Breaker

For me the USN A-1's had fairly boring loadouts compared to the USAF ones. The Sandy USAF A-1s where very varied on their loadouts.

I thought that Phase Hanger brought out a vinyl sticker for the det cord? I'll have a look now

Yeah but the Academy release is from the late 2010's, as opposed to the Tamiya Phantom which is early 90's from memory.

Worth buying multiples of the bits. They're designed for pillar drills and any flex whilst drilling will snap the bit.

Marcel, if your going for the twin tanks loadout, it's worth getting the Russian Weapons set that trumpeter do - you get two tanks in that.

Thank you but I had spare Eduard ones anyway!

Should probably update this one.... I've basically paused due to the decal issues. Most of them are grossly oversized in the kit and it's missing stencilling.

Nice work so far, gonna look forward to seeing this in paint!

Started on the cockpit. I wasn't going to go mad and well, I ended up going mad. I've used a spare throttle and IP panel from an Academy Hornet to bring some detail to the front Pit. I'll be doing the same with the control stick as I don't rate the kit part. I'm working to limited resources on this one but I still haven't decided how I'm doing to pose the pit so I'm pretty happy. Some of the punched detail is a boss ready for some Anyz switches over the top when I get to that point.

Got the exhaust section done today, pretty happy with how its come out. The blades in my reference are certainly more 'gold/bronze' than my normal jet builds so I've tried to replicate that.

There's some blow-in doors on the intakes, that according to my references, should be closed on the ground when it's powered down. The part Kitty Hawk provide is open only and doesn't look that good either. I copied a technique from Paul Budzik that I've wanted to try for a while, where I taped the hole up and then back filled it with CA mixed with pigment ( He uses dental resin). This gave me a fairly clean hole that I can scribe into later.

Grey/Green Wrap around, probably a dusty finish.

After some back and forth between DoogsATX and I, Quickboost Tornado seats seem to be the way forward with the Mirage. Tornado uses Martin Baker Mk.10A, the Mirage uses a Mk.10B. All the side detail needs removing off the sides of the seat but it can't be seen regardless. The kit PE horns have been added to the resin to match references.

Nah, I'm enjoying it. I don't think it needs much aftermarket either. Seats & weapons will be plenty for me, plus some scratch building in the cockpit to give it some life!