Lavochkin La-5FN V.3 2026-10-14

[Captain Kurt]

Captain Kurt submitted a new resource:

Lavochkin La-5FN V.3 - Lavochkin La-5FN V.3 upgrade with working engine cooling shutters

Lavochkin La-5FN V.3 upgraded with operating cowl air cooling shutters
Unit: 3 GvIAP KBF June 1944 (VVS Baltic Fleet)
Pilot: Captain Ivan Savelievich Kravtsov, 31 personal and 4 shared victories, HSU, 4x Orders of the red Banner

The La-5FN's story begins with one of the most remarkable engineering rescues of the war. In 1942, Semyon Lavochkin's LaGG-3 fighter, nicknamed the "lacquered guaranteed coffin" by its pilots, was one of the worst Soviet fighters in service. Underpowered, heavy, and...

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[msfossey]

Thank you once again Captain Kurt. Truly appreciate all your work. The cooling shutters add a very cool visual effect. It's interesting to see how different A/C designers went about solving similar issues.

 

[normb]

Pretty neat. Looks great. How about a brief description of how you did it and how long it took?

 

[Browncoat]

Thank you for the update Captain! What a very cool animation!

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Thank you CK! Do you have any other VVS aircraft, specifically pre-Great Patriotic War 1939-1940 era on the hangar floor? I am considering a redo of my Nomonhan/Khalkhin-Gol campaign for my next project.

As always:
Cheers.

 

[Captain Kurt]

Thank you CK! Do you have any other VVS aircraft, specifically pre-Great Patriotic War 1939-1940 era on the hangar floor? I am considering a redo of my Nomonhan/Khalkhin-Gol campaign for my next project.

As always:
Cheers.

Well the next model is the La-7 but that’s the wrong decade for you. Which ones are you thinking of. Hsu’s I-16s are good. The I-15’s could use updates but which version are you thinking about? Bombers? Don’t know, there’s a decent SB-2 available but I can’t remember the author off hand.

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Any of the acft listed on my attached d/l list would be great. There is no rush on this, as my redo probably won't start until next spring.

 

[Captain Kurt]

Any of the acft listed on my attached d/l list would be great. There is no rush on this, as my redo probably won't start until next spring.

Okay, let's see. I've done the Mitsubishi Ki-21 and the Fiat Br-20. So those can be replaced.

The Ki-27 by Wolfi and the C5M2 Babs by Shessi would not need to be replaced.

The multiple early Japanese aircraft by Thicko and Old Wheat would be problematic for me. I haven't been able to find any good reference material for them other than minimal general airframe shapes which is what the existing models already provide. Refining the airframe shapes, and adding detail and interiors would require information that doesn't seem to be available. At least I haven't found it.

As for the VVS, you have multiple iterations of the Polikarpov I-152 and Polikarpov I-153, a R-Z Natacha, a Tupolev SB-2, and an Ilyushin DB-3.

There is an SB-2 model by FAE_Gavilan (Rafael Furio) that is no longer out there with the disappearance of his website that is a better AI plane than others here, though not up to current standards. I can provide it to you if you like. I notice the Polikarpov I-16s are not on the download list but were used extensively by the VVS during the "incident" and in your campaign. Ivan Hsu's I-16tip5 and I-16tip10 are pretty good models though showing a bit of age.

I do have good research resources for the Polikarpov fighters, the RZ Natacha and the Tupolev SB-2. IMHO the Polkarpov I-153 and Polkarpov I-152 are the lowest quality models of the the whole list, followed by the SB-2.

 

[Captain Kurt]

Pretty neat. Looks great. How about a brief description of how you did it and how long it took?

A brief description is that each blade had to be a separate object and positioned around in a circle, there are two circles, one circle forward of the other offset 30 degrees in rotation from the other. Then each blade had to be animated once in the closed position and once rotated 60 degrees in the open position. The are 24 total blades. It took about 24 hours.

 

[skylane]

Thank you for the update, Kurt! And for putting in all this work.