Preserved La-5F? Replica? Great Big Model?

[John Thompson]

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:



John

[Massimo Tessitori]

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

[John Thompson]

Hi Massimo! Yes, the tailwheel looks like something from an office chair... I had big hopes, but I knew I would be disappointed!

John

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi John,
it looks very well made, however. I think to see even the details inside the cooler.
Regards
Massimo

[John Thompson]

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