Roden LaGG-3 build
I like the look of the white paint scheme, that is what I am going for.
A few issues here. The pilot holes I had to drill for the missile racks were off. By quite a bit. My bad for trusting their placement. Had to do some extra drilling and cutting to make them mostly lay flat.
Worked on this for a few days, finally got the bravery to try to place the cockpit and make the fuselage with the warped side line up. It was a mess.
Looking at the bottom, you can see how much off the left side is. This was the best I could do.
I knew all the fuselage issues would be a problem when it came to attaching to the wings. It was. Accidentally sanded through the wheel wells. Got a sort of fit.
Believe me, it could have been much worse. Actually it turned out better than I thought it would based on initial fitting.
Surprised that the side windows and canopy actually look like a decent fit, considering. Dry fit of the cowling cover looks ok-ish as well.
Started adding all the extra bits to the underside. I *think* this may actually turn out ok, given some putty work.
This plastic is softer than others I have worked with, some parts sanded down WAY faster than I expected, so some things are lopsided.
I am not happy with this method of adding exhaust. I usually like to add exhausts as one of the last steps I do, could not figure out how to do that safely the way this is designed.
Gaps! and putty. The tail gear is done completely manual. You have to slice the door piece in two halves, and then attach the door halves with no real guidance for location. I need to get used to using super glue with modelling, I think. The plastic cement I used really melted the plastic around the door opening.
A leftover of all the fuselage warping/stressing is some large gaps. Practice using putty.
At the point where I am ready to apply primer and see how it looks.
Saw some gaps revealed by the primer, had a go at filling in primer. Using the Vallejo putty, getting comfortable with it.
I thought I was in the clear, added a coat of the final white for the top surface, and masked for the bottom paint application.
Mostly happy with the mask. Have some obvious things to fix. But that wasn't my biggest problem.
Masking tape tore off several chunks of top paint. I had issues with the Mission Models white primer like crazy. Clogging when spraying, uneven drying. I have Mission Models gray and black primers before with no issue. Maybe I had a bad bottle, or maybe the formula on the MM white primer was off. I had a go at a repair manual paint application. Its ugly in places when you look close, but I so want to be finished with this. I may just clear cote and move on to decals at this point.
At last, at the point of adding decals and final bits. Roden decals are a little scary, not wanting to come off its backing, but nothing has torn on me yet.
Before I put the canopy, wanted to try to capture the cockpit detail Its better than some budget model's I've seen.
The Roden decals cracked/broke on me in a few places. Lost a star tip, got practice fixing by cutting pieces off spare stars.
Being very nervous about doing my first oil paint application of any kind, I finally did the wash this month. Ended up with a dirtier aircraft than planned, but I am ok with it.
I
Had just a little bit of silvering on one star, but I was surprised how well everything held up, I applied way more oil thinner than I had planned cleaning things u
Comments
22 18 April 2023, 00:13
MonteHave been priming/painting parts for assembly. One half of the fuselage is quite warped/distorted. I heard about this from a few YouTube videos. I can see there will be issues not only with the fuselage, but with the wing mount as well. I suppose I will just focus on getting the cockpit assembly attached to the two fuselage halves and take it from there.
18 April 2023, 00:19
Живко ДжаковSorry to hear about the issues with the model. Follows what happens with this interesting plane.
18 April 2023, 04:57
MonteI certainly should not have picked this kit for my next project. It wouldn't be so bad, but that warped fuselage half really makes this rough. Considered giving up on it, but I am going to see it through. (Too much effort in it at this point.) I will definitely scout YouTube and this site for feedback on kits better before acquiring them.
30 April 2023, 08:04
Michael JonkerSee it through and take the lessons Monte. Your photos look like a valiant effort and I find that scraping, filling and sanding are quite fun the more confident you get at them. I added this kit to my stash recently, so I hope I don't eat my words in the near future😅
30 April 2023, 08:48
MonteI have some pics to post later. Detail is ok. It's engineering has you adding a lot of pieces to the fuselage base on the underside, covering some of the bad areas that had alignment and gap issues. Visiting family, want to get this wrapped up on my return. My hatred level has reduced quite a bit.
19 May 2023, 03:34
MonteBeen working very slowly and infrequently, but I finally posted pics of what I have done. Ready to prime and have a look at how things are. While the warped fuselage half has caused me a lot of grief, I still love this aircraft. Since starting the project, I have acquired a book on the LaGG-3. I don't think there are many choices for the Lagg-3 in 1/72, but I am open to trying a build again. I think I have a white/light gray paint scheme chosen that will work, I will be testing it with primer on spoons as a next step.
10 June 2023, 10:07
MonteHave not been doing much modelling. Been out of town and have not had air conditioning for the last few weeks. 95 degrees F and high humidity did not make it comfortable to sit under a light and work, and the air brush was out of the question. Back to it now. Posted photos and notes of my painting headache with this model. I think I may do just a few painting cleanups and move on to decals. Need to see this project done.
22 June 2023, 06:17
MonteI can see light at the end of the tunnel. I am happy I went with the white/winter scheme, but white is VERY plain, I will have to try some weathering. Thinking I will try at least a little soot/exhaust type things for engine exhausts, cannon/machine guns, etc. If I WAS going to do some panel line detail, what color would I use for this white? A mid tone gray? Darker???
30 June 2023, 23:12
MonteI am calling this one finished. I nervously did my first oil application over acrylics with this wash. She turned into a dirty, dirty bird, but I am ok with the look, much more interesting, I think, than a plain white finish. I will maybe finish the rigging in the future, I could NOT get any other lines to connect and I did not want to break or ruin the model at this point. I was disappointed to find that the inside of the canopy fogged. I used Zap canopy glue specifically to avoid that. I had to overcome a cracked decal and repair a star, so there was that learning experience. The kit has some major issues, but I love the Lagg-3 aircraft. I wish there were more options in 1/72 for it. I do NOT recommend this kit for beginners.
23 August 2023, 02:52
CuajeteWell done. Congrats!
I expect the tool announced by Clear Prop to come to fruition and be a pretty significant improvement over Roden's:
Lavochkin LaGG-3 (Clear Prop! TBA72-2020D, 1:72)
26 August 2023, 19:21
