La-5FN & La-7 ‘Prvni doma’ (‘First Ones Home’)

Limited Edition Dual Combo

Eduard, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Brad Fallen

Eduard's 1/48 scale "First Ones Home" Dual Combo
is available online from Squadron.com for only USD$59.96!
 

The contribution of Czechoslovak pilots to the RAF in World War 2 is justly famous.  Less well known beyond eastern Europe is Czechoslovak involvement with Soviet forces.  Czechoslovak soldiers fought alongside Soviet troops from at least early 1942, initially as a battalion, then a brigade and finally in 1944-45 as an army corps.  The 1st Czechoslovak Independent Fighter Air Regiment was raised as part of this formation in mid-1944, becoming the 1st Czechoslovak Composite Air Division in January 1945.
Operating mainly Lavochkin La-5FN and La-7 aircraft, the Czech pilots flew hundreds of missions against Axis forces in the last ten months of the war.

One of the Air Regiment’s most significant actions was its support for the Slovak National Uprising between August and October 1944.  By what I can piece together from English language sources (more on this later), two squadrons of the Air Regiment flew into Slovak-held territory on 17 September 1944 and supported the uprising until its defeat in late October.  According to one source, during these operations the Air Regiment flew nearly 400 combat hours and destroyed nine enemy aircraft and many ground vehicles, for the loss of nine La-5FNs and three men killed.

Eduard has commemorated the 70th anniversary of this action with a 1/48 Limited Edition Dual Combo kit entitled ‘Prvni doma’, or ‘First ones home’.  The kit includes:

• Zvezda’s La-5FN and Gavia’s La-7 kits;

• resin and photo etched details;

• canopy and wheel hub masks;

• markings for 27 different aircraft; and

• a 104 page Czech language book that details Czechoslovak use of La-5FN and La-7 aircraft during and after the uprising.

The book adds noticeable weight to Eduard’s large and beautifully illustrated box, so it is with some anticipation that I opened the lid to look at the contents.

Zvezda’s 1/48 La-5FN kit was released in 2007 and immediately surpassed all other quarter-scale kits of this important Soviet fighter.  Brett Green reviewed the kit on Hyperscale and concluded that it was very good, although advised modellers to take care “aligning all the parts, especially interior elements such as the engine and the fuselage stations”. 

Brett reached the same conclusion again seven years later when he built Eduard’s Limited Edition re-release of Zvezda’s kit, noting that “the build was pain-free right up to the point of fitting the cowling panels and threading the exhausts through the fuselage sides, which proved to be fiddly”.

The ‘Prvni doma’ boxing, therefore, is Eduard’s second re-release of the Zvezda La-5FN in less than 12 months.

The quality of the plastic parts is very similar to that Eduard’s 1/48 Limited Edition La-5 kit that I reviewed in May 2014.  That kit was also a reboxed Zvezda kit, and appears to share at least one major sprue with the La-5FN (not surprising given the similarity of the airframes).  The parts are well moulded, with fine surface detail and only a couple of minor sink marks on the large airframe components.  There is flash on a few of the smaller parts, but clean up should be relatively easy; I note that the pesky ejector pin mark in the middle of the La-5 seat pan is also present here!  Quibbles aside the levels of detail achieved by Zvezda are impressive, particularly when the sub-assemblies start coming together.

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The second set of plastic parts in this release is the Gavia La-7.  Eduard produced several 1/48 kits under the Gavia label in the early 2000s, most notably the La-7 and Westland Lysander but also a Polikarpov Po-2, all of which stand up well today.  The La-7 shines particularly in comparison with the Hobbycraft/Academy kit of the same aircraft, which as noted by Brett back in 2002 “suffers from wide, soft panel lines, poor fit, grossly exaggerated control surface texture and thick clear parts”.  Brett recommended Gavia’s La-7 as a kit that “should deliver a very attractive and accurate model of this significant Soviet fighter straight from the box”.  While some modellers have noted that the fuselage spine of the Gavia kit is slightly too narrow behind the cockpit, after nearly 15 years it remains the most accurate 1/48 La-7 available and has been re-released by Eduard on several occasions.

The two La-7 sprues are moulded in tan coloured plastic and, with only half the number of parts of the La-5FN, look sparse next to the Zvezda kit.  Moulding quality isn’t quite up to Zvezda’s standard – there is a bit of flash and the smaller parts lack the finesse of their La-5FN equivalents.  Control surfaces are moulded in the neutral position, whereas on the Zvezda kit they are separate parts.

On the positive side the main airframe parts are crisply moulded with a shiny surface texture, and sprue gates are small.  The overall impression is of an Eastern European limited run kit from the last decade –which of course is what it is. And the seat pan doesn’t have an ejector pin mark on it!

The clear parts for both kits are crisply moulded and very transparent, with the Zvezda parts slightly thinner but Gavia having the edge in clarity.  Both canopies can be posed either open or closed, and their clearly defined framing will help with positioning Eduard’s very useful pre-cut masks.

There is a dedicated fret of photo-etched parts for each kit.  As usual with Eduard photo-etch, the stars here are the pre-painted instrument panels and seat harnesses, both of which include details it would be almost impossible for modellers to paint. 

The photo-etched parts will add greatly to the cockpit of the La-7, which is considerably less detailed out of the box than that of the La-5FN.  However the latter also receives a number of brightly coloured pipes, switches and levers, which (while probably benefitting from some toning down) will really bring the office to life.

Two sets of Brassin mainwheels are supplied to replace the plastic equivalents in each kit.  Again, these will make a bigger difference to the look of the Gavia kit, but the Zvezda kit will also benefit.  The wheels are finely cast with no imperfections, and thanks to thin attachment gates will be easy to remove from their casting blocks for clean up.

Assembly instructions are provided in Eduard’s usual A4 booklet, with clear illustrations and detail colours called out in several ranges of Gunze paint.  Six pages are devoted to the La-5FN and four to the La-7, reflecting the latter’s simpler engineering and lower levels of detail.

Markings

The jewel of this boxing is its marking options, which cover 27 aircraft.  22 of these are La-5FNs, including at least nine that participated in supporting the Slovak National Uprising in September and October 1944.  All of these aircraft, and a number of Czechoslovak-operated La-5FNs from later in the war, were camouflaged in AMT-11 blue grey and AMT-12 dark grey over AMT-7 greyish-blue and carried largely standard Soviet national markings and identification numbers.  For modellers wanting something different, there are also three La-5FNs in post-war Czechoslovakian markings:  two camouflaged in AMT-11 over AMT-7 and one in khaki over AMT-7.

The much smaller number of La-7s is similarly split into machines with Soviet and Czechoslovak markings (two and three aircraft respectively).  All are camouflaged in AMT-11 and AMT-12 over AMT-7, apart from the final La-7 that is AMT-11 and khaki over AMT-7.

All of these marking schemes are captured in a separate 28 page full-colour, A4 booklet.  There are four view drawings of each aircraft, and additional scrap drawings as required.  The only downside to this comprehensive treatment – at least for an English-speaker like myself – is that the booklet text is written entirely in Czech, which makes it hard (but not impossible) to decipher key facts.

More problematic in this regard is that the kit also contains a beautifully produced 104 page book by Jiri Vrany entitled ‘Ceskoslovenske Lavocky’ (‘Czechoslovak Lavockins’) which is also written entirely in Czech.  This contains a mix of colour profiles, period photos and detailed text that appears to cover this chapter of Czechoslovak aviation in great detail. 

I was particularly frustrated that I couldn’t read the section on the Slovak National Uprising, about which I found it difficult to discover consistent facts on English-language websites.  I appreciate that Eduard has produced this Limited Edition boxing for a largely domestic market, but I’d love to see an English translation of Vrany’s book at some stage in the future.  A small section of translated text was included in the September 2014 edition of Info Eduard, and it was an interesting read.

Decals for all of the featured schemes come on an A4 sheet that has been produced by Cartograf.  Three quarters of the sheet is taken up with identification numbers, with Soviet and Czechoslovak national markings, and a small number of stencils, taking up the rest of the space.  The decals have been beautifully printed and appear to be flawless on the sheet.

This is probably the most comprehensive Limited Edition package that Eduard has released to date.  It’s almost a labour of love, aimed at a local audience that knows and appreciates its national aviation history.  The 27 marking options and Vrany’s book are stand out inclusions on top of Eduard’s usual array of photo-etch, resin and masks.  The two base kits are also of sound quality.  All in all this is a very solid release that is worth tracking down if you have any interest in World War 2 Soviet fighters, Czechoslovak aviation or both.

Thanks to Eduard for the sample.

Review Text Copyright © 2015 by Brad Fallen
Page Created 11 March, 2015
Last updated 12 March, 2015

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