KH OV-10A Pave Nail

[daveculp]

While working on the design of the cockpit parts of the Pave Nail system I decided I'd have to build the cockpit first, then design the parts to fit.  That means making the whole model.  So, here's a WIP thread on making a USAF OV-10A Pave Nail out of the Kitty Hawk OV-10A/C.  I've been lurking here long enough to know that my modeling skills pale in comparison to what I've seen, but I figure it's important to at least communicate the reasoning behind my decisions for this model.  So here goes:

 

NOTE:  This is for the USAF OV-10A with the Pave Nail mod.  Other OV-10's will be different.

 

I wanted to paint the insides of the fuselage halves first, then realized there was a problem.  I hadn't even started and I already had a problem!  In order to build it with the cargo door open I need to get the cargo bay right, and the cargo bay is painted in interior green.  The cockpit walls and floor are painted a light-to-medium gray.  The kit comes with a bulkhead between the cargo bay and the cockpit, however the USAF Bronco didn't have a bulkhead (did any of them, really?).  So, where to switch colors?  Well, I'll find a suitable location in time, but for now my attention is on the rest of the cargo bay and bay-cockpit transition.

 

The only thing that's supposed to be behind the rear seat is a radio rack (which I'll have to scratch build).  In other words, the radio rack is underneath the circuit breaker panels.  There is no bulkhead to speak of, but the cockpit consoles do need a rear side, so I cut the bulkhead down for this purpose.

 

 

EDIT:  The Eduard PE instructions show that there are no console panels in the rear cockpit at all in the OV-10A  I believe they are right.  I have since removed them and installed the PE parts.

 

The cargo bay floor should be plywood with two silver metal "slide strips" running in the fore-aft direction.  I sanded off the rivets on the kit's floor in preparation for the faux-plywood paint job (that should be fun!). 

 

 

Next bit is the cargo door.  The door should have no interior features except for the gust lock device installed at the apex (which I'll have to scratch build).  This means sanding off the brackets which were meant to hold the kit's radio rack.  This Bronco doesn't have a radio rack in the cargo door.  Also the alignment pins should be cut off, and the injection divots need to be filled in.  All this cutting and filling is unfortunately removing much of the door's inside "fiberglass" surface texture, which is a shame because it is beautifully done by KH.  So subtle!

 

 

Also, the exterior access door on the left half of the cargo door is sanded off.  The USAF OV-10A didn't have this.  The kit has a fairly thick strengthening strip running along the seam on the exterior.  On this OV-10 that strip should be barely visible, or invisible.  You can only see it on the OV-10A when the light hits it just right.

 

 

 

Edited August 20, 2019 by daveculp
added EDIT re: rear cockpit consoles

[LSP_Kevin]

Good to see you taking the courageous step of starting a build thread, Dave! I'm sure you'll do fine.

 

Kev

[Out2gtcha]

Love it! 

[Barry]

Hi Dave

 

I'll be following along. I worked the Pave Nail equipped OVs while station at Ubon RTAFB. Unfortunately a camera was not part of my tool box!

 

Barry

[daveculp]

1 hour ago, Barry said:

Hi Dave

 

I'll be following along. I worked the Pave Nail equipped OVs while station at Ubon RTAFB. Unfortunately a camera was not part of my tool box!

 

Barry

 

Thanks, Barry.  Holler if you see anything missing/wrong.  I know what you mean about the camera.  Taking pictures was such a chore back then, and expensive to boot.  I probably have 4 or 5 photos total of my eight years in the AF.

[daveculp]

Day two, airbrush compressor is missing a part, so more cutting and sanding today instead.

 

You may notice in photos of parked USAF OV-10's that the right spoilers are up.  The control surfaces were too high to reach with a gust lock, so the gust lock is actually a red fabric strap that was placed around the stick grip and then hooked under the right canopy rail.  This pulled the stick to the right and also back.  In this condition you have the left aileron down a bit, the right aileron up a bit, the right spoilers up, and the elevator up a bit.  Of course the rear cockpit stick mimics the front stick.  I don't know if other Bronco users had the same gust lock system.

 

One other thing to keep in mind is that lower part of the stick only moved fore-aft, whereas the upper part rotated left-right.

 

[daveculp]

While I'm waiting to solve my rookie airbrushing issues with the help of the Red Flag Scale Modelers club:

 

I bought a set of brass landing gear struts, and I'm glad I did.  They look great, are very solid, and fit well.  After priming and painting them I realized there was some sprue that needs removing.  The more obvious sprue is attached to the strut attachment pins, so a simple dry fit would have shown me that :)  A less obvious sprue is at the very bottom of the main gear struts.  The strut on the left in the photo has had the sprue removed and is re-primed.

 

 

As for the wheels/tires, the mains look OK but the nose tire won't do.  The OV-10 nose tire is a very distinctive feature, and I can't use the kit tire.  Fortunately AMS Resin comes to the rescue (thanks, Harold!).

[Out2gtcha]

Yep! After building 2 of these and a 3rd one on the way, I can say with 100% certainty the OOB gear will splay, especially if displayed on a glass shelf. I added a few degrees of positive camber to the mains on Glens demo OV-10A, just to counteract the splay.

 

My own OV-10D had OOB gear on it and had significant splay before an award dropped on it and it collapsed 100%. 

The Aerocraft OV-10 brass gear are an absolute necessity on the KHM kit as far as I'm concerned.

[daveculp]

Still working :)  I think this may have been covered in another build thread, but the OV-10A didn't have the extra panels on the booms that the OV-10D had.  These panels in the KH kit are left-overs from the OV-10D kit.  Unfortunately this means some filling, sanding, re-scribing and riveting for us.

 

 

Also, while painting the propellers I noticed there are no black stencil decals for the propellers.  KH assumed the propellers would be painted black or green, so the provided decals have a white font.  The solution will be be either a) steal some decals from another 1/32 2-engined kit, or b) print my own.  I have some laser decal paper, so I'll try to print my own.

 

[allthumbs]

You’re off to a great start Dave!

 

In case you hadn’t stumbled across these, here’s a link to one of several AOA Decal sets dedicated to the Bronco. The airframe stencils set (also available separately) is really well done and includes propeller markings in black...http://aoadecals.com/32006/home.htm

Edited July 20, 2019 by allthumbs

[daveculp]

Thanks, Rich.  That AOA set looks like the way to go. 

 

In the event anyone wants to try the print-your-own method, I found that my word processor only prints fonts as small as 6 pts, so that won't do.  I got a good print by creating the text in Gimp (I'm a linux geek, so Gimp is the go-to app for graphics).  Gimp allowed me to print at 2 pt, which is exactly the right size.  I may end up printing the propeller stencils anyway since I already have the paper, and I have other things I want to print so might as well fill up the page

[daveculp]

Is it kosher around here to suggest ways of avoiding work?  I hope so, because that's kinda my thing.  I plan on building the OV-10 with cowlings closed, so that leads to the question, "what parts, if any, of the engine do I need to make?"  Here's my answer:

 

 

The only engine parts visible on the completed model are the engine intake and the oil cooler intake, so those need to be included.  You also need a place to attach the propeller, and coincidentally that part is the same as the engine intake part.  So, I figure each engine needs:

 

1) the engine face

2) the oil cooler intake duct

3) PE screen for the intake

4) PE screen for the oil cooler

 

Technically you could get by with only the PE parts, both glued to the back of the cowling.  The propeller assemblies can be glued directly to the front of the cowlings.

[Out2gtcha]

8 hours ago, daveculp said:

Is it kosher around here to suggest ways of avoiding work?  I hope so, because that's kinda my thing.  

 

But of course! 

 

 

 

8 hours ago, daveculp said:

The only engine parts visible on the completed model are the engine intake and the oil cooler intake, so those need to be included.  You also need a place to attach the propeller, and coincidentally that part is the same as the engine intake part.  So, I figure each engine needs:

 

1) the engine face

2) the oil cooler intake duct

3) PE screen for the intake

4) PE screen for the oil cooler

 

Technically you could get by with only the PE parts, both glued to the back of the cowling.  The propeller assemblies can be glued directly to the front of the cowlings.

 

 

Yup!  Me too, as I feel open panels kind of ruin the look/lines of an airframe.   That is how I built both of mine, and only used the engine face to attach the props. 

 

 

[daveculp]

The Eduard cockpit PE set is very nice, and I'm using most of it.  One thing that was bugging me though is the attitude indicator.  Back in the old days they were gray=sky and black=ground.  The blue/brown attitude indicator is a recent invention.  I managed to replace the indicator by cutting it out of the PE part then putting the kit decal on the PE bottom layer.  Works good, except I still have the blue/brown standby attitude indicator, and it's too small to fix (for me anyway).  Maybe I should just put an "inop" sticker on it

 

 

 

The seats are done.  I decided to use the kit seats with Eduard PE improvements.  I'm pretty sure it's already been noted here that the parachute packs need to go on opposite sides of the seats.  The pilot's seat parachute is on the left.  I don't know why KH says to paint them red.  I've never seen a red parachute bag on an OV-10. 

 

Opposite from parachute is the thruster (small cylinder).  I added this because that side of seat looks bare, and also because the remove-before-flight streamer needs to connect to it.  The streamer has two pins - one goes into the base of the thruster and one goes into the seat's D-ring.

 

The kit seat belts are wrong.  The OV-10 seat uses short shoulder straps that attach to the pilot's vest.  I think the full length shoulder straps are a later replacement by civilian users who deactivated the seats.  I just cut the kit's PE belts to length.  The lap belt should be made of thick webbing and have the "race-car" type quick-release latch with a leather pad under it.  I faked it with Tamiya tape.

 

The seat cushion is one part, but it really should be two.  The OV-10's seat cushions are thin, and under them sits the survival kit.  I cut a grove between the kit and cushion to make them look like two separate parts.  With hindsight it might be easier to thin the kit part down a bit (this would be the survival kit), then add a cushion cut from sheet styrene.

 

 

 

 

[Out2gtcha]

Nice work! I've still got master builder CarimB's OV-10A that I intend on turning into a combo effort, and I think he did his seats similarly.