Roden 1/72 LaGG-3, Series 11 |
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Although the forerunner of the excellent La-5 & La-7 fighters,
the LaGG-3 was decidedly unpopular with VVS pilots and groundcrew. It was
underpowered, underarmed, overweight and suffered from poor maneuverability,
a temperamental hydraulic system and unreliable Klimov engine. Initial conversion
caused such high attrition rates that VVS pilots were suggesting LaGG
stood for "lakirovanny garantirovanny grob", loosely translated as "varnished guaranteed
coffin". Very inspiring. Perhaps it is somewhat appropriate then that Roden's
LaGG-3 is rather a dog as well, although to be fair I never actually feared
for my life whilst building it. |
This model was very kindly donated by my cyber-friend(?!)
Todd Moore and was supposed to be a simultaneous project as he was building
the same kit. Of course he finished his
months ago and being the slowpoke I am I've only just finished mine now!
So much for simultaneous.... |
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I'll be the first to admit I know very little about Russian
aircraft but this project has somewhat fired my interest in them, and a
quick look through my books revealed I had more info on them than I thought.
My two main references for this kit were "Soviet Air Force Fighters
Part 1" by William Green and Gordon Swanborough (MacDonald and
Jane's, 1977) and "Soviet Aces of World War 2" by Hugh
Morgan (Osprey, 1997). |
Roden's kit consists of reasonably well moulded parts in a
soft gray plastic and includes a multitude of optional bits for various
series of LaGGs, some of which are not used in this release. There is a
lot of flash to clean up, in fact I had to literally carve the fuselage
halves out of the flash to remove them from the sprues! Once cleaned up
however they look quite nice and there is a fair bit of cockpit detail moulded
in. That's pretty much where the niceties end I'm afraid as getting the
parts to fit is an excercise in mind control that would test the abilities
of the most devout Zen Buddhist. Rather than list the pieces that didn't
fit I'll save time and space by listing the pieces that did: the seat. Yep,
that's it. Everything else required vast amounts of filing, sanding, cursing,
filling, grinding, cursing, wedging, replacing, cursing, shimming, cursing,
cursing, and ummm.... cursing. The fit of the wings to the fuselage was
particularly gruesome and no doubt had the CEO of Milliput laughing all
the way to the bank. Wonder if they have a trade deal with Roden? |
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The rudder comes as a seperate part and I cut off the elevators
and repositioned them as well. |
Roden would have you install the exhausts before the upper
cowling part but I prefer to add such items after painting so I cut off
the mounting flange on the exhausts and blanked off the openings in the
cowling from the inside with sheet plastic. |
Exhaust stains and dirt on the tires are pastels and paint
chipping is Humbrol Silver on the metal cowlings and propellor and Dark
Yellow on the wood airframe. Antennas are good ol' stretched sprue. |
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Canopy frames are the usual painted decal strips as are the
silver prop blade cuffs. I used a bit of the backing paper from one of these
strips for the leather canopy handle which is just visible above the headrest.
This is mainly to hide the seam in the fuselage that I neglected to fix.
I struggled to find a solution for the curved frame on the windscreen and
finally found a couple of drop tank halves in my spares box that had just
the right shape. I used these as a template to cut the frame from painted
decal stock. |
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I drilled out the machine gun, exhaust stacks and starter
dog on the spinner as well as opening up the carb intakes in the wing roots. |
The gear doors and landing gear legs are quite thick which
made the wheels stick out way too far. I had to make do with the gear legs
as I couldn't find suitable replacements so I dremeled grooves in the gear
doors to try and get them a bit closer to the wheels. It's a definite improvement
but I'm still not completely thrilled with it. |
Underside paint is Revell Pale Blue/Green (55) with a couple
of drops of Humbrol Midnight Blue (15) in to brighten it up a touch. Uppersurface
camouflage is Polly Scale RLM 70 Black Green with a bit of black in so it
wouldn't look like, well, RLM 70 Black Green. The dark green is a 50/50
mix of Humbrol Dark Green (30) and Army Green (102). |
Decals aren't too bad although somewhat impervious to setting solutions.
Fortunately there are few panel lines and few decals so it wasn't a problem.
I chose N. Puzanov's Series 11 aircraft (incorrectly identified on the instructions
as Galchenko's machine) from 145 GShAP.
Seatbelts are from Reheat's generic etched set and the rudder bar is scratchbuilt.
The moulded on detail looks a bit soft but with a coat of paint and a dark
wash it looks okay I think. I thinned down the seat pan and control stick
grip so they wouldn't be quite as clunky. |
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big motherf***ing piece of sprue had to be wedged between the fuselage halves
in order to get the upper cowling part to fit properly. I used the instrument
panel decal supplied and stuck a few Reheat instrument bezels on
to give it a bit of life.
It was at this point that I should have installed the radio behind the seat
but I didn't actually notice it until it was far too late. Oops. More for
the spares box.... |
Below left & right:
Aaaaaaggh!!! My pills, get me my pills! Remind me to invest in Milliput
shares.... |
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Left:
I had to take the trusty Dremel to the inside of the radiator housing to
get it to fit over the lump of plastic that passes for a radiator. The kit's
thick splitter plate was replaced with .010" sheet and note the piece
of fine stainless steel mesh I added to the front (and rear) of the radiator
lump. Take a good look, because once the housing is on you'll need a 50,000
candlepower light and a microscope to see it again. D'oh!!
Right: The kit supplied pitot vs my
scratchbuilt one, and if I have to tell you which is which I'm gonna reach
out and virtually slap you. :-) |
Right: The Falcon canopy is actually
meant for the Red Star kit but with a bit of trimming here and there I actually
got it to fit better than Roden's canopy. Of course that's not saying much
since the kit canopy fit about as well as every other part in the box -
it didn't, in other words. I used a thin strip of masking tape to hold the
canopy in place while I made a few final adjustments and then glued it with
gap filling super glue; the canopy that is, not the strip of tape. The landing
light cover has been glued in, sanded and polished to blend it in with the
leading edge and the carb intakes have been opened up. There's an MV Products
lens behind that landing light cover but you can't really see it because
of the poor quality clear plastic. D'oh again! |
Below left: Ready
for paint at last!! Note the copious amounts of Milliput in the wing/fuselage
seam. The black paint just happened to be in my airbrush for some other
project so I sprayed a bit on the wing roots to check my seam filling abilities.
They need work apparently. |
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Above right: I couldn't
get the kit oil cooler & radiator outlet pieces to fit at all (gee,
what a surprise) and they were far too thick for my liking anyway so I replaced
them with .005" sheet brass. The black line behind the oil cooler inlet
is another piece of fine stainless mesh that can't be seen. I've discovered
a new talent. |
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