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Title: Preserved La-5F? Replica? Great Big Model? Post by: John Thompson on December 21, 2010, 06:55:04 PM In this thread on Scalemodels.ru, there's an image of what is apparently an intact La-5F suspended from the roof of a building. Does anyone among our Russian speakers know more about this aircraft? I believed that there are no remaining complete La-5 airframes anywhere:
http://scalemodels.ru/modules/forum/viewtopic_t_27544_start_20.html Here's the image, for your convenience: (http://s3.postimage.org/1j2hk44sk/2d58c327f7ac.jpg) (http://postimage.org/image/1j2hk44sk/) John Title: Re: Preserved La-5F? Replica? Great Big Model? Post by: Massimo Tessitori on December 22, 2010, 01:33:10 PM Hi John,
I think that it's a big model. Making some proportion with lamps and other details, I think that it should be two meters wide. regards Massimo Title: Re: Preserved La-5F? Replica? Great Big Model? Post by: John Thompson on December 22, 2010, 06:56:09 PM Hi Massimo! :) Yes, the tailwheel looks like something from an office chair... I had big hopes, but I knew I would be disappointed! ;)
John Title: Re: Preserved La-5F? Replica? Great Big Model? Post by: Massimo Tessitori on December 23, 2010, 07:22:06 AM Hi John,
it looks very well made, however. I think to see even the details inside the cooler. Regards Massimo Title: Re: Preserved La-5F? Replica? Great Big Model? Post by: John Thompson on December 24, 2010, 02:15:28 AM Well, apparently the - whatever it is - is located at a museum at Vantaa in Finland. Someone else seems to have been curious about this on Scalemodels.ru; the answer included the link to this web page:
http://www.enlight.ru/camera/344/index.html There's another photo about halfway down the page; the translated caption for this photo says: "Aircraft Yak-1 (!). Inscription on top of the star: 'For Vaska and Zhora'. In the background - a twin-engine plane DB-3. Both types were widely used during the Russo-Finnish War, and dozens of them were captured by the Finns. In 1941 the Germans gave the Finns an additional amount of captured Soviet aircraft. As a result, several squadrons of the Finnish Air Force at war (admittedly, quite successfully) on a Soviet aircraft." Possibly some very dedicated staff members or others connected with the museum built these as large-scale display models? It seems unlikely that an aircraft as large as the DB-3 is "real". John |