Books on Lavochkin Fighters

Aviation International "Fighting Lavochkin"

     Published by Aviation International in 1993. I had never seen this book anywhere other than a couple that cropped up on EBay in early 2007. I bought my copy quite cheaply from a chap in Italy. You get sixty-four pages but it doesn't get off to a good start because the first 19 pages are pure text. The quality of the paper seems a bit poor and it all feels a little cheaply put together. Remarkably there are NO photo's either! However, that is where the criticism ends. From page 18 onwards you get seemingly endless scale plans and colour artworks. The are many scrap line-drawn diagrams of various airframe features that take you through the genesis of each sub-type. This walks us through the LaGG-3, La-5 and La-7 with some interesting colour drawings showing unusual markings in good detail. Obviously this was someone's labour of love as care and attention has been lavished upon it even if very little money was spent on its production. There are some cockpit instrument diagrams and cutaway views. However it is all thrown together in somewhat random fashion with some obscure scrap views without any captions to explain what they are showing. Interesting but probably not essential. As there is little good material for the modeller on the Lavochkin Fighters then this has to be recommended.

Yefim Gordon "Lavochkin's Piston-Engined Fighters"

     Published by Midland Publishing in 2003. Written by Yefim Gordon. Quite thick at 144 pages this work is packed with black and white photos. From page 127 until the end there are scale plans, colour artwork and colour pictures of museum airframes. Pictures are big and crisp and text mostly kept to a minimum. However you do get a complete type history and service record if you like that sort of thing. Maybe you don't get a low down and dirty examination of the slight differences between marques. Of course you get coverage of LaGG-3, La-5 and La-7 but the history goes on to cover post-war derivatives and experimental types. This includes La-9 and La-11 showing off their service in the Korean War. Photo's are not to a 'walkaround' level, in fact there are almost none of any airframe detail with the exception of a handful of cockpit and guns installation. Recommended.

Miloš Veštsík "Lavoĉkin La-5" MBI

     ISBN 80 86524 10 8. Published in the Czech Republic by MBI in 2006. In Czech and English. A 110 page Monograph that is head and shoulders the finest book on the topic. This work is littered with full colour artworks and clear black and white photo's. There are numerous scrap views and line sketches showing key airframe differences between marques. There are four pages of 1/72nd scale plans and twelve pages of colour artwork including a couple of small colour photo's of a restored example. For your money you also get thrown in plenty of cutaways and engineering drawings too. That is not to say that this is cheap. Despite picking this up from EBay in May 2007 it still cost over £15GBP. Was it worth it? Probably - yes. If you can find the money and really need the definitive book on the La-5 then this is the book for your. Recommended.

Miloš Veštsík "Lavoĉkin La-7" MBI

     ISBN 80 86524 05 1. Published in the Czech Republic by MBI in 2006. In Czech and English. A 90 page Monograph that is head and shoulders the finest book on the topic. Almost everything you can say about the La-5 book is also true about this work on the La-7 although it is a good twenty pages shorter. This work is littered with full colour artworks and clear black and white photo's. There are numerous scrap views and line sketches showing key airframe differences between marques. There are four pages of 1/72nd scale plans and twelve pages of colour artwork over half of which have numerous colour photo's of a restored example. This is almost a walkaround! For your money you also get thrown in plenty of cutaways and engineering drawings too. That is not to say that this is cheap. Despite picking this up from EBay in May 2007 it still cost over £15GBP. Was it worth it? Probably - yes. If you can find the money and really need the definitive book on the La-7 then this is the book for your. Recommended.

Erik Pilawskii "Radial Engined Lavochkins" CD-ROM

     No - not a book! This surprising little number is a resource CD-ROM from Erik Pilawskii and Chris Banyai-Riepl. Its full title is "VVS Aircraft Review Volume 1. Lavochkin Piston-Engined Fighters of WW2". Released in 2007 this is a book on a CD and when loaded to you computer it auto-runs in a web browser as a web-site. Clever. Erik is already famous for his book on "Soviet Air Force Fighter Colours" and as co-author of the "Modelling the Soviet VVS" web site. Much of the material on this CD has probably been knocking around the web site in one form or another for years. So this gives you a chance to get it all in one nice little package without having to bother downloading it. Chris is a historian and artist who has published several works including profile art in Erik's book. He is the man behind Internet Modeller. Anyone who will have seen Erik's work will be familiar with the style and high quality of the content of this CD. It is broken down into sections with some history and detail on how the colour profiles are derived from old black and white photo's. (We think it is a lot of old witchcraft and that the VVS painted their aircraft pink which is why so many got shot down.) Most of the contents are broken down into sub types of the La-5 and La-7 with lots of colour art profiles of dozens of machines. Each profile has some history and the original photo's from which the art was derived. If they couldn't show the photo they tell you which book to go and look in and on which page to see the photo in question. Many of their references appear on this page of Small-Wonder. Erik's version of pseudo-science can drive you mad at times and you wish he would just admit he is guessing. Educated guesses but guesses nethertheless. Oh well. Certainly one for the completist. The problem with CD's is you can't really spread them out over a modelling workbench like a book. However, it is easy to penetrate into the CD folders and dig out all the JPEG's. If you can find what you want you could easily print it if needs be.

Osprey "LaGG & Lavochkin Aces of World War 2"

     Published by Osprey Publishing in 2003. Part of the prolific "Aircraft of the Aces" series. Quite an easy little book to read through and I recall reading this (or one of its sister titles) whilst waiting for my wife to give birth in hospital back in 2006. You get 96 pages including 9 pages of colour profiles especially prepared for Osprey. There is a lot of text prepared by George Mellinger and I know some of the VVS purists don't like the way this portrays the VVS in the Great Patriotic War. Some of the research is a little dated. The photo's are good although a little small, unoriginal and indistinct. Remarkably enough you do get scale plans at the back. Nice but not essential.

Squadron/Signal "LaGG Fighters In Action"

     Published by Squadron/Signal in 1996. You get fifty pages in typical In Action style although I have to say this one is a cut above the rest. Written by Hans-Heiri Stapfer with artworks by Don Greer, Ernesto Cumpian and Joe Sewell. There are no books that so nicely and succinctly walk you through all possible marques of the LaGG-3 pointing out, diagram by diagram, the differences between them. This is delightful for what must be quite an obscure type to many Americans. It is nice that this book ONLY covers the LaGG-3 from I-22 and I-301 prototypes through the 1st series, then 4th, 8th, 11th, 23rd, 29th, 33rd, 34th, 35th and 66th series. Not only that but you get to see captured Finnish and Japanese examples. This just has to be essential for the modeller. Plus you get the usual two pages of colour artwork in the center section as normal. The photo's are all black and white. These are large, crisp and nicely reproduced on glossy paper. Although not to a walkaround standard there are a few interesting details on cockpit, armament and engine. Recommended.