A-7A Corsair `Streetcar 305'

[Uncarina]

Tom,

 

Welcome to the forum, and thank you for sharing this!

 

Cheers,  Tom

[Out2gtcha]

Thats a killer story!  Thanks for sharing................always makes things SO much more interesting and cool with not only the actual person who was there telling it, but pictures to go along with it. 

 

[ericg]

Now that I finished the F-100D, it was time to get back to this build.

 

Tom kindly arranged for Kenny Fields of Streetcar 304 fame to send me his book about his rescue, personally signed with a nice message. I managed to count Toms name mentioned 3 times in the book, so it was pretty cool to see. I have been in touch with Kenny about a possible subject build later on down the track of one of his rescuers. This book is very highly recommended, I simply couldn't put it down and I read it in two days. From the excellent description of the pre-launch activities of a Vietnam era carrier aircraft to the vivid recollections of his time spent on the run after being shot down, go and get it!

 

 

 

A small update.

 

This is the Aires resin instrument panel and coaming. Beautifully cast, but........ very different to an A model. The more I look, the more I find I will have to modify with this kit but it keeps me on my toes and my modelling skills sharp. This pic gives a view of the area under the HUD. The A model did not have a HUD, just a gunsight similiar to the ones that I have in the O-2 and OV-10 models that I have built. This will need to be fixed.

 

 

The HUD controls and the mounting points for the various caution and warning lights under the glare shield will need to go.

 

 

I cut all of those parts out.

 

 

I then used a small section of plastic tubing to fill the gap, with the real thing having the small lip in the middle. This part is almost ready to start scratch building the instrument panel, which is completely different to the E model that the aftermarket parts represent.

 

 

Here is where the model is at the moment. I have started filling in all of the 'E' panel lines and scribing 'A' model ones, particularly on the forward fuselage. The wings are dry fitted on at the moment, as it is handy to be able to remove them to lay the fuselage flat on my workbench for the modification work. I have dry fitted the undercarriage as well at this early stage so that I can start to get a feel for how the model will sit and it will allow me to assess whether I will need to do any major modifications to get the model to sit correctly compared to reference pics.

 

 

 

[ade rowlands]

Nice work. I have the book on my Amazon list funnily enough. 

[CZPetrP]

Congratulations on the book with the signature.

 

Great work on the Corsair.

[ericg]

Some more work. One of the features of the A/B model is 4 vents, 2 either side of the nose gear bay. I put a bit of thought into how to accomplish those, as they could be quite tricky to do. One is fine, but to do 4 accurately needed some more effort. I am a very lazy modeller, so if I can cheat a little bit, I will.

 

I made up a vent from plastic card, in a box section and then made a copy of it. plastic card vent in the foreground, resin copy in the middle and pinkysil mould at the back

 

 

One quickly turned into 4

 

 

I measured up the areas where I was going to be installing the vents, and made an indent into each of the four corners of the rectangle where the vent was going to go. I then scribed the lines using a straight edge and a pin. the small holes make it much easier to scribe from point as the scriber/pin drops into each hole at the correct distance. Once I had a line scribed using the straight edge and pin, I deepened it using the pin. 

 

 

Using a number 11 blade, I pushed it into the line, rocking it back and forth to break through to the inside of the fuselage. This will then pop the section out.

 

 

 

The vents fit into the holes fairly well, although I did tweak the position of each one so that it lined up both with the one on the same side longitudinally and the one on the other side laterally. this was done with a small file. Once this process was complete, I secured each one in place with some superglue, ensuring that they were slightly proud of the surface.

 

 

Lots of mods going on here. I have made a hell of a mess. I used my superglue/talc mix to fill in the areas around each vent and then sanded them smooth against the fuselage.

 

 

With some primer/filler spray. There is still some filling to do, and each vent will need a panel scribed around it. I will refine the shape of each one soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jep1210]

Impressive work. I like when a project is tied to a specific person.

[Derek B]

Great work Eric - all very inspirational and it will help me when I eventually get this kit to make into an HAF variant at some point

 

Cheers

 

Derek

[ericg]

So I am back into this project after a small break.

 

I lost a lot of momentum when it came to doing the instrument panel. For some reason, I always get stuck with projects that there are no aftermarket parts for, and I wanted to do this model justice by getting it as close as I could. I just lost interest in doing the panel and felt that I needed a break from all of the conversion work. I was prepared to make the panel the fashioned way but when I started to research resin 3D printers and was looking into aquiring one, I decided to retire those hard won skills in favour of learning a new art, being CAD.

 

I set about designing a new panel to fit into the Eduard coaming using Fusion 360, with much reference to the A-7 A/B NATOPS Flight manual and some pics. The learning curve was fairly steep but I got there in the end.

 

By using a good front on drawing, I was able to size up each individual element onto the base instrument panel, which was sized to fit into the modified Eduard coaming.

 

 

 

 

I was then left with each individual shape which was then manipulated as required.

 

 

Here is the final render of the CAD file, ready to be printed.

 

 

Here is the panel, in resin in all of its 4K glory, printed at .01 layer height. some of the elements are hard to see due to the lighting.

 

 

Painted using SMS Dark Gull Grey and ready for further detail painting and a handful of Airscale instruments.

 

 

I decided to go with Toms idea of the two Bullpup AGM-12C missile mission. I was a bit reluctant at first as it will leave lots of empty pylons on the model but the temptation of having something completely different and not available was too much.

 

I set about designing the missile with those new found skills. Here is a render of the CAD file with a fair bit of work to go. I was lucky enough to get hold of factory plans for the missile from a friend. Some further refinement and hopefully print soon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kagemusha]

Extremely impressive work Eric.

[Rainer Hoffmann]

That IP came out absolutely great. How long did it take to print the IP in that resolution?

 

Rainer

[blackbetty]

i really like the panel, can i get one?

[Out2gtcha]

Most excellent! 

[jenshb]

Well done for learning CAD - now you can make (almost) anything!

[Marcel111]

Wow, that really is impressive, the IP looks great and the big missile will turn out good.

 

Cheers,

 

Marcel