Apex1701 Posted May 26, 2007 Share Posted May 26, 2007 Hi guys, here are some photos of my work on the kit. The fit of the kit seems not too bad but lot of work ahead. For the cockpit I had to remove the poor details inside. After that the fun began...fitting the True details La-5 pit in the Lagg-3!!! After researching the subject I'm pretty sure the cocpit are the same. After all the La-5 was a Lagg-3 fitted with a radial engine. For now the primer was sprayed on these parts, the details will stand out better. This week-end I'll begin painting the inside. Jean Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jay Chladek Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 This is going to be a cool subject. I have the SF kit myself and I just love the looks of the LaGG-3. Keep us posted on your work Jean as I may be right on your heals in building one once the canopy you were gracious enough to let me have arrives. I still haven't fully decided which plane I want to do yet though. And yes, I can see you are also going the TD La-5 cockpit set route as well. Dang that Brett Green of Hyperscale! Why does he have to put cool ideas into our heads anyway? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Apex1701 Posted June 7, 2007 Author Share Posted June 7, 2007 The cockpit is now completed using True details Hobbycraft La-5 cockpit. Reading Brett's I gathered that the project was easy... Being my first attempt with resin... let's say it was fun :( Main problem is the length of the floor. Note for Jay: I suggest that you use the one from the kit. Brett did use the one with the kit with better success. Bort 44 as used by the 44th IAP were built from Zavod 153 at Novosibirsk. Being at the end of the supply chain, Pilawskii reported that the interior were probably left unpainted. So I decided for a mix of painted / unpainted: - ribbing and stringers are Wood aerolak (WE ACS05) - the inside of the skinning was left natural wood; that was my first attempt at replicating wood and it's better than nothing :blink: - metal parts were painted Blue-grey metal primer (WE ACS06) - the instrument panel is painted a very dark grey almost black. There are some photos on the web where it was painted white or a very pale grey. Since I was not sure I played it safe and painted it black. You'll notice that I blanked out the windows behind the pilot. From what I've seen they won,t let us see behind the pilot. Since that space was empty on this kit it's a blessing I just began gluing the fuselage and... it will be fun too!!! All the best. Jean Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jay Chladek Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 Very nice work Jean. I did do some test fitting of that TD cockpit myself and indeed was a little concerned about the floor shape difference. The main problem I think had to do with the LA-5 fuselage tapering out to accomodate the radial while the inline engine was a bit slimmer, hence the floor difference around the wing. Your work in the pit looks very good. Blocking off those rear windows indeed looks like a good idea given how crappy the glass they used was anyway (the Squadron book on the LaGG described it as like looking through Coke bottle glass). Fuselage test fitting on mine shows about average fit for a kit of this type. I do like how they designed the wing to fuselage joint though as it slides into place quite nicely and puts the resulting seam on the side of the fuselage as opposed to the wing root. One doesn't have to worry about aligning a pair of thin wavey edges like on so many other kits. It reminds me a little (only a little) of the approach that Eduard did with their Yak-3 kit. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jrallman Posted June 8, 2007 Share Posted June 8, 2007 that pit looks nice! I think the wood look on the sidewalls will turn out very nice once the fuse is closed up. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Apex1701 Posted June 25, 2007 Author Share Posted June 25, 2007 Here's a progress report for my SF Lagg-3. As I thought lots of body work to do! As you can see the upper cowling fitting is poor. I had to glue the front part with ca then when the bond was strong enough the back part. The underside need some work too. I had to use plasticard to fill the holes left after gluing the fuselage together. It will need filling, Mr.Surfacer, filling and resanding. Anyway that's part of the fun with short run kits. Jean Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Apex1701 Posted August 28, 2007 Author Share Posted August 28, 2007 Hi guys, Work has restarted on it. Main problem was that I painted it the wrong colors. I did use AMT-7 blue and AMT-4 green as per instructions then I reread Pilawskii to find out that Lagg-3 at the time were AII Blue, AII Green with a disruptive scheme of AII Black. I repainted the underside with the correct color to find out lot of seams I forgot :-(( So I repainted it again with a prayer ;-)) Here are some photos. If all is well tomorrow I'll paint the AII Green topside. Jean Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Apex1701 Posted September 30, 2007 Author Share Posted September 30, 2007 Done, after stripping it of it's paint, I redone it and finished it. Wow!! my third finished model this year :-) First time since 1983 :-0 All the best. Jean Quote Link to post Share on other sites
klimmer Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 Nicely done. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jay Chladek Posted October 1, 2007 Share Posted October 1, 2007 That is a mighty fine looking model there man! Good work! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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