By request, last night I was able to test the La-5.
This is actually a good airplane to test, since it's one of the models from the original IL2 game, so the damage model is likely to be crappy. It's also Soviet, an outstanding design, it was well-liked by pilots and mechanics alike, and was one of Ivan Kozedub's favorite planes, all of which might have made the damage modelers a bit generous.
What we've got is a lightly-built mid-war plane with an excellent engine and pair of excellent cannon, but short range and some other quirks the game can't model.
In terms of mass, it's about 60% the loaded take-off weight of a P-51, 15% lighter than a Spitfire Mk V, and 20% lighter than a Fw-190A.
Targets were the usual Ace AI Wellington III squadron, this time wearing German colors. Altitude started at 5,000 meters, which didn't exactly favor the La-5.
Airframe damage absorption seems to be quite good, the the plane registering about a dozen small caliber bullet hits before the light damage textures appear on the wings or fuselage, and virtually unlimited ability to absorb damage from small caliber bullets before the heavy damage textures appear. But, I didn't get much of a chance to test this, since other types of hits took out the plane first.
If anything, airframe damage models might be too generous for such a lightly built plane, especially for early models which had the typical Soviet production problems.
Engine damage absorption also seems to be quite good. The plane can consistently take 2-3 bullets to the engine at moderate to long range (300-600 meters) without loss of power. It can absorb about half a dozen bullets at medium to short range with some loss of power, and maybe about a dozen with severe loss of power and eventual engine failure.
For a small radial engine, this is pretty good, but not quite as good as the SBD Dauntless, perhaps because the engine is twin row. In any case, it "seems right", and there are no anomalous results like the engine stopping instantly or losing massive amounts of power after just one hit at long range.
Control Hits: Like many early game DM, I think the La-5 is too vulnerable to critical hits, especially control hits.
Remember, a rifle caliber bullet basically has to intercept a control cable or bell crank to sever it, and they're not likely to tear the aluminum skin of an airplane up sufficiently that they'll jam something. Even so, in the 20 or so missions I flew, I picked up something like 4 control cable hits, mostly due to hits to the wings.
Also, while it's just a damage texture issue, the light damage texture for the wings is "burned canvas on the aileron" which seems out of place since almost all the wing damage was to the inboard wings, and none of it was to the ailerons.
Another item for the IL2 wishlist: Separate damage texture modeling for the control surfaces.
Fuel Fires: Another issue is the vulnerability of the wing tanks to fuel fires. I've worried that topic to death elsewhere, but to recap.
1) Unless it's explosive, it's the second or later bullet that starts a fuel tank fire.
2) There needs to be time between bullets to start a fire since fuel has to leak and vaporize.
3) Even Incendiary or tracer bullets can't ignite liquid gasoline.
4) Self-sealing fuel tanks prevent fuel from escaping, minimizing the chance that subsequent incendiary hits will start a fire. They work almost instantly and almost perfectly against bullets of up to 0.50 caliber (except for 0.50 caliber HE bullets).
Additionally, the La-5 had a unique system that vented exhaust gasses into the fuel tank to act as a fire extinguisher.
So, the La-5 should basically be fireproof, especially against small caliber bullets.
As it is, just 2-3 closely spaced bullet hits in a single burst was enough to start a fire in the fuel tanks. This was the main way that I died.
As another damage modeling bug, fuel fires continue long after the fuel is exhausted! But this seems to be a consistent bug for all the planes in the game. Remember: No fuel, no fire!
Gun Hits: A final damage bug seems to be a high proportion of cannon hits. In part, this is because the cannons are near the engine, and the engine is the gunner's target of choice when aiming at an incoming attacker. Even so, most of the vital parts of the guns and ammo runs were behind the engine and should be somewhat protected.
I did get a few gun hits which were quite fair, though, with the bullet going straight down the barrel!
Pilot protection: Pilot protection seems good, with a relatively low number of pilot kills or injured results. Those that occur seem fair, since the La-5 didn't have armor glass. Mostly, the very low percentage of PK results come from the very low profile cockpit. The engine absorbs most of the damage.
Typical engine damage required to get the engine to really start slowing down. The engine lost about 50% power and died about 2 minutes later:
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/attachm...1&d=1411712499
Cannon hit, maybe a bit weird since the bullet hit runs exactly parallel to the barrel and might just miss the breach or ammo feeds (need a better 3-view to be sure):
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/attachm...1&d=1411712499
Weird burned aileron light damage texture (note: not all damage to wing shown, the wing had previously a few more hits, but all inboard of the aileron).
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/attachm...1&d=1411712499