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

[chuck540z3]

Very interesting facts about those inner slats.  I always wondered what they were for, since lift didn't seem likely so close to the fuselage.  The pic above also shows significant chipping of the front of the engine, so you should have fun with that.  Also note that the ventral fin, just to the left of the slat, touches the wing and is not located forward from it, like Trumpeter has located it..  Moving it backward is a bit of a pain, but very doable.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[red Dog]

Thanks Chuck

Quote

Also note that the ventral fin, just to the left of the slat, touches the wing and is not located forward from it, like Trumpeter has located it..  

Good point I didn't realize because I didn't touch the wings yet, but you probably saved me a bit of hassle by realizing too late , so thanks for that.

 

There are so many things to modify on this model

Having decided to get rid of the pave penny pylon, I needed to mark the location of these 4 big bolts:

 

I bore the 4 holes on the Trumpeter pylon, placed the pylon in place and marked the 4 locations.

 

After a quick check to see if these were matching real life picture, I filled the fuselage locating hole for the pylon and glued 4 disc of 0.5mm plasticard.

These were then bored with a smaller diameter drill. And then they were sanded less thick with the usual sanding sticks.

 

 

The small circle was simply engraved before the 4 bolts were glued in place. 

 

Next playing with the big gun

 

 

 

 

Edited January 9, 2023 by red Dog
spelling

[red Dog]

The gun is a very critical part of this build because that's the first thing we will all look at  
 

The gun was stripped of all details earlier. These were IMHO too small and bound to be erased by sanding anyway.

 

The front face of the gun casing was sanded alongside the thin red line.

I initially decided not to mount the gun but I realised that the barrels at least need to be visible through the front vent. So I quickly assembled the barrels and gave them a quick coat of MRP gun colour before attaching them in place.

 

At least now the bottom plate of the fuselage can be glued in place and sanded fit with the rest of the fuselage. That took quite a bit of efforts

 

A strip of aluminium foil was cut to shape to provide the attaching plates of the gun casing to the fuselage. Once in place this was riveted with negative rivets.

 

The two real gun casings (top & bottom) are joined together by screwing  horizontal plates together. 

To model these I cut two strips of 0.5mm plasticard and bore 0.3mm holes every 2mm in the length. I inserted metal rods in the holes to simulate the screws.
These will be cut more flush later on.

 

Rather than gluing directly the strips to the gun casing, I decided for a more sturdy solution. I cut the gun casing in the longitudinal axis with a 0.4mm saw.
that way I can insert the strip into the casing which gives a much more solid assembly.

 

 

I then had the pleasure to apply my first ever strip of Archer rivets (yeah, pretty late to the party)
I now hit myself for not having bought more of these before.

I somehow knew I would need these at some point but I never bought more than just enough to test them out. So I have one sheet and that's it - not quite enough for this beast and unfortunately I even missed the last chance to get these straight from Woody before he closed shop.

I'll console myself by trying GGW rivets on the top fuselage later on and I bought some Quinta rivets to try as well but I know that whatever happens I will miss Archer's rivets in my future builds

 

I cleaned the rivet film with Daco Strong decal solution. I figured the film would be visible after painting, so I wanted to dilute it clean. I initially worked with Mr levelling thinner which worked great as well but might be messy when applied on a coat of paint.
Daco decal solution is my go to decal product since I realised that it works way better than Microsol and Microset. And this seems to dilute the film just as well without destroying the paint under the rivets. 

 

I will know for sure after the coat of Mr Surfacer 1000 which is now drying.

 

The gun front end candidate was chosen.

Master wins ten to one against the resin castings - I didn't even consider the kit's offering which is a joke

both the resin offering are too large and don't fit the gun casing - which was sanded thinner quite a bit already. And that made my decision even more simple.
The Master gun is a gem offering way more finesse than resin casting could ever provide.
The barrels were left out as I need to paint them first before inserting them from behind.

 

Some final picture

 

 

Macro doesn't forgive you much. It's not as bad as it looks

I do need to cut these pin shorter, especially on the bottom plate, where it is basically only the screw head. 

 

Now switching to the top fuselage 

Thanks for looking

 

[Neo]

Wow amazing work

[A-10LOADER]

Very nice work, looks way better.

Steve

[themongoose]

Top notch baby!

[jmel]

Man i love this build.  Great work!!!

 

Let me know if i can be of help with refs.  I have a 'few' pics of the Hog. 

 

Jake

[red Dog]

Thank you gents, comments are much appreciated

 

Jake, thanks for your offer. The only thing I miss not having your second edition book is detailed view of the new dorsal winnebago antenna.

I'm particularly looking at the base which I would like to detail a bit more. 

And maybe also the new OBOGS vents on the right side of the fuselage under the canopy

 

The new missile warning sensors in the wingtips and the tail I have plenty of picture of. This will be fun to add at least in the wings because the tail might be used for the in-flight support.

 

In the meantime, I sprayed the first coat of Mr Surfacer. Follows a session of checking and doing small corrections where necessary

 

 

 

 

Edited January 12, 2023 by red Dog

[Anthony in NZ]

My goodness that is utterly superb workmanship.  I have always loved the A-10 but never brave enough to correct one like you have...

 

Thanks for the updates, loving it!

[red Dog]

Thanks Anthony

Correcting this one is dangerous  I just corrected some rivets yesterday night on the nose and pushed too hard forgetting the plastic was super thin and I went through.

I knew somehow this would blow in my face.

 

 

[red Dog]

I'm currently working on adding more detail to the underside of the front section. There are quite a few changes involved depending on the aircraft.

 

Here's the default offering

 

 

The round flat antenna needs to be square. The forward blade antenna (Lower UHF/TACAN) must be removed and located further aft. 
The part was actually discarded and replaced by a stash antenna a little smaller. Vents were drilled and the horrible and very visible grill was frilled and replaced by the coffee filter mesh cut and bent to shape.

 

 

New A-10 nose gear doors have 4 row of 3 rivets close to the hinges. These were easily added with Archer's rivets and the film was removed with Daco Strong decal solution (usually in 3 applications - here showing only 2) 

The Towel rack which is a VHF antenna was cut and only the feet were used after being sanded thinner. That antenna is not present anymore on all modern A-10s.
The two aft blade antennaes are LARS antennae which are part of a special system to home on distress signals for SAR operations. These are from the scratch box and not totally accurate in dimensions for now.

 

A small word about the kit VHF/FM tower rack. By default it's round but it should be pretty flat. If used it should be flatten with a pair of flat pliers before being installed.

 

Some more detailed views of the modifications:

 

I'm particularily happy with the coffe filter mesh, it's so much better than the original offering. 

 

 

None of the blade antennaes are glued yet. I used  PE formation lights from an eurofighter set as base for the antennaes.

 

[crobinsonh]

Absolutely loving this build!

[CShanne]

This is looking great and is exactly what I would like to do to mine.  I do not I will do it the justice that you are, but this is inspiring to stretch my modeling skills. 

[Martinnfb]

Top notch ! 

[red Dog]

20 hours ago, crobinsonh said:

Absolutely loving this build!

 

19 hours ago, Martinnfb said:

Top notch ! 

Thank you gents

 

19 hours ago, CShanne said:

This is looking great and is exactly what I would like to do to mine.  I do not I will do it the justice that you are, but this is inspiring to stretch my modeling skills. 

Thank you.

I am out of my comfort zone on this one as well. And having been inspired by work of great modelers I'm stretching my modeling skills as well. 
All it takes is getting that box box out of the stash and make the first cut. For all its inaccuracies, it's a great kit to work on because it makes you spend a lot of time doing various modeling activities, looking for documentation on that beast having been upgraded multiple times is a big part of it (which I love personally).
Another great advantage of this kit is that it's really 5 models into 1: the front fuselage, the aft fuselage, the tails, the wings and the engines. It's a long project but you can cut it into smaller chapters.

It is a demanding experience, but it's a great modeling venture, IMHO.