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

[geedubelyer]

Superb job. 

[Martinnfb]

Now we're talking weathering, Bravo! 

[A-10LOADER]

Great job Oliver ! Just remember, "no guts, no glory".

Steve

[chuck540z3]

Seems like a bit too much, but when you look at the original pic in your first post, you nailed it, right down to a bit of extra soot on the port side engine.  Bravo!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[ulvdemon]

I am in awe sir, great job.

[red Dog]

20 hours ago, chuck540z3 said:

Seems like a bit too much, but when you look at the original pic in your first post, you nailed it, right down to a bit of extra soot on the port side engine.  Bravo!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

 

Yeah I reckon when you do such heavy weathering you need to back up your modelling with real pictures because lots of people will question your dosage

 

So here is a run of real picture for references:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These A-10s were very filthy, especially towards the end of their deployment, which is the moment I model mine  

 

 

 

Edited December 12, 2023 by red Dog

[red Dog]

There are four remarkable areas on the left side fuselage that I wanted to reproduce:

 

1. the clean area for the aircraft name

2. the clean area where the pilot trousers rub and clean the fuselage (W shape clearly visible in the 2nd, 4th and 6th picture above

3. the dirty gun gases area above and forward of the ventral stakes

4. the lower vertical tail that's quite dirty (I think but I am not sure because of the maverick exhaust)

 

I masked the panel that was cleaned before a probable fresh application of the aircraft name before weathering and applied the custom decal only after the weathering process (I didn't want to lift it because of the masking tape.

The W shape was weathered with the rest initially but repainted with grey base colour after weathering to simulate the rubbing of the pilot's G suit when entering the cockpit.

 

Weathering consisted of only diluted MRP smoke applied on panel lines where appropriate and simulating the filthy gun gases running along the fuselage being deflected by the central strakes and the leading edge flaps 

 

 

 

The tail received light treatment at the base which is also quite often visible in real picture. As I said above the only reason I can think of is the exhaust plume of the maverick which stations 3 and 9 being aligned with the lower vertical tails. 

 

 

Sorry for the grainy pictures, we haven't seen the sun for quite a while in Belgium

The above result will be toned down a bit with the flat coats coming at later stages, so this is still gross from the airbrush nozzle

 

[Shoggz]

This is great!

[red Dog]

22 hours ago, A-10LOADER said:

Great job Oliver ! Just remember, "no guts, no glory".

Steve

Well, Steve that's exactly what I said before pushing the airbrush trigger

[red Dog]

Right side is no different than the left side except for the bomb tally

 

I have no picture of Ditzy Daisy with bomb tally but I know her sister ships had them so I see no reason why DD wouldn't get them.
Call it artistic licence as this is what It is

 

Fact is late in her deployment the area where the mission tally is usually placed was cleaned - the picture above shows it clearly

My thinking and educated guess is that the area was cleaned before the tallies would be painted and that would happen around the very last mission just before the airframes were rotated back to their homebase. 

 

 

So I masked the area, weathered with MRP Smoke and applied the decals at the late stage

 

Further down the fuselage I weathered as the other side.

 

The tail need some more work on top where the decal disn't react well with the decal solution.

 

 And finally the lower right hand side fuselage under the engine nacelle.

That's where all that rivet work pays off - that whole section making the transition from side to bottom was completely missing.

 

Next comes the moment of thruth, removing the canopy masks. I know I have a detached part in there but I do not know which one. Hopefully it will not be too much visible

Thanks for looking

[allthumbs]

Wow! Great looking Hog. Lots of passion and precision at work here!

 

Rich

[red Dog]

Getting very close to the end.

 

Canopy was unmasked. (Sorry for the night picture) 

 

Two parts came unglued, the right yellow canopy handle and the instrument on the left of the HUD.
Could have been worse but i'm not opening that canopy again.

 

After unmasking I painted the tiny pale yellow lines on the windscreen

The chipping might seems overdone ... but it really can get bad. I just regret that the rivets are not more visible. They could have been a bit bigger.

 

 

 

The inflight pole enters the rear fuselage as the extension of the rear MLWS sensor. It's been painted grey for that purpose but it suffers quite a lot as the model rotates on the stick part of the multi pose in flight display process. I'm debating gluing this one and adding the canvas at the junction of the sensor and the fuselage. It would be nicer but it would decrease the  numbers of multi-pose options.

 

Last thing now is to weather the weapons with some rust and dust colours

Top one is final (before the ultimate flat coat)

 

And all stores just moments before definitely attached to the Hog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[red Dog]

And I call this one completed

 

 

 

 

More pictures in the RFI forum

 

Deepest thanks to all of you who have supported the project. 

 

- @phasephantomphixer @jmel @chuck540z3 for all your advices, pictures and parts,

- @Nic C.D. for the book and pictures that came right on time
- @A-10LOADER for always being there to answer my never ending questions
- @Landrotten Highlander for not missing one single like  

 

And all of you who interracted in this topic giving me the will to bring this project to its conclusion

I am sure I am forgetting lots of ppl, so Thank you all gents. 
 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 17, 2023 by red Dog

[Dennis7423]

Okay, I seriously thought those were in-flight photos of a real bird! Outstanding job, an absolute stunner!

 

- Dennis S.

   Mount Juliet, TN USA

[JayW]

38 minutes ago, Dennis7423 said:

Okay, I seriously thought those were in-flight photos of a real bird! Outstanding job, an absolute stunner!

I did too!  Bravo!