academy decals.

Construction

Where else but the cockpit to start? The cockpit consists of 11 parts - enough for rudimentary details. The cockpit parts were painted while still on the sprue and were touched up later. The main colour used was Gunze Aqueous H317 (FS36231). The instrument panel, control stick and 'boxes' inside the cockpit were painted XF-1 Flat Black and the instrument faces dry-brushed silver. Once the assembly was complete, the cockpit was trapped between the two fuselage halves and cemented. The exhaust shrouds were then cemented to the fuselage. Because of the way the propeller was attached, the cowling would be left off until later. Then I fit the horizontal tailplanes and the rudder. As the rudder is a separate piece, it may be cemented at an angle, although I didn't do it. So far, there wasn't any problem with parts fit. Moving on to the wings, Academy gave the option to drill holes on the lower wing for bombs. However I skipped this as the La-7 was almost exclusively used as an air combat fighter plus, the decal options feature top-scoring pilots, who were unlikely involved in attack missions late in the war. The fit was OK for the wing halves but there is a gap between the fuselage and the rear of the wing assembly. Before painting, I added the engine oil cooler fairing. Consisting of two parts, there wasn't even a plain bulkhead inside the tunnel, allowing one to see through it.

Painting and Decaling

Painting started with the lower fuselage. With my previous Soviet WW2 aircraft, I used Tamiya XF-23 Light Blue for the AMT-7 Blue colour. However I have run out of XF-23 and the next best colour match I have in my arsenal was Tamiya X-14 Sky Blue. Straight out of bottle, and even allowing for scale, it looked too garish. I added more Flat White both to tone it down and cut a bit of the gloss. For the upper colour, I painted it Tamiya XF-53 Neutral Grey The darker splinter colour would have to await my final decision regarding the markings. Then came decision-making time. Lt. Col. Dolgushin plane looked more colourful with its striped tail, while Capt. Kozhedub's plane is, well, being Capt. Kozhedub's plane. With a heavy heart, I eventually decided to finish my model as Colonel Dolgushin's White 93. With that, I painted the nose a mixture of XF-7 Flat Red and X-7 Gloss Red and the tail XF-2 Flat White.

Some info about Lt. Colonel Sergei F. Dolgushin: Dolgushin was a veteran pilot by the time he joined the 156th IAP in August 1943, having been in combat since 22 June 1941, shooting down a German aircraft while flying Polikarpov I-16 on that first day of Operation Barbarossa. Over the next two years, he flew most Soviet frontline combat aircraft including the MiG-3, LaGG-3 and Hawker Hurricane. He was awarded the Hero Of The Soviet Union medal on 5 May 1942 for seven individual and four shared victories. Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, he was made the commander of the 156th IAP, flying Lavochkin La-5FNs. The regiment then converted to the La-7 and was held in reserve until sent back in combat in June 1944 as part of Operation Bagration. Dolgushin and the 156th IAP were in almost continuous action until VE Day. He was hit by flak over Warsaw in February 1945 but managed to bring his plane back to safety. Dolgushin flew his last combat sortie on 7 May 1945 by which time his official tally was 17 personal and 11 shared victories.

With some trepidation I started the decaling process. And as expected, they showed the typical Academy decal characteristics. The silvering problem was minimised (but not entirely eliminated) because of the glossy surface. Mr Mark Softer was not used as the decals were totally impervious against it. The stiffness of Academy's decals and its immunity against decal softeners makes it hard to conform to surface features; in this case, the tail stripe decals. The fuselage star decal was somehow stuck to where I first placed it, it only moved a bit when poked around. Any further prodding resulted in tearings so the fuselage stars were not in their actual places. Arghhhh!!! Another problem was concerned with Dolgushin's kill markings. The instructions have you place them underneath a panel line and I dilligently did so. However when I look around the internet, virtually all the drawings and build-up examples have the first row of stars above that panel line..more misery!!! When I was younger (and having more spare money), such terrible setbacks meant a sudden impact between the model and the wall but nowadays, it will be finished as it is and served as yet another cautionary tale!

Finishing

There weren't actually much to do at this stage. The landing gear and tailwheels were painted, assembled and cemented onto the model. I am not too sure myself but it seemed like Academy (or rather, Hobbycraft) had the landing gear too tall. Sure, the La-7 had a longer landing gear strut and a shorter tailwheel but it somehow looked wrong. Anyway, right or wrong, I left them as they were. The engine cowling was assembled, together with the propeller. Academy did not provide a vinyl grommet to make the prop rotate but a plastic one. It fitted snugly however that I felt that the assembly need not to be cemented. The pitot tube, canopy and aerial were then fitted. The canopy parts did not fit well however, leaving gaps here and there. The model was then subjected to a sludge wash, which was made lighter than usual because of the predominantly light colour. This was followed by a spray of Flat Clear. Afterwards, I masked the area behind the exhausts and the two bands on the cowling. The former was painted aluminium while the latter in silver. I should add that for the two nose bands, it should be painted in chrome silver as photos showed them to be very shiny. Anyway, plain silver was the only silver available to me and I have to live with that. 

Conclusion

OK the bad points first. The kit has minimal interior details, The bad fit between the wing-fuselage joint and between the canopy and the fuselage, the cardboard-like decals and that (probably) wrong decal placement instructions. On the credit side, the kit is quite easy to build. The scribed details are also good. The marking selections are also interesting, shame about the decals themselves. Although not as detailed as the Gavia/Eduard offering, the base kit is sound enough and costs a lot less than the their rivals' kit....of course in this case, you got what you pay.

p.s. While Googling for the subject, I came across a photo of a 1/72 built model of the La-7 which I believe was from KP. Apart from the wrong profile, what caught my attention was the kit's depiction of Dolgushin's kill markings. While Academy got the location wrong (probably), the model I saw had two additional rows of red stars, an excess of 16 kills against Dolgushin's actual official tally! Talk about inaccuracy!