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

[crobinsonh]

Love this build - following closely!

[themongoose]

Stellar! What a catastrophic amount of work this is taking to make it right.
 

I’m definitely convinced i’ll a) either never build mine or b) use it for a what if build and just do it out of the box, or c) wait for someone to 3d print a correct version!

[red Dog]

Looks like my plot to make you all sell your A-10 starts to work

 

Remember to seal them before you abuse them !!

I got carried away and forgot to seal the rivets with X22 before adding the dark wash. 

Of course I realized my mistake when I started wiping away the wash... some rivets went with the excess wash

 

That's called learning the hard way

 

That's not pretty because I stopped wiping the wash too hard.
All in all a good Sunday at the bench

 

 

 

[red Dog]

Anyone know the story about walkways on A-10

 

I see pictures of the same era A-10 models with or without anti-slip area for walk zones. 
I also see differences from squadron to squadron about the shape of those areas? 

 

Spangdahlem bird: This one clearly has them, although it's hard to say where they are on the tail.

 

That's a Davis-Monthan bird with zero anti-slip

 

Another SP bird - I can't really see the anti slip area but I can see perfectly the areas walked on

 

Pretty obvious on an Osan bird.

 

 

Are those wearing out, have they been supressed? any specific rules about them? 

Any information you guys might have, I'm interested

 

 

[Neo]

I like the third pic with no anti slip but with foot traffic marks

[A-10LOADER]

As a Weapons Loader we had to get up on the tails via a ladder, to get access to the ECU air duct on the spine ( which does not get walked on ). We had to remove the water intrusion covers so we could run the APU for our various checks. Our jets had no slip on the tails, it was subtle but there. I've no idea about the spots on the wings, we never had to get up on them.

I'm sure each unit did it differently, find examples of the squadron that your doing and go with that.

Steve

Edited March 24, 2023 by A-10LOADER

[chuck540z3]

Interesting observation, so I checked my two Reid Air Publications on the A-10 to look for clues.  I did not find anything definitive, unfortunately, but I did note that any time it looked like the anti-skid surface wasn't there, just like your second pic, the paint was fairly new.  If I was to guess, and I am, the anti-skid surface is there most of the time, but with new paint you can't see it very well since it's so subtle.  Some hogs have it quite dark like your first pic, which is likely an age of photograph and specific squadron thing.

 

Conclusion?  I don't know, but I'm 70% certain that it's there almost all of the time, even if you can't see it as a specific margin.  I also think it looks cool to break up the paint scheme, so I added it to my build, so maybe you might want to as well?  If your Hog is going to be flipped upside down, however, it may not be worth the effort, since you'll never see it.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[Finn]

Here are a couple of examples:

 

 

This one doesn't look like it has them:

 

 

but a close up of the same a/c note the wing root area is a different shade than the rest of the wing which seems to indicate the anti-skid is there:

 

 

Also note the different fuel receptacle markings on the wings between the two aircraft.

 

Jari 

[red Dog]

Thank you all for you feedback

 

Quote

Our jets had no slip on the tails,

Yeah D-M birds seems not to have them. Too bad because I feel like Chuck and I agree they break the paint pretty well. 
And I'm probably going for a D-M jet deployed in the middle east...

 

Quote

If your Hog is going to be flipped upside down, however, it may not be worth the effort, since you'll never see it.

Coming from the guy who detail the most invisible details in the gear wells ... you're not credible

And I actually am engineering a special support for this one allowing me to rotate it on the stick and elevate it as well do be able to change the pose for almost  any attitude during the popup maneuver  

 

Quote

Here are a couple of examples:

Thanks Jari,

great stuff as always

Edited March 25, 2023 by red Dog

[Furie]

Hi red Dog.
Nice project this A-10, and a lot of work ahead. What a patience you have for all those rivets !
Small question : are you red Dog from the "Check-Six" website/forum ?

[red Dog]

hello Furie,

 

Yes in another life, I was that guy

[A-10LOADER]

As a Weapons Loader we had to get up on the tails via a ladder, to get access to the ECU air duct on the spine ( which does not get walked on ). We had to remove the water intrusion covers so we could run the APU for our various checks. Our jets had no slip on the tails, it was subtle but there. I've no idea about the spots on the wings, we never had to get up on them.

I'm sure each unit did it differently, find examples of the squadron that your doing and go with that.

Steve

[phasephantomphixer]

11 hours ago, A-10LOADER said:

As a Weapons Loader we had to get up on the tails via a ladder, to get access to the ECU air duct on the spine ( which does not get walked on ). We had to remove the water intrusion covers so we could run the APU for our various checks. Our jets had no slip on the tails, it was subtle but there. I've no idea about the spots on the wings, we never had to get up on them.

I'm sure each unit did it differently, find examples of the squadron that your doing and go with that.

Steve

Agree IIRC it was applied on some, likely depending on Base location.

[red Dog]

I decided to get rid of the awful engine nacelle latches and do my own.

 

 

 

Here's the plan:

- 5 of each on the bottom of the doors. The first 3 (left) are okay, the long one is actually missing the latch and the last one (further right should be latch only and no strengthening)

- 3 of each on the side of the doors.
The only one acceptable from trumpeter is the one for the small inside door - which the engraving is missing on the nacelle but it is misplaced.
The middle one (lower on the main side door is misplaced as well

The last one (visible from the side is well placed but suffered quite a bit in the nacelle sanding process.

- The forward latches are completely missing. 3 are needed on each nacelle

- The panel lines and rivet lines on the main doors needs to be sanded/ filled. They shouldn't be there.

- lose a lot of rivets and therefore adding many raised rivets

 

So I designed replacement latches to be engraved and cut with the silhouette cameo4 using 0.3mm styrene sheet.

These are cut already but I will sand a bit more the rear face and the panels will pop out thinner than 0.3mm.

Two passes - one engraving pass and one cut pass for the outline of the panel. Intensive work for the cutter but pretty happy with the end result.

The part were I did not engrave rivets is because I will add raised rivets hoping to get the effect like in the picture below:

 

Dry fit: The forward one is just a latch.  The internal doors have been engraved. I can now glue them

 

One done, one to go...

 

 

Before & After

 

Started some rivet repair work. More rivets will be added around the fuel vent.

It's not perfect as I should have given more clearance to the engraved rivets so they would match the raised rivets positioning but it's already much better than the original offering and will stand out much better after painting. 

 

Another Sunday well spent at the bench

Thanks for looking

[Stokey Pete]

Seriously cool work there sir. 
Those engine access doors are a horrific fit as I recall from my one attempt to tame this beast, long before 3D printing and silhouette cutters. 
Mine ended up a pile of scrap plastic.