A-10B Desert Storm: 2/28 Taking a break

[EmperorKai]

I've been working around different parts of the kit lately, in part to stay motivated.  The good news is that the fuselage is officially together now.

 

First up- fixing the slot for the aileron hinge.  At some point I miscalculated the position of the slot and cut it in the wrong spot- too far outboard.  As it should line up with the station 1 and 11 pylons, I marked the correct position with Tamiya tape.  It's a bit on the narrow side here, but this is so I'll have room to trim it up without overshooting the correct size.

 

Here, the new slot cut and cleaned up.  Two cuts were made with a razor saw and then holes were drilled to open it up.

 

With the new slot cut, the original, incorrectly placed slot was filled with strip styrene and CA.

 

Once cured, it was wittled down and cleaned up.  The opposite aileron was then cut and built out, which was a little easier, but still took quite a bit of a work.

 

 

Now that I was past the ailerons, I decided to work on the fuselage a bit.  I forgot to take pics, but the interior of the engine nacelles were darkened up a bit with the airbrush and then joined to the rear fuselage.  Once the seams were cleaned up and detail replaced, the same was done for the tail planes.  Some shaving was needed to get them to align properly, and when all was said and done, a small gap remained. 

 

The gap was filled with plasticlay, which made pretty quick work of it.  The same was done for the engines (visible on the right), which had a much bigger gap on the left side.  Some styrene strip and CA was needed for the worst of it, but the rest hides underneath pretty well.

 

Once the sub-assemblies were together and cleaned up, I started adding some of the final details.  Here, the last scoop on the rear fuselage, which was on the A-10 NAW.  There are alot of antennae and things protruding out the bottom in this area, but I'm going to leave these off until later to minimize breaking and losing them.

 

The "warts" on the tail end.  The kit parts were either too big or incorrect, so these were scratched.  The elevators were glued in place as well

 

Now that the rear fuselage was basically done, it was joined to the forward section.  The seam wasn't TOOO bad, though some cleanup was needed to plane and match the contours up.  The panel and rivets were replaced.  I'll be doing all the raised rivets and blade antennas right before painting, so there's still a few tasks left to do.

 

Here's how she looks so far.  The enthusiasm meter just went up a bit and I'll be working on the wings some more next

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Kai

 

 

[marauderdriver]

Looking Delicious Kai,

 

   I'm running out of words to express the GREATNESS of talent that exudes from your builds

 

  Man this thing is really going to be COOL.

 

watch'in you  

 

jack

Edited January 10, 2015 by marauderdriver

[EmperorKai]

Looking Delicious Kai,

 

   I'm running out of words to express the GREATNESS of talent that exudes from your builds

 

  Man this thing is really going to be COOL.

 

watch'in you  

 

jack

Thanks Jack- I very much appreciate your encouragement.

 

In checking in, thought I'd mention that I've been nibbling away at the wings, but don't have pics at the moment.  I'll prep pics and post in the next day or so.

 

Kai

[Guest]

Still superlicious buddy ! Kai, if you can, could you give me the sprue letter and part # for the F15 HUD?......Harv

[EmperorKai]

Thanks Harv! 

 

Here's the step directly from page 22 of the Tamiya F-15E instuctions.  I used parts F18 and J15, but had to modify J15 by cutting off the lower extension (that goes under the glare shield F20).

 

Here, the F-15 HUD on the A-10 Verlinden dash.  The housing and flat screen behind the HUD was built up from scratch in lieu of the Tamiya part J13.

 

Hope this helps in any future endeavors!

 

Kai

[Guest]

Thanks Kai !......Harv

[Guest Peterpools]

Kai

Geez, just an amazing build to follow and enjoy ... and of course, I've already learned more then my shae of new techniqes.

Keep 'em coming

Peter

[alaninaustria]

Kai, she's really coming along very nicely! That HUD glass could probably use a little translucent green around the edges to simulate the slab glass that is normally used in HGS HUD's!

Cheers

Alan

[Anthony in NZ]

Wow, very cool!

[TaffyMan]

How cool does that look when you put her together - like the HUD! Yep agree just a bit of transparent green on the edge would make that the bees-nees!

 

Happy Days - Taff
 

[EmperorKai]

Thanks so much guys!  I think that putting a little clear green around the edge of the HUD glass is a fantastic idea!  I'll touch it up if I can get in there- might be a little tight as I've got the windscreen in place now.  

 

It's been a challenging week for me, so progress and updates have been slow this week.  I did get some work done on the wings though...

 

After getting a sense of the weight of the completed fuselage (with the nose weight and resin engine parts- it's pretty hefty) I decided to beef up the wing a bit just to insure that it doesn't sag over time.  To do this, I used some rectangular brass tubing (K&S 268, 3/16" x 3/8").  An opening in the innermost rib was cut as tight to the spar as possible.

 

The brass tube was cut to length so that the ends butted up snugly in between the middle rib and the wing root.  In gluing the spar in place, a little extra was added to the joint at the root to minimize any flex in the future.  The point where the landing gear is attached will be just behind the spar (this is marked with a penciled circle on the left half). 

 

The landing flap bays were then airbrushed and washed.  Good pics of this area are tough to find (usually in the shadows or from a distance) but is appears that the bays should be the external color.  

 

The landing flap bays after a second pass of the airbrush.  I'll add some light streaking with graphite powder once I'm done handling the wing.

 

The wings were then closed up (FINALLY!).  The inside of the wing tip is a real bugger to clean up.  This is the good one- a shim was needed on the other side to fill the gap.

 

As for the outboard side of the wingtip- there is an indent for part F11, which I can't seem to find on any of the trees (there are two F trees).  Even if I did locate it, the instructions show an oval piece rather than the rectangular shape indicated by the indent.  So I decided to just build a replacement from scratch.

 

The wing tip navigation light cluster is composed of two structures.  Here is the strobe light.  

 

Here, the navigation light.

 

The indent was filled with sheet styrene.  The nav lights were fixed on top of a small base mounted on a photo-etch panel (leftover from my IL-2 Shturmovik project).  I'll take another pic later once it's painted and easier to see.

 

The actual for comparison.  Most of the other detail here (slime light strips, etc) is characteristic of A-10's from the late 1990's onwards, so only the nav light cluster is relevant.

 

I've started tinkering with the landing gear sponsons- hoping to get some good bench time this weekend and have more in the next post.

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Kai

 

 

[Loic]

Most excellent work

[chuck540z3]

Unbelievable work Kai!  I just found this thread based upon your comments in mine.   I can't imagine all the changes you've made to this kit- and everybody thought I was nuts when I did my A-10C!

 

I do have a couple of "heads-up" items you might want to check out.  I'm not sure of the two-seater, but on the single-seater:

 

1)  The main hinges on the elevators to HZ stabilizer are almost covered on the top, not cut out like on the kit parts.  I note that you've added styrene this area, but they are still exposed.  Is this true for the 2-seater since it was an early version?

 

2)  Don't forget the windshield washer system in front of the windscreen, assuming the 2- seater had this as well.

 

 

 

 

As for the outboard side of the wingtip- there is an indent for part F11, which I can't seem to find on any of the trees (there are two F trees).  Even if I did locate it, the instructions show an oval piece rather than the rectangular shape indicated by the indent.  So I decided to just build a replacement from scratch.

 

 

 

I believe the part you are looking for is L11, not F11.  Maybe there's a typo on the 2-seater instructions?  It's a clear part and looks like this.

 

 

 

 

I filled in the square notch on my wings too, then I just sanded the clear part down at the base and glued it on.  It looks pretty accurate when finished that way.

 

 

Model on!  I will definitely be checking back on this fantastic build.  Subscribed!

 

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited January 18, 2015 by chuck540z3

[Talon]

Between your A-10B and Chuck's A-10C threads, I've picked up a lot of stuff I'll need to do to my kit when the time comes, although hopefully mine will be a little easier as I'll be backdating it to a JAWS marked jet, instead of adding lots of updates to the modern jets.

 

Your attention to detail is very useful, and it seems on top of a lot of the bits I already have, the SHM wheels will have to join the bits for my build. Hope to get mine back on the bench once the big Scooter is out of the way.

[EmperorKai]

Unbelievable work Kai!  I just found this thread based upon your comments in mine.   I can't imagine all the changes you've made to this kit- and everybody thought I was nuts when I did my A-10C!

 

I do have a couple of "heads-up" items you might want to check out.  I'm not sure of the two-seater, but on the single-seater:

 

1)  The main hinges on the elevators to HZ stabilizer are almost covered on the top, not cut out like on the kit parts.  I note that you've added styrene this area, but they are still exposed.  Is this true for the 2-seater since it was an early version?

 

2)  Don't forget the windshield washer system in front of the windscreen, assuming the 2- seater had this as well.

 

 

 

 

I believe the part you are looking for is L11, not F11.  Maybe there's a typo on the 2-seater instructions?  It's a clear part and looks like this.

 

 

 

 

I filled in the square notch on my wings too, then I just sanded the clear part down at the base and glued it on.  It looks pretty accurate when finished that way.

 

 

Model on!  I will definitely be checking back on this fantastic build.

 

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Chuck-

Wow, thanks for looking in on my build and the kind words.  Like quite a few others, I found you build most helpful

• I didn't notice the top side of the hinges on the elevators- I'll go back and check those.  I have a feeling I missed that and appreciate greatly your heads up.  
• The two-seater definitely had the windshield washer system- I'll be adding the last final details like that to the nose once I get the wings under control.
• And lastly, looks like I mis-identified the wing tip part- you're right, it's L11.  My hope was to just use that part, but when I couldn't find it, I had to come up with a different solution.  

Thanks friend for the bits of wisdom and keeping me on my toes!

 

Kai