1:72 Lagg-3 Photoetched parts instrument panel for Roden ex Modell-Hobby /ROD

A wooden fighter from the start of the war and its cockpit

The fighter from the trio of designers Lavochkin, Gorbunov and Gudkov was meant to replace metal, which Soviet industry was short of, with pressed birch plywood impregnated with resin. The material stood up well to fire and needed no aluminum, but it was heavy, so the machine had a worse rate of climb than its rivals. Pilots therefore nicknamed it the varnished guaranteed coffin, even though in an agile turning fight down low it did decently and carried heavy armament with a cannon firing through the propeller hub. The experience from its development led to the later and far more successful machine with a radial engine.

The panel of etched metal is fitted into the cockpit in place of the smooth surface that the kit offers. In 1:72 scale it is a part the size of a fingernail, yet on a finished model it is visible through the whole canopy.

• Intended for the Roden kit in 1:72 size
• Etched metal with the bezels of the instruments drawn out
• The subject - a Soviet fighter of mixed wooden construction
• A small change that transforms the view into the cockpit

Before gluing it in, it is a good idea to flatten the part between two flat pieces of glass and degrease it with spirit, so that paint will hold on the smooth metal. Only then comes a base in a dark shade, after it the bezels picked out with the tip of an almost dry brush, and finally a thin coat of gloss varnish, which turns the recesses into glass. The whole operation takes barely half an hour and yet it is the first thing anyone notices on a finished model.