Academy 1/48 A10C

[Jantk14]

Starting this one tonight.

 

[blakeh1]

I have that kit, just looking over the sprues it is a very impressive kit. A far cry from their old gap riddled and inaccurately shaped engines 1/72 version

 

[Jantk14]

I'm only starting but so far the fit on this one is overly tight. I've already had to make some tabs smaller and some slots bigger. The pieces fit so tight I don't need glue.

 

[styrenemachine]

That seems to be common among the later releases. I'm running into the same issue with my Miniart Razorback.

 

[Jantk14]

I need some help. The instructions are calling for a 25 gram ballast in the nose. The kit didn't come with anything. What can I use and what weighs 25 grams?

And to be honest this kit stinks. The fit is poor on most parts with poor attachment sites, and just like somebody else mentioned in the F 18 thread, the design on assembly stinks as well.

 

[Rockin' Rob]

Three Daisy BBs are 1 G. Mix them up with some epoxy or white glue and you can pour it in and leave it there until it dries

 

[Rockin' Rob]

I would imagine a good fishing weight would work also

 

[Wig41]

Very disappointing hearing about the kit and your unhappiness with it. Can't help with the nose weight issue. Perhaps you can look on YouTube for builds of this kit and maybe get some help there.

 

[Rockin' Rob]

A US Quarter weighs 5.7 G

 

[Jantk14]

I have to thick screws that can fit and that should do it. Otherwise I have some lead pellets I'll pour in the nose. For all my belly aching the cockpit turned out pretty good. I used the stock decals because I'm doing a closed canopy and didn't think it was worth it to upgrade.

 

[Rockin' Rob]

I like it. Looks good.

 

[Jantk14]

Thanks

 

[styrenemachine]

Yup! That's some fine detail!

 

[Jantk14]

Yup! That's some fine detail!

Yea the stock cockpit is pretty good. The decals are really nice. They are not raised like the 3d printed ones but they still look real good. I just wish the assembly was smoother

 

[Littlemarten]

Is the fit too loose, too tight, or both?

 

[Jantk14]

Is the fit too loose, too tight, or both?

Mostly too tight, but there's also places the pieces just don't fit. I had to cut off pieces of the bottom of the pilot seat to get the canopy to close. It's not me because I googled it and other people had the same problem. There's also been a few pieces that were a struggle figuring out where they went exactly.

 

[Rockin' Rob]

I found out that with the new tooling on these kits? Tolerances are very small. And if something doesn't fit just exactly right it's going to mess you up down the line. Sometimes if I mess around with it a little bit all of a sudden It just fits in with the greatest of ease. Sometimes I tend to have Gorilla fingers and that doesn't help

 

[GCB]

I have to thick screws that can fit and that should do it. Otherwise I have some lead pellets I'll pour in the nose. For all my belly aching the cockpit turned out pretty good. I used the stock decals because I'm doing a closed canopy and didn't think it was worth it to upgrade.View attachment 181131View attachment 181132View attachment 181133

Nice job!

 

[Jakko]

What can I use and what weighs 25 grams?

Lead (or other metal) shot will do. Put a small cup or something on some scales, zero them and pour in the shot until it says 25 grams (or, for Americans, 0.9 ounces, which is about 25 g).

 

[49thStateRT]

This was maybe my third kit after restarting the hobby and it was ok except the pilot interfering with the canopy closed. Poor guy is squeezed tight. Pretty sure I followed those directions and it is a defect if others had exact same issue. I also did not catch the ballast instruction and ended up with a tail dragger. I know now there are ways to fix this but I just said it was taking off and put in a clear sprue stick to keep tail up a bit. This photo was pre-tail lifter

 

[Jantk14]

Lead (or other metal) shot will do. Put a small cup or something on some scales, zero them and pour in the shot until it says 25 grams (or, for Americans, 0.9 ounces, which is about 25 g).

Thanks. I ended up super glueing two heavy bolts in there and mixed together about 20 lead pellets with white glue and poured it in. Not sure of the exact weight but I'm pretty sure I got 25 grams covered. It's pretty nose heavy. If it's not enough I'll pour more pellets in.

 

[Jantk14]

This was maybe my third kit after restarting the hobby and it was ok except the pilot interfering with the canopy closed. Poor guy is squeezed tight. Pretty sure I followed those directions and it is a defect if others had exact same issue. I also did not catch the ballast instruction and ended up with a tail dragger. I know now there are ways to fix this but I just said it was taking off and put in a clear sprue stick to keep tail up a bit. This photo was pre-tail lifter

I had the cockpit installed and dry fitted the canopy because I had a weird feeling. I ended up pulling the pilot and the seat out without breaking anything and then cut pieces off the bottom of the seat, and the thing on the back of the seat, off until the canopy fit.

 

[Glenn S]

I need some help. The instructions are calling for a 25 gram ballast in the nose. The kit didn't come with anything. What can I use and what weighs 25 grams?

And to be honest this kit stinks. The fit is poor on most parts with poor attachment sites, and just like somebody else mentioned in the F 18 thread, the design on assembly stinks as well.

Regarding weights, I discovered automobile wheel weights many years ago when my son built a trebuchet for a school project.
We visited tire / tyre shops around town and collected the discarded wheel weights (used for balancing the wheels).
We created little forms on the garage floor using paint stir sticks held together with masking tape. We then made use of one of my wife's bread pans (immediately after it was retired from baking duty), and a portable propane torch, to melt the lead weights. We then poured the liquid lead into the forms. The result was thin sheets of lead.
I have since snapped off pieces of the thin sheets to use as weights for my models. The nice thing about the lead sheets is that they can nicely slide in between wheel wells and the fuselage sides. I fasten them in place with 5 minute epoxy.
I can also tap them into other shapes with a small hammer.
Regarding the lead's effectiveness, I use the lead in the tail of a 1/48 scale Mosquito and the tail has never lifted off the ground (just joking).

 

[Jantk14]

Going to leave this set for a few hours. There's not much to hold the wing in place. Hopefully it doesn't sag.

 

[styrenemachine]

Sally forth! That cockpit looks too good to loose your mojo on some wanky fits!

 

[Jantk14]

Wings are on and so is the nose. Pretty big gap that I had to putty on the nose. Wings fit really good though.

 

[styrenemachine]

Can't wait to see how that single-moulded engine nacelles fits.

 

[Jantk14]

Mostly built. Wings, tail, and engine nacelle all fit pretty well. Had some trouble getting the inside of the engine, inside the nacelle. Fit there was too big. Had to shave down the piece. Cool looking plane.

 

[kevin]

Cool looking plane.

Yes, it is. Pics from an airshow in 2009.

Hope you don't mind the photo bomb.
I always loved the ugly look of the A10. I'm very inexperienced in aircraft models, but an A10 build is in my future at some point.
Your build is motivating me to make it happen sooner than later.

 

[Jantk14]

That's awesome. And thank you. There is clear styrene piece that goes on the dashboard inside the front canopy that I didn't know what it was or how to paint it. The instructions just tell you to mask it but don't tell you what color or what part of it to paint. Now I know