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Prop & Jet 1/72 Lavochkin La-150

By Matt Bittner

Introduction

The Lavochkin La-150 was a result of an order to build a jet using the German Junkers Jumo 004B (the Soviet design of the Jumo being the RD-10). When the eight examples were finished being built, they were "called up" to fly during the 7 November 1946 October Revolution parade. However, the fly-past was cancelled due to the weather. As testing continued, it was determined there were too many flaws in the design to continue. While the RD-10 was eventually upgraded to include an afterburner – and the resultant derivative of the aircraft (the La-150F) was much better than the "straight" La-150 – Lavochkin decided not to continue the design anyway, because all of the other flaws with the aircraft weren't fixed.

The Kit

The Prop & Jet 1/72 Lavochkin La-150 consists of 31 pieces of gray resin and two vacuformed canopies. Decals are the same found in the La-174TK kit, but this time more than just the stars are used. The instructions show "red 21" as the aircraft to finish this model in.

As with the La-174TK, the instructions show detailed drawings of different parts preparation and resin removal needed prior to performing any construction. This includes the best way to remove the resin "block" from the fuselage halves, areas inside the fuselage to clean up, and how to remove the cockpit and nose-gear bay from their pour blocks.

Use the small in-set instruction to place the already painted cockpit tub and nose landing gear well. It's also important to add weight to the model at this point, to keep it from being a tail-sitter. Once those two pieces are attached to a fuselage half, then the fuselage halves are glued together, but only spot glued in a couple of places. This is because the main landing gear well and the engine exhaust are added into the fuselage after the halves are assembled, and only spot-gluing ensures you have some room that you can adjust these pieces in. However, once everything is all lined up and in the right places, then you completely glue the fuselage halves together.

Construction now continues with building this model into a true-looking aircraft. You glue the one-piece wing on, the horizontal tail pieces, the rudder, and the instrument hood and instrument panel. The next instruction steps have you glue the landing gear and doors on, but I would wait until the very end to glue those on, after painting and decaling. Prior to that, though, I would glue in the ejection seat, mask and glue the canopy on (especially if you're going to close it up) and add the rudder control horns and upper fuselage intake. Now the model is ready for painting.

Conclusion

It's great that Prop & Jet is releasing these lesser known, early Soviet jets. There's a lot of history not truly known about Soviet aviation, and with the help of Prop & Jet we can get the idea of what was flown during these early, jet times. The Prop & Jet Lavochkin La-150 is an awesome model and the resin is flawless. You really need to do yourself a favor and pick up this model.

Many thanks to Prop & Jet for sending the La-150 to review.