Who Else Wants a 63" Lavochkin La7 kit?

[Ron Gray]

Just looked at the stock situation and I do have a pair of HS85s so will probably stick with those.

[Ron Gray]

I thought that I'd post some of my building photos especially as the Warbirds Replicas threads have gained a new lease of life following Richard's posts about a new P51.

If you look back through this thread you will see that I joined the fray following in the footsteps of PeterH, Bob and Tim and gained some really good tips from those guys. You will also see that the dates of my previous posts are circa 2 years ago and that was where the build stalled.

At the start of the Covid-19 lockdown I decided to repair by Sbach and this was followed by a somewhat lengthly refurbishment of my SigRascal so when that neared completion I thought about what next on the list and the LA-7 came out top! Now Im not going to post every single step of the continuation of the build but will put things on here where I may have done things differently to the other guys or photos of these steps may not have been put up before.

So the dust was blown off the Lavochkin box and I tried my best to get my head around what I planned to do next (2 years ago)

The box of bits

The fuse needed control snakes running so I did that first, I vaguely remember plans of a pull / pull system planned for the rudder but I put a snake in instead!

Then it was time to close in the bottom of the fuse with 1/8th balsa having first fixed ½ triangular stock to support it. The keen eyes will note a join in the triangular supports, the kit came with a length for each side but rather than having a small offcut laying around I used it!

Whilst that was drying I dug out the tail pieces and remembered that 2 years ago I had the bright idea of a few changes to make it more scale like, one of these being hidden hinges and I had started the work on these on the fin / rudder. No getting away with not doing that on elevator then so I stripped some sheet balsa down to provide extensions to the tailplane TE which could then be sanded down to form the recess for the elevator LE. Mind you I should have paid more attention to photos of the full size as it hasn't got concealed tail hinges, oh well too late now.

Initial sanding, will have to be re-visited once the elevators have been sanded to thickness (to take into account the covering material)

The method I use is to form the LE shape then wrap that in sandpaper and use that to form the concave in the elevator TE.

Nearly there but more sanding necessary.

And on the subject of sanding, a lot is needed to get the elevators to the correct airfoil section.

And there is a lot more sanding to come!

Stay tuned.

[Ron Gray]

The cockpit area had been annoying me for 2 reasons. I had previously infilled the rear section behind the pilot seat with some foam covered thin ply, quite why I used this I can’t remember other than it came from the scrap box as a result of a crash, and the second annoyance were the sides to the cockpit, made out of balsa that was too thin! These were the first couple of things I tackled. New balsa sheeting to replace the foam (I need to tidy up / fill areas where the old material was removed), plus I fitted a new former which will allow me to form the cut out to represent the glass protective panel behind the pilot’s head.

I then wet and bent some thicker balsa to form the new sides to the cockpit which made it easier to glue in place. (I used the cowl as the former to bend the balsa around).

Cut, stuck and pinned in place.

Happier now with the cockpit area I went back to the tail surfaces to fix the concealed Robart hinges.

Elevators

Trial fitting of Robarts

And the same for the fin and rudder

[Tim Flyer]

Very nice work Ron ! I really like the concealed hinges and your sanding technique. Good idea. I also used a similar snake for elevator , but pull pull on rudder.

[Ron Gray]

Thanks Tim. I was going to use pull pull for the rudder but decided, at that stage, that as the model was only really going to be sport scale I wouldn't bother, plus I, at that stage, wanted to get it built fairly quickly.

Now that was about 10 days ago now and things have, once again changed and given the time again I would have put in pull pull, never mind, it won't look too bad with pushrods.

Regrading the concealed hinges, I merrily forged ahead and as you have seen above, spent a bit of time creating them for the elevators. It was only a couple fo days ago that I looked again, this time more closely, at phots of teh full size and lo and behold it didn't have concealed elevator hinges, in fact they are quite prominent and there was also a gap between the tailplane and elevators! Never mind, a bit of poetic licence for this part of the build!

[Tim Flyer]

Totally agree with the poetic licence bit. None of my models are anywhere near proper scale pieces . I think how they fly is most important. The flaps I put on mine are quite non scale and it’s missing the radiator but nobody had commented on that at the club . The only reason I used pull pull on the rudder was to keep it simple as I’m used to that . As was said earlier if you can build it light by missing out the flaps and light covering I think it will fly much better .

[Ron Gray]

My plan is to use document laminating film as the covering material, I really like it as it's easy to use, goes around complex curves quite well, will take paint if keyed first, lightweight, strong and very cheap!! Have already covered the elevators and rudder including faux rib tapes and given them and undercoat, very pleased with results.

Edited By Ron Gray on 18/05/2020 16:59:07

[Tim Flyer]

Interesting I haven’t tried that yet. Sounds another good idea!

[Bob Cotsford]

You're making me feel guilty now Ron! The wing off mine is sat in the corner behind an armchair. I started undercoating it a while ago, then left it out in the shed through the worst of the winter owing to illness, and now it's got a couple of minor delamination lines on one wing. Can I be bothered cutting through the brown paper covering to inject some glue and iron it flat? Nah, it'll do

Now it's warming up I'll have to throw some more paint at it but that will be after I've covered and fitted out the Panic.

While digging out a centre finder I came across a brand new and unused pair of mini servo plastic mounts. They look to be a good fit for the wing servo boxes.

[Ron Gray]

Well Bob, that's exactly how I felt every time I went into the workshop and saw the box of bits in the corner. It was only when I had nearly completed the refurb of the Rascal that I pushed myself into getting back into it and I'm so pleased I did as I'm really enjoying the build. The only problem I now have is that despite telling myself a week ago that this was only going to be a sport scale model so get it built quickly and into the air, I now find myself adding more and more bits of 'scale' elements to it, like the concealed hinges, rudder trim tab and nav light and now faux rib tapes! The photos above are a few days behind where I currently am with the build but teh rib tapes alone are taken an age as I need to cut and apply 3 lots of doculam for each one to get enough thickness to show through teh final covering but more on that later.

I know you guys don't like the paint phase of a build but I rather enjoy that bit so am looking forward to a few days time when I can start colouring it up - if only I could chose a suitable colour scheme other than ubiquitous 'white' 27.

[Ron Gray]

Now onto the wings. The first job was to mark and cut out the recesses for the retracts and wheel wells. The retracts are mounted on a ply plate which has to be let into the wing at an angle. After removing the veneer I then cut out the foam using an old penknife which has a nice long blade and is very sharp!

But I used another tool for removing the foam to allow the retracts to fit. This is a gun type soldering iron in which I’ve inserted a U shaped piece of wire. When the trigger is applied the wire gets hot and makes short work of foam cutting.

The wheel well was marked out - fortunately the kit came with a template to make this easier.

For the initial veneer cut I used my (paper) circle cutter.

Lifted the veneer,

and used the soldering iron to remove the foam.

The plastic mouldings for the wheel wells will have to be cut down to suit!

And the soldering iron was used again to cut out slots around the ply retract plates to facilitate the fitting of the balsa sides to the retract ‘bay’

[Tim Flyer]

😊 good to hear you like painting Ron , you are correct that I totally hate it . In fact that was the reason mine is white. I was really happy when I did my SLEC chipmunk that they recommended film covering... All I had to do was paint the cowl! I think the camouflage paint job looks good on this model but make sure it’s visible enough 😉

Edited By Tim Flyer on 18/05/2020 22:23:09

[Ron Gray]

I really do like this colour scheme, nice and simple and something sleek about it, but not an ideal candidate for a model???

My other likes are these 2, the first has nice red and whit on the tail so should be 'easy' to see.

And this one because it's an unusual colour scheme being grey / green, but like the first, could be a problem in the air.

[Jon H]

My big La7 is in the 93 colours there and vis is not easy at a distance. With no markings on the top of the wings that matt grey/blue just melts away and i end up essentially flying a cowl and spinner as that is all i can see. The fin is invisible when you are banked over so its no help. Its not a paint job i actually like as every la7 under the sun seems to have it applied and i always want something different.

The green one is likely to show a little better than the grey i would expect, especially if you cheat a bit a slap some red stars on the top of the wing too.

An alternative again is to take a little artistic licence and look for La5 paint jobs as there is greater variety.

You can have one thats trying to eat everything

Or one painted with the leftovers of every tin in the hangar

[Ron Gray]

But then there is always this one

[RICHARD WILLS]

Great build thread Ron and very tidy building . When you look at the La7 , you can see why it was so successful as a model . In plan form it is very nice as it appears as a series of triangular shapes whic all tie in rather nicely . In very much the same way as the Spitfire and its curves.

As a model , they never over heat and despite the tapered wing seem to behave really well right down to the stall .

To top it off , great colours .

The only down side is that everyone tells you how much they like your Yak !

Richard

[Jon H]

Posted by RICHARD WILLS on 19/05/2020 12:18:29:

The only down side is that everyone tells you how much they like your Yak !

Richard

Happens to mine all the time. Im tempted to get write 'Я не як, ты дурак!' on the fuselage.

Google translate seems a little rough with Russian, but it gets the point across and it might amuse any russian speaking spectators.

[RICHARD WILLS]

Yes , good idea . Back in 1998 I released a semi scale Zero .

At the time my Aunt was working for Kawasaki and speaking to Japan everyday .

I asked her what "The Dogs Bolxxcks " translated to . She duly brought home the symbols from work m which I then boldly printed across the fin and rudder.

The Zero demonstrator appeared in magazines and shows , all over the place but nobody ever noticed it .

I guess the Japanese in this country dont fly model planes .

[Ron Gray]

Thanks Richard, but, as you'll see in a bit, a lack of thinking ahead, going back over what I did 2 years ago leads to some mistakes being made which, whilst they can be overcome, should not have happened.

It truly is a lovely model, the wings are very elegant but you don't realise this until they are joined and then offered up to the fuse for the first time!

Colours are still swirling around in my head at the moment as I've still not decided what scheme to go for, my heart says one thing but the head says another! The red 14 just doesn't seem right but not certainly would be different! I suppose that in reality we don't know what colours were used, sure we know of the most prominent ones (27) but even then I've seen 4 different summer schemes and 2 winter ones for it - who knows. I think Jon was correct in a post he made somewhere that irrespective of what colour I put on it no-one will know if it is correct or not!

Also in one mad moment I did contemplate adapting mine to be either the rocket or ram jet assisted LA-7!!!

Edited By Ron Gray on 19/05/2020 12:50:38

Edited By Ron Gray on 19/05/2020 12:50:49

[RICHARD WILLS]

My still flying hack 57" version and a friends white one .

[Ron Gray]

Yes, the white winter scheme 27 is nice so is the scheme for 63. I'm actually leaning towards the 06 shown above, complete with 3 cannon bulges.

[RICHARD WILLS]

The only thing is that grey or green fighters disappear very nicely . We flew yaks in packs of five and if somebody didnt have a red nose when they all swooped in for a low pass , you couldnt see him .

You might want to browse the "Skins " made for the IL2 game . They have some great schemes and you can see what they look like form all angles . White 63 above came from a Yak 9U on IL2 .

You will note that the early "small " La7 has an oversized wing . I later reduced is by 10% and it still flew well .

The bigger La7 has a closer to scale wing anyway . Still packs in some wing area relative to its weight .

Flaps are nice but really not needed at normal weights .

There is video on you tube by Brian Brassey on the 63" one . Got "Rasputin by Boney M " back track !

Richard

[Bucksboy]

If anyone wants something translated accurately into Russian, let me know. I work with many native Russian speakers. Mine’s off with a friend being painted at the moment, he’s doing in exchange for an old engine.

[Ron Gray]

What colour is your Russian speaker being painted?

[Ron Gray]

Work on the wings continues.

Having used the soldering iron / foam cutter to form slots around the retract bay I then lined it with vertical grain balsa (vertical to add back strength where the foam has been removed. I use Gorilla Glue (expanding variety) when I glue to foam.

The plastic wheel wells were cut down to size and I will reuse the bottom off-cut inside the well.

The ailerons were cut out using a wide bladed razor saw and then the edges were trimmed to receive the false TE.

LE and false TE were then stuck to the wing using Gorilla Glue.

The LE for the ailerons was made up from 2 pieces of balsa, why 2 pieces? because I used the off cuts that would otherwise have been thrown away! The LE is so thick because I need to form the concealed hinges as I’m now committed to these having done the work on the rudder and elevators.

The next 2 shots show the nearly finished LE

The false TE of the wing has had a couple of triangular fillets added to the top and bottom and these will cover the hinge line.

And a trial fit shows what it should look like when the hinges have been fitted.