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Here
is my attempt to build a model of Kozhedub’s
Lavochkin La-7.
For more info about the La-7 and Kozhedub visit the web sites listed in References
at the bottom of this article.
Ivan
Kozhedub, top Soviet ace with 62 victories, was the top scoring fighter pilot on
the Allied side during World War II. In 1941, he finished flight school with
excellent results and remained in the school as a flight instructor. He
requested several times to be transferred to the front and finally he was sent
to the active service in late 1942. On July 1943, Kozhedub scored his first kill
during the Battle of Kursk.
Apart
from these 62 victories, Ivan Kozhedub was also forced to shoot down two U.S.
P-51 Mustangs that mistakenly attacked his La-7, thinking he was an attacking
German Fw-190A.
The
kit is the third aircraft in my collection of the WWII top fighter aces and it
was built approximately two years ago.
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The
kit
The
kit is from Hobbycraft in 1:48 scale. The kit was built OOB, no PE parts or
other aftermarket parts were added. Also there were made no shape or dimension
corrections. Only wire antenna was made from the silver painted hair.
For
me the most important criteria is how the kit looks on the shelf. So I rather
spent my time by the gathering info about the right camouflage and marking then
checking the kit dimensions, surface panel lines etc. against blue prints.
Assembling
I will
avoid a description of the kit assembly, how parts fit etc. as it was a time
ago and I do not remember all the details.
Painting
and Marking
For
a standard basic camouflage I used Humbrol and Revell enamels to mix
"Sky Blue" for the underside camouflage color, for the upper surface
the dark grey color and the lighter "Grayish Blue" were also mixed. All
colors were hand brushed. After dry, all surfaces were hand brushed with gloss
finish to avoid silvering under the decals.
Hobbycraft
decals were useless. Red stars with only white outline and not centered, small
stars symbolizing victories had wrong color – red instead of white, two yellow
stars symbolizing the "„Gold Star" of the Hero of the Soviet Union
medals very schematic, white "27" not red outlined etc.
To
personalize a standard La-7 as the Kozhedub’s
one was a real
challenge to me.
The
red stars with white and red outline on the bottom side of the wings, fuselage
and rudder were taken from my spares box. The red "27" was also taken
from my spares box and carefully hand brushed white, only a thin red outline was
left. After drying it was applied to kit.
Then
triangle shaped areas and front part of the engine cowling was hand brushed red.
White outline is a thin decal strip from my spare box as well as silver
painted decal strips – metal rings around the cowling.
There
were two possibilities for a propeller spinner color. Aircraft exhibited in the
Monino AF Musem has the white spinner. There is also a b&w picture of
Kozhedub standing by a front part of his aircraft, where spinner color is
lighter then the color of the red areas on the engine cowling.
On
the other side there are also sources describing red spinner. As well as the new
Gavia 1/48 kit. Finally, I decided to painted it white as well as a part
of the rudder.
The
biggest problem was with the decoration and victories symbols. How to correct
them? Then I found an article in the Aero Plastic Kits Revue no. 64 from
1997. It was an interview with general Kramarenko, the Soviet pilot who
fought in WWII and in the Korean war. He said that he flew Kozhedub’s
legendary
"White 27" since mid April 1945, after Kozhedub was moved to Moscow.
There were neither small victory stars nor "Gold Star" medals painted
on the La-7 fuselage. They were painted later, at the Frunze Academy Museum.
After
all decals were applied one coat of the semi gloss finish was hand brushed.
After dry all red painted areas were hand brushed with gloss finish to achieve a
"Shiny Red".
Weathering
All
weathering is brushed by very thinned mixture of matt Sand, Dark Earth and Black
enamel with the required ratio. Some areas had more brown, elsewhere more black.
Panel lines were highlighted by a pencil.
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Taking
Photos
All
pictures were taken on the balcony during a sunny day. The kits were placed on
the A1 white paper sheet. The shots were taken in the indirect light using
borrowed digital Olympus camera. After short experimenting I was pleased by
results. Planes looked quite well for me and, moreover, there were no sharp
shadows on the background.
References
I hope
you enjoyed my LA-7
Michal
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