Time for a quickie - zvezda 1/144 lavochkin la5 fn

[yak face]

Red cowling done and airframe given a coat of klear , next up the few decals then i can think about getting the canopy on . Speaking of which , i was going to cut off the locating pin and just glue the canopy on but looking at it the hole in the middle of the clear piece is visible even if the pin isnt in it ,so I decided to paint the pin so it could pass as a pilots head , just a bit of brown and flesh !

[yak face]

Decals on , I decided to use the spare number 1s and 7s to make the two white stripes on the tail , these still need a bit of touching up once they’re dry . Next is a Matt coat then it’s on with the canopy and a very tricky frame paint - obviously it’s too small to mask so it’s going to be a hand painted job . The Lavochkin radial engined fighters and a few of the polikarpov too had a bright metal band ( sometimes two or parts ) round the circumference of the cowling which is a very prominent feature of these aircraft and something I want to try and replicate. I’ve got some self adhesive chrome effect tape ( actually Xmas wrapping tape ) that I’m going to stick onto non stick backing paper and try and cut into very thin strips and apply , we‘ll see how successful that is tomorrow ! Cheers tony

[Guest]

Looking good Tony :smiling3:.

[Tim Marlow]

Nicely done Tony. Always think adding decals to an aircraft brings it to life....bit like doing the face and eyes on a figure.....

[yak face]

Well I found the xmas tape and stuck it onto a bit of sticky label backing paper . I managed to cut a very thin strip and this was stuck round the back edge of the cowling and a couple of short pieces just behind that . It worked very nicely and gives a good representation of this distinctive feature . Ive glued the canopy on and given the frames a first coat of colour roughly by hand . Once theyve had a second coat I can clean up the edges with a cocktail stick and itll be ok . I also tidied up the two stripes on the fin , touching up the edges with white.

[adt70hk]

Tony

That really has come on very nicely and as you say the 'pilot's head' looks ok from a distance. Well done!

Andrew

[papa 695]

Cracking work Tony

[yak face]

After a final push im calling this done. The undercarriage , pitot ,aerial have been fitted and its all had a coat of Matt varnish (galeria , sprayed ).The aerial and pitot were made from plastic card and wire respectively , the kit ones were a bit overscale but I mainly replaced them because I broke them off and lost them !! I added the nav lights with the tiniest drop of red and green paint , and an aerial wire from my mrs hair. heres a couple of pics to finish this thread and I'll put up a completed one with them all on , cheers tony

[outrunner]

Looking very good, I doubt I have the dexterity to work at that scale.

Andy.