The internet does not forget anything. The La-5F render that was briefly posted to the 1C Game Studios official media thread yesterday has re-emerged on Reddit giving us a nice high resolution render of what appears to be an La-5F. Might this be one of the two Collector Planes mentioned a couple of weeks ago?
La-5F appears
The following image was originally posted to the 1CGS Official Media thread before being removed. At least one member of the community was able to save the image before it was pulled back down giving the rest of us the opportunity to have a closer look at it.
The image was posted by syphen606 on the r/il2sturmovik group and is visible below:
This does appear to be a La-5F with its distinctive nose cowling more similar to early La-5 series fighters but with the bubble canopy that it would pioneer for the later La-5FN. It’s a kind of in-between variant solidly lodged between the other two.
There are a couple of possibilities here. The first being that this is an unused design that was later modified into the La-5FN for sale as a Collector Plane. I think that’s probably a stretch but I’m willing to entertain it. The second, and more likely, explanation is that this is one of the Collector Planes that was mentioned during and after the recent live stream.
Assumptions were that they would be doing earlier aircraft, however, there was some debate on the ‘translation’ of that statement and so that does leave the door open to this airplane.
Gameplay vs historical value
As a Collector Plane, it does fit into the category of a type that adds a little extra variety to the planeset.
On a gameplay value level it has less going for it than the Spitfire XIV bubble canopy with the La-5 Series 8 and La-5FN Series 1 both covering most of the range. The addition of the M-82F engine on the La-5 Series 8 brings it pretty close to a La-5F version albeit minus the canopy differences and some improvements to the weight.
With its spring 1943 introduction date, it does, however, add a longer period of time that players could enjoy the enhanced La-5 series in the Kuban campaign with the La-5F serving in large numbers in this region.
We’ll have to see if this pans out and how it does.
Stormbirds 
I’d be amazed if they think that hat would be a big seller internationally. The difference between the currently available la5 with the f engine mod, and the la5fn is not worth charging £15 for. And I would imagine international enthusiasm for Russian aircraft is at an all time low, for reasons I couldn’t possibly speculate about.
If this is where they are at, we should probably worry more about the direction they are taking the game.
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I’m with you on this, they charged us $20 for the Yak-9 and $20 for the Yak-9T, why not just $25 for both.
Same with the Spitfire Mk.XIV and the one with the teardrop canopy, why not just $25 for both and those who bought BoN EA get the latter for $5?
However, with Russia’s economy in tatters due to the War in Ukraine, selling $20 for the La-5F and all the planes mentioned above may be the devs’ lifeline.
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I do think this will be a harder sell than even the Spitfire XIV or the Yaks. But we’ll see!
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Russian economy is strongest it’s ever been. American economy is literally in recession from such a strong dollar lmao what are you even talking about.
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Let’s not get too focused on economic forecasts…. That said, the reports I read yesterday is that Russian GDP is down another 4% and are technically in a recession according to economists. It wasn’t the 7% slide that was forecast.
More on topic, we are seeing recession related issues in the sim world with prices rising in some areas. I suspect IL-2 collector planes will continue with the same pricing for now. A new sim may introduce higher individual aircraft pricing or higher overall bundle pricing. I’m kind of bracing myself for that.
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I do not mind them filling the gaps of VVS planes with the La-5F (for BoK). Early Yak-1 and Lagg-3 (for BoM) and the late Yak-7B (2x13mm for BoS and BoK) with cut down back might also be good candidates for collector planes.
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I have my heart set on an early LaGG-3 or Yak-1 for the Battle of Moscow career. Curious to see if that emerges.
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That La-5F surprises me too.
BTW I, personally, wouldn’t mind paying again for all GB content I bought before … if we got a new sim + engine that would support that old content. However, even if it ever becomes a ‘new’ sim, it would in fact be unimaginable if they would simply throw away all those WWI/II planes and vehicles that took several development studios +10 years to develop.
I also don’t see them ever handing over the IL-2 GB programs / code to the community because this would probably mean any new sim by this company would be DOA. This will not turn into another CloD story … IMHO that much is a sure thing !
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If I understand the comment by BlackSix in todays DD340 thread correctly, then this yet unannounced collector plane is not the La-5F, but has to be another plane which fits better into Stalingrad timeframe. I wonder what that could be. Early Yak-7B or Yak-7A? Early Yak-1B? Any ideas?
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Yeah that’s an interesting comment. I’m not sure. An early Yak-1 or a Yak-7A always possible. Or something else!
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