Hog's firepower display - A-10C - Full makeup

[red Dog]

Thanks guys

 

On 11/9/2023 at 10:07 AM, red Dog said:

Station #4 & #8

These pylons are almost identical to station #2 and 10 and needed the same process, so nothing much more to add

I'd like to come back to pylon #4 and #8 with a bad news

I somehow knew it but now I have proof they are badly underscaled

 

 

 

Let's consider the yellow lines in the above two pictures.

As you can see the distance between the rear of the pylon and the flaps bay is very short on the real A-10 and rather quite longer on the model A-10

That's because the #4 & #8 pylons are indeed quite underscaled.

 

Doubting all the others, I printed the best set of drawings I have at my disposal:

And compared the Trumpeter's pylons

Most of them are okay, Except the #4 & #8 pair
Of note as well is that #2 and #10 are supposed to be the same as #3 and #9. But are different in Trumpeter's kit. They are not that badly underscaled as #4 and #8 but are nevertheless different than #3 and #9
 

But #4 and #8 are really really bad.

I am not sure I can fix that issue. 

It's a reason good enough to go and get the pylon set from Phase Hangar, which as far as I can see are much better in all aspects. 

 

 

[A-10LOADER]

Your probably going to have to fix the cart retainers on the PHR bomb racks, they stick out of the bomb racks way too far. Once the bomb rack is "carted" and the retainers are torqued in, they pretty much are flush with the side of the bomb rack. I've had this discussion with him many times yet they still aren't corrected. FYI, be very careful working with these parts, they're super brittle !

Steve

Edited November 11, 2023 by A-10LOADER

[red Dog]

You mean this? 

 

 

All these have to be redone indeed

So they are cut from their details, completely sanded because the mold line is really ugly. 2 holes are drilled and small rods are inserted for the screws.

They will be against the stores and the bits will be much lower on the sway braces than on the original parts.

That's one of the reason I wanted to correct all the pylons, these parts are small, tedious, boring to convert but they will make a huge difference IMHO

 

That's the empty centerline pylon, so the only one with rods protruding above the sway braces

 

 

 

[A-10LOADER]

No, those are the sway braces and sway pads. The part I'm referring to is the cart retainers, on the side of the bomb racks shown below. If you have Jake Melampy's book "The Modern Hog Guide, 2nd Edition" go to page 153, the bottom right hand photo shows what the cart retainers should look like in a "carted rack". Once you get the PHR parts you'll see what I mean.

 

 

Steve

[red Dog]

 First wing is now complete with pylons:

 

 

I used very soft lead wire for the pylon contour. I usually fight copper wire because it doesn't glue and does not bend easily. But lead wire is very easy to work with and sticks very well to plastic.

 

Pins for the sway brace pads will be finished later. The pads are glued to the stores. 

The outer pylon (11 here) has the integrated deceleronactuator redone

 

Now a little game

Sometimes you do mistakes when decalling. Doesn't really matter 

 

 

[A-10LOADER]

The Crew Chiefs don't know front from back I guess.

Steve

[Finn]

Here is a view of a A-10C from below the left wing showing some details that may be of help:

 

 

as for the luggage carriers, some pilots liked to have the door on the pod facing outboard to make it easier to load/unload their baggage even though the pod did have markings for which way was forward. Also for some pods one of the fairings could be removed and it was preferred to have that facing to the rear so in case it came off in flight it would go straight back.

 

Jari

[red Dog]

Thanks Jari, all of this makes a lot of sense. 

 

The 3 fuselage pylons are done as well.

 

The other wing will follow, but there's not much to show as it's a boring mirror of the first one.

 

 

[red Dog]

Here's the planned load-out:

 

 

STA#1: GBU-12 (Eduard Brassin)

STA#2: APKWS rockets (Flying leatherneck or Phase Hangar)

STA#3: AGM-65 (F/A-18C Academy)

STA #4: GBU-38 JDAM (VideoAviation)

STA #5: GBU-38 JDAM (VideoAviation)

STA #6: empty

STA #7: GBU-31 (F/A-18C Academy)

STA #8: GBU-54 (Reskit)

STA #9: GBU-12 (Eduard Brassin)

STA #10: AN/AAQ-28 (Eduard Brassin)

STA #11: Dual AIM-9 Launcher (Reskit) with 2 AIM-9 (F/A-18C Academy)

 

GBU-12

 

Eduard brassin are highly detailed

they come in 8 pieces. seeker, the 4 forward fins, body and the tail unit

 

The main body has to be drilled to accommodate the tail unit,  which is not easy to do as Eduard planned it. They do provide a PE template to mark the center of the drill point but honestly you're so close to the edge after a 6mm drill that IMO there is no way you can proceed in one drill.

 

 

I decided to drill a smaller hole first and then carve the hole larger with the proxxon until the tail unit inserted correctly.

Having the parts separated like that might be more difficult to fit but it does really help the painting.

 

The forward fins are very delicate yet attach very firmly to the nose thanks to the hole and recess. 

 

Eduard also provides a PE template to drill the seeker in it's center to be attached to the bomb' nose. Very useful.

 

The only drawbacks to the kit containing 4 GBUs, were the decals. They were useless as the protecting paper tore the gloss coat and the decals would scatter upon application. I did reapply a coat of X-22, it saved a few of them but many were left unusable.

[red Dog]

APKWS pod

 

I sourced from two manufacturers  as I need many others for a OV-10G project.

Flying leathernecks has the pod empty and phase hangar has the pod loaded

 

Unfortunately the pods are not the same length:

Top: Flying leatherneck

Bottom: Phase Hangar

 

From previous research, I found that Flying leatherneck had the correct length. 
Problem I wanted mine to be loaded so minor modification required

 

Top: Flying leatherneck

Bottom: Phase Hangar

 

The forward tip of the flying leatherneck pod was cut and the inside emptied

 

Khaki painted tubes were then inserted into the 7 holes to give the right impression from behind, then the phase hangar piece with the rockets forward tips was inserted into the flying leatherneck pod.

 

Top: Phase Hangar

Bottom: Flying leatherneck

 

Problem solved. 

 

Painting these was a lot of fun. 

 

 

 

[Shujaa]

Coming together slowly but surely. Looking very good sofar.

 

Keep up the good work.   

 

Kind regards,

 

Rudy.

[Derek B]

Massive improvement over the standard kit parts - well done Oliver.

 

We're gonna need a bigger airframe...

 

 

Derek

[Grunticus]

Fantastic work on the pylons and the pods. You really want this one to look right and I admire your work.

[Neo]

On 11/27/2023 at 1:55 PM, Derek B said:

Massive improvement over the standard kit parts - well done Oliver.

 

We're gonna need a bigger airframe...

 

 

Derek

oh boy, i need the decals for this airframe NOW

[red Dog]

 

 

Unfortunately I don't have the two Tie fighters on the mission tally, but all the rest for 81-0983 is there