1/48 Revell A-10A

[reserve]

I like having two builds going at once. In this way while one's drying you can work on the other; here's the next candidate



which is of course Monogram molding. I've heard the Revell molds for this aircraft were so bad they got tossed in the garbage bucket. Assembled most of the majors subs



and it went pretty well until I got to the fuselage assembly. By the way detail in the cockpit is VERY sparse. I thought of getting an aftermarket cockpit for this but there are none to be found at least anywhere I looked. The cockpit tub kind of sloshes about inside the fuselage halves with no positive location, so I made my best guess and glued it on the right side where there's at least a positioning rib. Finished gluing the fuselage, and when dry I noted the right side was tight while there was a good 3/32" gap on the left. The clamp came out then



and I tightened it all up 'till the gap disappeared, then glued the tub to the left side. It's holding but I'll still drizzle a little CA in there for moral support. Too late for that AM cockpit now. Quite a few folks have claimed that this is the best A-10 kit on the market; if that's so I'd sure hate to see the worst

Regards,
Mark

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

I have that same kit. Good to know. Thanks.

[reserve]

You're welcome Oz

Further progress has shown bad fit



especially around the engine pods







where I tried to keep the irregularity to the outside since I have an easier time fixing the outside of a radius vs the inner.



It just adds up to extra work that was not unexpected altho I had hopes. This kit has raised panel lines and surface detail which does not help at all

Regards,
Mark

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

Why would they even bother to call it a model???

[reserve]

I have the very same question.

I'd thought of rescribing the panel lines in recessed form, I may try that altho the idea does not give me the warm fuzzies. I'll just keep on with it it'll be good practice as Z sez and if it turns out badly I can always shoot it up with a .22 like I used to when I was a kid.

In any event this one's probably not gonna get finished any time soon

[reserve]

Soon this is gonna go one way or another





I had to get the intake cowling out of round to fill the uglies and what you see is after three layers to build it back up. Given the other issues with this model I must carefully consider the benefits of going forward as opposed to not.

OR

This POS may be VERY close to going in the garbage bucket

Somehow I like the last statement better as I feel it states the situation much more clearly

Regards,
Mark

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

I have confidence, that you can make it turn out nice. That's what we do, Model Build.

[reserve]

Thank you for your vote of confidince. I let it be 'till dark and early this morning and somehow then it did not look so bad.

Garbage bucket avoided



I did drill out and thin out the barrel shroud for the GAU, one of the poor areas of this kit. The horizantal tail surfaces have offset tabs and are designed so the right one fits on top of the left which locks them in at the right angles. Unfortunatley the holes are quite big front to back and I got mine a bit too far forward, a mistake I was able to hide with filler. The wings have the same setup altho the location is much more obvious and this I did not bungle. Wing root gap was not overblown on top but underneath it's huge, I dumped alot of CA in there to strengthen up the joint. This'll be getting primed soon

Regards,
Mark

[reserve]

Primer




and a preshade coat of flat black



If one Googles A-10 just about all you'll see are painted light grey overall so I guess that's what it's gonna be. It'll have to be light coats built up slowly I think and perhaps I can finesse it enough so the panel lines and rivets will show thru. I don't believe I can use Flory's on this as the thing would be covered with bits of paper towels and Q-tip fuzz as the surface is rough with all the raised stuff.

New territory here I've never attempted such a finish before, I have no idea how it'll turn out

Regards,
Mark

[dazza]

Looking good, I've always liked the Warthog it's the best looking ugliest plane out there.

They used to fly over us doing dummy attacks on a power station where my dad worked near where I lived here in the UK.

[RLFoster]

Dazza...those might have been the birds I worked on at RAF Bentwaters (1988 - 1990). "Ugly, but Well Hung" as the motto goes!!!

[dazza]

Dec 20, 2021 14:19:45 GMT -6 RLFoster said:

Dazza...those might have been the birds I worked on at RAF Bentwaters (1988 - 1990). "Ugly, but Well Hung" as the motto goes!!!

Yep that would have been them. In the 80's I used to go to a lot of airshows at Mildenhall, Lakenheath and Alconbury.

I used to love the USAF shows so much better than the RAF ones. You could get close up and personal to the planes and pilots.

Best experience I got was in the back of a Strato tanker they actually let you go in the rear and lay where the refueler laid ( sorry I don't know the correct name).

Also walked through a Galaxy and had a look around the inside a C130 gunship too.

[Dukemaddog]

Dec 20, 2021 12:18:08 GMT -6 dazza said:

Looking good, I've always liked the Warthog it's the best looking ugliest plane out there.

They used to fly over us doing dummy attacks on a power station where my dad worked near where I lived here in the UK.

LOL! That reminds me of a story my mom told me. In Florida there's a town called Niceville (I swear! I got married there!) where a lot of people live right on the Bayou and have boats they use for fishing. The Air Force has a base called Eglin AFB that surrounds them and so one time the Air Force went around to all the boat owners asking them if they'd like to help the Air Force. All they had to do was get out in their boats and dodge the mock firing runs made by A-10's against them. What a day they had! The pilots loved it too because they got to practice against actual moving targets.

I think that is now a regular thing too.

[dazza]

Dec 23, 2021 14:31:57 GMT -6 Dukemaddog said:

Dec 20, 2021 12:18:08 GMT -6 dazza said:

Looking good, I've always liked the Warthog it's the best looking ugliest plane out there.

They used to fly over us doing dummy attacks on a power station where my dad worked near where I lived here in the UK.

LOL! That reminds me of a story my mom told me. In Florida there's a town called Niceville (I swear! I got married there!) where a lot of people live right on the Bayou and have boats they use for fishing. The Air Force has a base called Eglin AFB that surrounds them and so one time the Air Force went around to all the boat owners asking them if they'd like to help the Air Force. All they had to do was get out in their boats and dodge the mock firing runs made by A-10's against them. What a day they had! The pilots loved it too because they got to practice against actual moving targets.

I think that is now a regular thing too.

That sounds fun I would buy a boat just for the thrill of seeing an A10 coming at me 😎.

[reserve]

Thanks gents, and good stories

Paint on, sealed with Future which is now called Pledge revive it floor gloss, decals on and the next question was how to accentuate raised panel lines



so I mixed up some lamp black oil paint with mineral spirits to try a pinwash style accent. The stuff beaded up like I'd applied it to...well, floor finish. Giving the problem some thought I sez well the decals need to be sealed anyway so I hosed it down with MM semi gloss clear in hopes that it would provide a bit more tooth to hold the oil wash. This worked more or less OK



but I did find a pinwash style accent to be quite tedious given the amount of area to cover. I decided to do a flood wash instead



that I'll allow to stiffen up a bit before I hit it with the damp towel technique. I did not want to do it this way but it seems I have no choice if I want the accent. I don't think I like raised line/detail

Regards,
Mark

[dazza]

Looking good 😎

[Dukemaddog]

This looks fantastic! I'm looking forward to seeing the wash effect.

[reserve]

Flood wash was a failure; I was unable to keep the stuff highlighting detail while cleaning the rest off.

I've set this aside in favor of the Chow Hound, I'll get back to it when I come up with another brilliant idea

[JCON]

You'll get it there eventually!

[JED]

One of our training areas used to hold an All Arms Fire Display, very impressive but to see one of these fly left to right with all guns etc blazing was awsome!!!!!