La-5FN 1944

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi Misos,
the indications of Modelforum.cz sound convincing and exhaustive. It's the first time I see these remains of La-7.
The answers of airforce.ru sound guessed.
Was there any other factory producing Lavockins in 1943/45, other han 381 and 21?
Regards
Massimo

[KL]

Was there any other factory producing Lavockins in 1943/45, other than 381 and 21?

Hi Massimo & Missos,

yes, La-7 was also produced by Zavod 99 in Ulan-Ude (East Siberia).  Zavod 99 made a total of (only!) 250 La-7s...

You guys have to understand how Soviet aviation industry worked during WWII:  Production wasn't shared between 3 factories - there was rather a "Main factory" and one or more "Shadow factories".  For various reasons (organization, geography etc.), "shadow factories" usually contributed only a small number of planes.  In case of La-7, of over 6000 planes which were produced:

-  Zavod 21 (Main factory) made over 85%
-  Zavod 381 made about 10%
-  Zavod 99 made less than 5%

For La-5 number of planes made by the "Main factory" (Zavod 21) is even higher.  Zavod 21 made over 90% of the total of about 9000 La-5s.

Did outline denote factory?  Judging by photos - probably not.  Light blue should be present on 9 of 10 photographed planes and that is not what we see on photos...
Or, the variability of outlines (from black to light gray on b/w photos) depends on other factors - sensitivity of the film, lighting etc...

HTH,
KL

  

[KL]

...
2.) modelforum.cz forum:
- Photo of the La-7 remnants found near by Klimkovice, Czech Republic on September (2014) - board number is dark blue:

thanks for posting this!  Looks like another myth has been busted - all those profiles (and models) with red outlined numbers are questionable now. 
Regards,
KL

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi KL,
thank you for your answer. So, there is the vague possibility that 5% of Lavockins had a red outline, but blue is the rule.
I hope that some decals producer will be informed of the thing and will produce a set of standard numbers to correct the existing kits.
Regards
Massimo

[66misos]

Hi,
KL, thank you for interesting info.
Massimo, Igor Zlobin at his page http://fighters.front.ru/str/mod.htm offers decals for La-5/7 with two slightly different fonts and several outline alternatives:
 
Regards,
   Misos

[KL]

Hi Misos,
only one colour, light blue, on that decal sheet is based on evidence.  All other colours are guessed from black and white photos and they could be all wrong...
On both wrecks from eastern Europe (other wreck is from Poland), outline is blue - so, at this time, there is no evidence for black and two shades of red.

regards,
KL