The fifth week of the A-10C I worked on cleaning up, painting, and applying decals on the weapons. For the AIM-9 missiles I trimmed the nose off and made the IR sensor using acrylic gel. I painted then nose after trimming using chrome silver and I also painted the nose area on the maverick missiles as well. The acrylic gel was then applied to the nose of the AIM-9's. I also installed the clear nose to the maverick missiles as well. All of these were then painted with Tamiya smoke to tint them like the nose lens of the missiles.

On the Litening pod I painted the inside of the turret chrome silver then painted the lenses using Tamiya clear yellow and clear blue. On the actual Litening pod there are a couple of screens on the tail. I located some photo etch screens and replicated these.

I then used the photo etch set to install the HUD in the cockpit. The windscreen was detailed, painted and installed. For the canopy what I thought was a seam was actually the molded canopy antenna. I then added the photo etch details and mirrors to the canopy. I will be installing the canopy in the open position so I am going to wait until the aircraft is mounted to the display base before the installation. Finally I installed all the missiles, bombs, rockets, and pods to the underside of the aircraft.

Next I started working on the display base. I positioned the aircraft and then drilled the holes for the wires and the front wheel which will be pinned down. I then made a battery holder which will hold the 9V battery to power the lights. I then needed to figure out where to mount the switch. The display base has a thick ring around the edge. Due to the thickness and height it would be difficult to drill out for the switch. The display base will have an etched nickel nameplate mounted onto it so I decided to create an angled plate to hold the nameplate. The mount will also house the switch on the backside. I used some sheet styrene to make the mount. The nameplate was ordered and should arrive early next week.

Finishing up the display base I painted the edge with gunship gray and the surface was a base coat of gull gray and a mixture of camouflage gray, medium gray, dark earth, and sand yellow to replicate a tarmac in Afghanistan. So for the sixth and final week I will be installing the aircraft to the base and finishing up some minor details of paint and weathering. Then I will complete the wiring and finish this commission build.

You can see all the photos and details from the start in the build log at: https://davidsscalemodels.com/build-log/1-48-a-10c-75th-flying-tigers/