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AV-8A : FINISHED


Gene

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Thanks Pete for the great color ref! Gives me an opportunity to divert and move along the front and rear nozzles.

The front nozzle feeds off the Pegasus' first stages of compression and is relatively lower heat (but is sufficient to boil water) and of coarse the rear nozzle is fed the full-blown hot exhaust gases. The photos seem to show somewhat of a metallic finish but strongly discolored with 'rust' and 'soot' colors depending on front or rear positions. To simulate that I've painted them with a base of Model Master 1785 Rust and then misted some Model Master Metalizer 1405 Gunmetal and 1404 Titanium (both of the 'buffing' variety - though I won't be buffing).

And then the rear deflector plate, looks a bit flat in the over cast light.

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Work continues with little advances being made in diversed areas of the model.

Since I really wanted to show this AV-8A with Sidewinders and they are larger than a main gear leg (rule 3e), they had to be scratchbuilt. Luckily finding a plastic rod about the right diameter all that remained was to cut and apply the fins.

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The Sidewinders on the AV-8A live on the outboard underwing pylon. The kit pylon has a rocket pod molded with the pylon and since the pylon seems to have a pretty good profile, it was cut off and detailed a bit.

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Next up - the making of the Sidewinder's launch assembly. Some sway braces were left over from a Trump A-7 and fortunately fit under 'rule 3e' criteria and added a nice bit of detail. The assembly was temporarily held together with 'white glue' and shows that some adjustment will be required to close-up the gaps between assemblies a bit.

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Thanks for your kind remarks Ian -- I try my best, but there are so many great modelers on this site, they really inspire me to be patient and try a harder.

 

The fuselage has been closed with the kit canopy temporarily white glued on to keep the dust out. Next elements I want to attach are the wings, so I need to get some of the detailing that requires a bit of handling out of the way. That would be the outrigger gear and housing. The kit parts are basic, but useful for further detailing.

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The housing was fully gutted and some ribs added. The front gear cover was redone in aluminum sheet and the lower boot was hallowed out. The extension/retraction ram was redone and set into a hallowed out yoke and a few hydraulic lines were added. A tie-down ring was devised out of some flattened wire.

 

One bit done while working up steam to do the cockpit were the wing tip lights. A piece of bright aluminum foil was cyano-ed to the back of the clear kit light lens and the whole was cyano-ed into the wing tip cavity. This was sanded flush, polished, and the overpainted with a thin film of Tamiya red or green clear acrylic. When dry it was polished nearly flush with the wing. Next, the tip will be masked and the wing painted leaving a nice edge surrounding the colored wingtip light.

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Bit by bit, it moves along. Most shots I've seen of the AV-8A at rest show the horizontal tail at a small angle to the profile datum. Consequently the 'pivot baffle plate' (for lack of a true name, which I have no idea of) that was molded into the fuselage was sanded off and closer approximation was added to the stab. Next, an aluminum tube was inserted to represent the approximate pivot axis. When all assembled, it gives me an opportunity to pose at any legitimate angle.

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Thanks Ian and ggc - very encouraging and thanks for looking!

It is no surprise, the kit's main wheels could use some embellishment. Unlike the other wheels in the kit, the division from wheel rim to tire is without definition and for me is an essential guide when painting. My photo ref also shows more definition, so my first thought was to see if a 'rim' could be cut from a brass tube and applied to the surface.

The brass ring was rough-cut from the tube using an X-acto medium size razor saw. The trick to not collapsing the ring was once I broke through the tube with the saw was to continue the sawing on just one side so the saw was almost at a right angle to the tube wall (as opposed to sawing all the way across against two walls). With the rough-cut ring, files and then sanding sticks (supported flat) were used to thin the ring. Bad news, the ring proved to be a bit too large in diameter. But all was not lost!

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