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

[LSP_Kevin]

Brilliant!

 

Kev

[themongoose]

7 hours ago, red Dog said:

And finally I couldn't resist to weather the intake lips as often seen:

 

 

I painted the lip first with MRP exhaust metal and some mist of MRP steel. Then sprayed Mig scratch effect and painted MRP FS 36375 (MRP-38)

After a few moment I wiped the intake lips with water and scratched with a jeweller sponge wearing the paint and letting the undercoat appear

 

 

 

BRILLIANT! Buy yourself a Guinness 

[JayW]

8 hours ago, red Dog said:

Mig scratch effect

 

This stuff kind of like hairspray?  

 

Very convincing job on the intake leading edge wear!   MOF the whole model is gradually turning into a real gem!

[red Dog]

17 hours ago, A-10LOADER said:

Nice work on the intakes and the edges, they look awesome !!

Steve

Thanks Steve. This beast gonna be filthy and battered just like the hogs are at the end of their deployment.

 

14 hours ago, ROM said:

Amazing work so far

Merci Romain, You have been an inspiring source for the Mirages

 

11 hours ago, LSP_Kevin said:

Brilliant!

Kev

Thanks Kev

 

10 hours ago, themongoose said:

BRILLIANT! Buy yourself a Guinness 

Cheers !!

 

10 hours ago, JayW said:

This stuff kind of like hairspray?  

Very convincing job on the intake leading edge wear!   MOF the whole model is gradually turning into a real gem!

Yes, kinda

Hairspray technique has a special meaning to me.

When I was a kid doing my first models I remember building a Harrier GR3 in standard RAF camo with a brush. I was so proud of that model. It must have been one of my first 1/32 model. I had no varnish but I wanted to seal my paint so I stole an hairspray rattle can from the bathroom and happily sprayed my model with it.

I ruined it totally. I was a little too generous with the spray and that thing actually never dried, the model remained sticky for ages. You couldn't take it in your hands, and even resting in my room attracted all kind of dust which wouldn't go.

So even today probably 35 years after that experience I am still reluctant to use hairspray!

 

But yeah, the technique is the same.
I have two "different" products:

Scratches effect from Mig and heavy chipping from AK

 

 

To be honest I can't really say they are different. At least I can't see a difference when I use the product.

You paint first the chipping colour - in this case MRC exhaust metal + steel) then you either airbrush or brush a coat of one of the above products. I usually airbrush it

It's quickly dry so you don't have to wait a long time before spraying your model colour which HAS to be acrylics.

They say you should not wait 48hours to start the chipping process. I usually do it as soon as the last layer of paint is dry enough, which with acrylics is pretty quick.

 

Brush water on the area you want to chip and wait. Keep the area wet.

It works with acrylic lacquer such as MRP too but it takes somewhat a bit longer for the water to activate the softening up of the last layer of paint.
No big deal.

You now need to chip by rubbing the paint.

There are different tools to perform that task. You can use a toothpick, an old brush with hard and short hairs, a rubbing sponge (what I called earlier a jeweller sponge); ... your fingers, nails whatever

Dip your tool in water, it will help the process.

The water will activate the chipping process and the chipping fluid will protect the initial layers of colours.

Be patient, sometimes it doesn't start directly, keep gently rubbing with wet tools it will start.

When it does it's usually quick (like instant) and your rubbing should be more controlled depending of course of the effect you want to achieve.

 

Once done do seal your work with a good varnish, especially if you plan to mask the area at later stages (the process makes the layer of paint very delicate to masking even with varnish protection). I don't use MRP varnish for that - it's way too weak.
Even X-22 is sometimes not strong enough. I usually revert to paper masking rather than masking tape just to remain on the safe side.

 

I have successfully used that effect with Gunze, Tamiya and Mr. Paint (lacquers) products - all acrylics

 

This process opens a lot of painting effect beside the genuine chipping:

 

Barely visible above but TPS weathering was concluded by chipping a MRP smoke layer

 

 

Weathering the white nose of an intruder with heavily diluted smoke (Tamiya)

 

You can go heavy or more subtle depending on your real life photos

 

I use it also to scratch cockpit floors

 

or to implement the rubbing of the control surfaces on the fuselage

 

 

 

 

Edited March 10, 2023 by red Dog
spelling

[themongoose]

Great tutorial there!

[Neo]

Ive been hunting for some of those Sierra model engines, you did an amazing job paining them! 

[red Dog]

Closing the engine nacelles is not the funniest part of this build and presents a few challenges:

 

The first one is to position the aftermarket exhausts correctly in their nacelle.

 

Aftermarket exhausts have 3 points of contact with the nacelle. 

1. The top one are shaped according to the recesses holes in the Trumpeter plastic: no problem here it's a good and strong point of contact.

2. The fairing for the fuel drain which is 180° from the top point. There is no locating tabs or holes for that one and it is quite easy to misplace it.
     Left/right is easy to see  and correct, but aft/forward is a bit more difficult => look at the exhaust going out of the nacelle to judge.   
    That part should rest on the bottom of the nacelle without any strain because if too long (or if you contoured the internal of the nacelle fully with styrene to hide that 

    hideous side hole) you will somehow deform the nacelle shape which is going to burst in your face when you'll try to close the nacelle doors. 
    That's IMHO the hardest thing to get right. 

3. The fuel lines fairing which cutting edge provide must be glued on the exhaust on the fuselage side, around 120° from the top contact point 
     That one may or may not be in contact with the internal wall of the nacelle. Well in my case I used the CE part with the SH exhausts, that may very well explain it. I'm not

     bothered with it, it's close enough and totally invisible. I whish I could have a third strong point of contact for the heavy resin exhaust but lengthening it is very

     complicated due to the angles and I decided against it (best is the worst enemy of the good enough )

 

 

 

The second challenge is to close these huge nacelles doors. They are clearly not meant to be closed. 

 

There is nothing you can do as far as adjustments are concerned on the top of the door. Luckily it is easy to glue it perfectly aligned and it fits quite nicely.

The whole door issue comes from the fact that the doors are a bit too large and when the bottom edge of the door rests on the nacelle, the side of the door don't match the side of the nacelle opening creating an ugly step that needs to be sanded.
But there are rivets in there and sanding should be kept to a minimum. So the door have to be made smaller and the only way to do that is to sand the bottom part of the door with their hinges. The idea is to sand until the side of the door rest perfectly on the internal lips of the nacelle side.

(I hope these explanations are clear enough... ?)

 

In the below picture the bottom half is in contact, but not the top half => more sanding on the bottom edge of the door is required.

Hopefully once you attain the right door dimension the side of the door will be perfectly aligned with the side of the nacelle. 

 

The bottom of the nacelles got messy and it's not a pretty sight. Sanding wasn't made easy with all those latches but I know how to fix this easily.

 

It is time consuming and a lot of trial and error but ultimately you avoid a lot of sanding on the side of the door/nacelles.

Remains to fix all these alignment errors on the latches plates. I might sand them smooth and recreate them - don't know yet.

 

Once the nacelle doors are glued correctly in place the mess on the bottom of the doors can be fixed.

cleaning up the mess is done with water based putty. I initially used Vallejo's but I recently found another brand which is more dense: perfect plastic.
Being water based it can be wiped clean with a humid rag. Much easier than sanding or using nail remover to wipe Tamiya putty clean (and destroying the paint or attacking the plastic in the process).

Above the water putty just applied

 

And below cleaned with a humid rag. The putty always shrinks a bit but quite less than Vallejo's.
Most of the time two applications are necessary to fill rivets or panel lines.

 

 

Mating the intakes is no big deal. They have locating pins so make sure they are cleaned to ensure they fit the nacelles locating holes correctly. 

Sanding will be needed to ensure a smooth transition between resin and plastic. Luckily no rivets here so no big deal.

 

All of a sudden the model took a lot of weight with these engines. The carbon stick will be heavily tested

 

 

 

[A-10LOADER]

Man, talk about putting lipstick on a pig. Is there anything on this kit that is even remotely correct ? You've got quite the battle on your hands there my friend.

Steve

[CShanne]

You are doing a fantastic job! but the more I see, the more this kit makes me sad. I really like A-10s, but I am not sure I am ever going to tackle mine,  I read Chuck’s build too….:-(

[red Dog]

On 3/14/2023 at 12:22 AM, A-10LOADER said:

Man, talk about putting lipstick on a pig. Is there anything on this kit that is even remotely correct ? You've got quite the battle on your hands there my friend.

Steve

The vertical tails are not that bad

Thanks Steve

 

On 3/14/2023 at 3:56 AM, CShanne said:

You are doing a fantastic job! but the more I see, the more this kit makes me sad. I really like A-10s, but I am not sure I am ever going to tackle mine,  I read Chuck’s build too….:-(

Thanks

There are dozen of great completed 1/32 A-10  models out there honestly. 

The level you want to achieve is up to you really, you don't have to correct everything, the basic kits still looks like a warthog. 

So go for it, do your best and most important of all, have fun doing so  

The end result does not matter really.

[red Dog]

The vertical tails are not that bad indeed

 

I don't really fancy moveable rudders (or flight controls for that matter). In an in-flight configuration like I build, the flight controls are pretty neutral so I plan on gluing them in that position. 

Yet if the rudders are to move, some minor work needs to be done before gluing the vertical tails together. 

 

The 3 hinges recesses in both the rudder halves could be made a bit bigger with a round file (identified in red above).

But the biggest issue preventing the rudder to move freely is the notch on top not being cut at an angle inside the vertical tail halves. This blocks the rudder part trying to rotate in there. Just file the hole at an angle like in the picture above (follow the arrow) and the rudder should move freely.

 

On the outside of the vertical tails you may need to add Eduard formation lights and do something eventually with the LASTE sensors.
These are included in the Cutting Edge set but I lost that resin sprue somehow so the default plastic will have to do for me. They are a bit too large but I can live with this.

Luckily Eduard provides PE for the top plate which are better than Trumpeter's plastic.

 

The horizontal tail on the other hand needs a lot of work.

At first glance it may look correct but like many part of this model if you look closely you will find a lot of discrepancies that needs to be corrected.

 

The most visible is the gap between the elevators and the fuselage. There is a 2-3 mm gap which should not be. 
I decided to lengthen the elevators with styrene to reduce that ugly gap. That also prevents seeing the inside of the tail when looking at the model from behind. 

Bits of plastic were glued on the sides, then sanded to shape. 

 

The rest are details, a lot of them:

1. The 4 large strengthening plates are bogus, there are not visible on the real horizontal tails. At least not that thick. I will replace them with self-adhesive aluminium tape

2. The top surfaces have no elevator hinges visible. These 2 gaps need to be covered with styrene

3. On both top and bottom parts some panel lines are not symmetrical. Left side has 2 while right side has a single one. Comparing with picture of the real part I can see only 1 panel line so the extra one will be filled (top and bottom)

4. Both trim tab actuators are missing from the bottom of the elevators. These will need to be scratched.

5. A pair of hinges are missing from the elevators. Two trenches will be cut in each elevator close to the trim actuators. 

6. Rivets lines will be filled and replaced with positive rivets. Same on the trim tabs.

 

Here's the result.

I added smaller strengthening plates outboard aligned with the extra hinges with aluminium tape and I also remade the reinforcement triangular shapes on the elevators. These will be riveted later.

 

Studying the real pictures also showed some drains on the bottom of the horizontal tail and elevators. These were marked:

and drilled through

 

Final result with the vertical tails added.

Fitting of the vertical tails isn't perfect and care must be taken to glue them at the right angle. Putty will be needed on top surface of the horizontal tail once glued. 

 

The assembly is added from below the fuselage. There is a minor step on the bottom surface which can be easily avoided by sanding the fuselage curves where the top surfaces of the horizontal tail connect. light sanding and the fit is much better on the bottom saving a lot of positive rivets by removing the need to sand the ugly step. 

 

Edited March 15, 2023 by red Dog
spelling

[jmel]

FANTASTIC work.  I'm really enjoying watching this come together.

 

Jake

[red Dog]

Same feeling I get when I go through your books Jake 

Speaking of which ... all these damn corrections are because of your books .... thank you

 

 

[red Dog]

I'm using rivets faster than they can be produced 

 

 

The bottom of the tail is less "simple"

 

I was hoping to avoid sanding but all resistance is futile.

As you can see above these 2 fuselage rivet lines dont match in alignment between the tail and the fuselage parts. 

It's totally irrelevant anyway because these rivet lines do not exist  As you can see from the picture below (Andrey Pavlov) the long bottom fuselage rivet lines stops right behind the black antenna. The formation lights are in an area 'relatively' free of rivets.

 

 

Off they go and I feel better, I can now work on getting a smooth fit.

It seems Eduard decided to make as bad a set as the Trumpeter kit. The formation lights strips for the top and bottom tails are way too long.

I cut a section in their middle to shorten them. It is much better as they now fit between the top newly engraved line and the bottom rivet line (and they seem still a bit too long). I added the Cutting edge antenna and sensors and a PE latch for the tail cone.

 

 

The fuselage bottom sides need some rivet work as well.

Far left you can see I started rebuilding rivet lines lost in the sanding battle. and curiously Trumpeter positive rivets are not implemented on the curve between fuselage side and bottom.

 

 

The bottom outboard rivet line is smaller than the inboard line and will be sanded off. The panel line in between was not engraved which has been corrected. 

I added another long rivet line parallel to the double fuselage one and the vertical junctions between side and bottom fuselage. 
It's not entirely accurate since that original double rivet line on the fuselage side is not placed correctly and I decided not to correct this one. 

But at least it fills that unnatural gap between rivets. It looks much better IMHO.

 

I started riveting specific bottom panels as well, that will be the task of the day: more rivets

 

Thanks for looking

Edited March 19, 2023 by red Dog

[thierry laurent]

31 minutes ago, red Dog said:

I'm using rivets faster than they can be produced 

 

 

The bottom of the tail is less "simple"

 

I was hoping to avoid sanding but all resistance is futile.

As you can see above these 2 fuselage rivet lines dont match in alignment between the tail and the fuselage parts. 

It's totally irrelevant anyway because these rivet lines do not exist  As you can see from the picture below (Andrey Pavlov) the long bottom fuselage rivet lines stops right behind the black antenna. The formation lights are in an area 'relatively' free of rivets.

 

 

Off they go and I feel better, I can now work on getting a smooth fit.

It seems Eduard decided to make as bad a set as the Trumpeter kit. The formation lights strips for the top and bottom tails are way too long.

I cut a section in their middle to shorten them. It is much better as they now fit between the top newly engraved line and the bottom rivet line (and they seem still a bit too long). I added the Cutting edge antenna and sensors and a PE latch for the tail cone.

 

 

The fuselage bottom sides need some rivet work as well.

Far left you can see I started rebuilding rivet lines lost in the sanding battle. and curiously Trumpeter positive rivets are not implemented on the curve between fuselage side and bottom.

 

 

The bottom outboard rivet line is smaller than the inboard line and will be sanded off. The panel line in between was not engraved which has been corrected. 

I added another long rivet line parallel to the double fuselage one and the vertical junctions between side and bottom fuselage. 
It's not entirely accurate since that original double rivet line on the fuselage side is not placed correctly and I decided not to correct this one. 

But at least it fills that unnatural gap between rivets. It looks much better IMHO.

 

I started riveting specific bottom panels as well, that will be the task of the day: more rivets

 

Thanks for looking

Great result!!!