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1/32 Trumpeter A-7E converted to Hellenic A-7H


zaxos345

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Good morning guys, i have this new project wondering around my modelling table for a year now, but i have finally found some time to do some work and to have something to show.

You all know the kit, it is the trumpeter's A-7E, there are some things that have to be changed in order to become a -H model but also a lot of things that have to be corrected as the model has a lot of mistakes.

I have all the zacto goodies (you cannot build an accurate A-7 without these), eduard and Aires ones as well as some other stuff,  that you will see during the build.

I think that it is now the time to thank Harold (aka AMS resin) for his help with the A-7 wheels he produced as well as Barry who helped Harold with his scratch work and of course John Wolstenholme (who, IMHO, has built the best A-7 in 1/32 scale) for his help and advice as well as a fellow Greek modeler and a good friend of mine, Vaggelis who has provided me with a lot of pics and measurements of specific parts of the real plane.

 

Here you can see the things i have to correct, sand down, rescribe, scratchbuild etc.

 

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I started by trying to correct some bad molding issues and trying to sand down the refueling prob detail, as the -H ones had this item removed

 

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I closed the gap and scratch built the cover that was put there

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I opened the air condition inlet and modified it

 

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I sanded down the antennas from the vertical stabilizer and corrected them in terms of shape and position

 

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Edited by zaxos345
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...

 

In order to make the exhaust section of the air condition more correct  i produced a stencil as i could mot find one at these dimensions and rescribed the new one

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I sanded down and rescribed the LORAN antenna...

 

 

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Opened the holes underneath (the one was the exhaust section for the starter)

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opened, narrowed, shortened and moved the grilles of the right electronics bay door

 

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I have a lot of work ahead of me trying to build as correctly as i can the aircraft that i flew with for almost 2000 hours and loved so much.

You may not all of you be aware but the Hellenic A-7s are the last ones that fly in the skies and their last fly will take place in 17th of October when their retirement ceremony will take place at Araxos AFB.

So i think of this build as a tribute to this adorable aircraft as well as to the guys and my colleagues who flew with it, loved it and some were killed!

 

John

Edited by zaxos345
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nice project! am i mistaken or do you have to do these modifications also if you want to do an A/B? werent the greek ones modified earlier models or am i mixing them up with the portugese ones?

if chris ever will offer his A-7 set again, i will get one and do a B

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nice project! am i mistaken or do you have to do these modifications also if you want to do an A/B? werent the greek ones modified earlier models or am i mixing them up with the portugese ones?

if chris ever will offer his A-7 set again, i will get one and do a B

You mxi them up it are the portugees one.

Found this on the net.

 

The A-7P version acquired by Portugal were reconstructed and converted A-7A airframes powered by the Pratt & Whitney TF30-P-408 engine and equipped with A-7E/A-7D avionics. The initial 20 airframes for this conversion were chosen from 28 former-United States Navy airframes stored at AMARC, with the remaining 8 airframes being used for spare parts.[30][33]

 

Mark

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