N/AW A-10 1/48 Hobbyboss

[billb]

The one-off demonstrator for a 2-seater A-10 is a what if build as soon as there's any ordnance on it, and as an A-10 it MUST have ordnance. I can therefore have some fun and get a bit of leeway on what I do and don;t fix

About 3 months in I'm just about ready to join the fuselage halves together:
Front cockpit - I've used an Eduard zoom set. Still some bits of PE to add, also some scratched O2 hoses, control column and, obviously, the seat. I'll add all of these after everything is locked up in the fuselage.

rear cockpit - again, Eduard zoom but there isn;t any detail for the rear instrument panel. I've used the kit one with decals from various sources.

Also, I've added quilting to the walls with milliput (also on the front seat walls) and a heap of weight with milliput and arrow field points.

Also a bit of canvas effect around the rear panel coaming

There's a small intake under the nose that you can see up through. Through this you should just see the barrels of the massive gun that the A-10 is built around. I'm actually leaving the kit gun out (might build it to display seperately one day) so needed barrels for that area. You can hardly see them so they don;t need to be highly accurate but there has to be something. Specifically a toothpick with plastic rod glued around it and painted up, held in with milliput (now painted) and superglue.

& nosewell painted before gluing in

Aerial moved from right under the nose & re-shaped but I haven;t decided if i'll fix the two front panels yet.

New aerial position at the back and i'll add another aerial roughly in the bottom middle of the picture.

 

[billb]

Rear fuselage modifications for exhausts and vents
Drilled out the ports as needed. One vent has a pipe that sticks out a bit so i've used a thinned q-tip handle and will add the cover over it later. The others I just glued some plastic to the back and drilled it out to give good depth. I've also put grill over one vent on the base of the fuselage and will put grill over the one on the join line once the fuselage is joined (through the big hole where the engine pod goes).

The engine pods have som efit issues and there's no rear fan face. I made a couple out of plastic sheet and the end of some dry wall screw anchors. They're fairly well hidden but are a definite improvement on blank holes.

It's also essential to sand down the top of the intake between the engines on top as stright from the box the roof of this intake is about a scale foot thick.

The underside of the intake and also where the engines branch off needs to be blanked off/ filled to stop light getting through

There was a lot of filling, rescribing, redrilling rivets to get the engine doors to fit neatly. Also need to add the bottom half of one of the latch panels.

More to come as time goes by.

OK, this is weird, i've edited most of these photos to crop them, turned a couple of them the right way round etc. In Photobucket it shows properly but here photo's are showing as uncropped, upside down etc. Sorry about that.

 

[letsgobrowns82]

Wow your making great progress on this. The A-10 is my favorite modern plane. I have to pic this kit up some day.

 

[billb]

Quite a bit of progress over the last few weeks with all major components together and clean. A large amount of work was reriveting and rescribing so it won;t really show up until there's some paint and a wash on. Photos are just my phone (& i'm a crap photographer) so not that special.
It's really an impressive beast of an aircraft!

Little bit of creative gizmology structure in the wheel wells and the fuel pipe added

Eduard lapbelts work out ok after dirtying up. Seats aren;t glued yet, i'll add O2 hose etc later.

The seam filler is superglue so you can see the centreline but the seam itself is completely gone (I hope)

Loadout and scheme are going to be what-if (as soon as there's weapons on the 2-seater it's made up).

Is this planned loadout legal? I'm guessing it's not practical or realistic but is it legal?
Sta. 1 - ALQ-119
2 - 1xMk82
3 - 3xAGM-65
4 - 1xGBU-8
5 - 1 or 3 Mk-20s
6 - fuel
7 - 1 or 3 Mk-20s
8 - GBU-10
9 - 3xAGM-65
10 - Mk-82
11 - 2xAIM-9L

 

[Boxster]

That is one sick looking puppy! Nice work! Love the cockpit!

B

 

[rookie]

Wow, looking great, any ideas on the paint scheme? Going for the box art or something different ?

 

[Subhuman1]

Yeah that cockpit is looking mighty fine! Can't wait to see what you decide for your load out.

 

[Glorfindel]

I built this kit last year. Your cockpit looks sweet with the Eduard AM in it. Also love what you did with the landing gear bays. Those puppy's are just screaming for more attention as the kit is lacking in those spots. Also like that you've added a bunch of weight to the nose because mine teeters like a see-saw and literally can stand balanced on the two tires with the nose elevated about 3mm off the shelf. Couldn't do that again if I tried. If I can make a slight suggestion here.....don't use the color call out for your base coat. What they call for is way too dark. ARC has some great walk around pics of this very bird and no way is it as dark in body as HobbyBoss says it is. There is however plenty of great chipping opportunities here when you see those pics. I had seen them way too late and am sorry I did. Keep up the great work, she looks awesome.

 

[billb]

Thanks all

Glorfindel - I actually had to add more weight after that! There's lead sheet under both instrument coamings and under the pilot's seat! Ridiculously tail heavy once those engine pods go on.
The ARC walkaround is actually quite late in the airframe's life, after it had been sitting in the elements for some time. This photo link is from earlier in its life and it's quite dark. (the box art was obviously taken from the old exposed airframe, right down to the bird droppings on the rudder!)
http://www.air-and-space.com/19810920%20Edwards/1%2023%20YA-10B%20NAW%2073-1664%20right%20side%20l.jpg

My scheme is going be based on a very dark grey, as it is a night/lousy weather specialist, but heavily weathered The markings themselves however will be completely innaccurate but I think will look alright.

Weapons load has changed completely to include a targetting system for the GBUs. Supposedly (so I read somewhere) the 2-seater was going to have the full LANTIRN setup like the F-15E (-114 targetting pod and -113 nav pod) so i'm going to put them on. Also, the GBU-8 is unfortunately way out of date.
Will now be:
1 - ALQ-119
2 - Lantirn AN/AAQ-114
3 - 2xAGM-65
4 - GBU-10
5 - 3xMK-20
6 - GBU-12
7 - 3xMK-20
8 - GBU-10
9 - 2xAGM-65
10 - Lantirn AN/AAQ-113
11 - 2xAIM-9L

A load for a high risk environment, fairly close to base, with lots of high value targets. The sort of thing the 2-seater was perfectly suited for.

 

[Glorfindel]

Hey billb thanks for the pic. It really looks like the bird sitting on my shelf. I'm much more happy now.

 

[smokeriderdon]

Very nice! *stealing ideas for my build* ;D

 

[geegad]

superb detailing buddy i do love the look of these aircraft

 

[letsgobrowns82]

Progress is looking great!!

 

[billb]

Thanks all

Just a primer/undercoat, Citadel black primer from a can. Sprays nicely, good tough finish and lets you buff out any minor blemishes.

Looks alright in all black!

 

[Myke]

Oooooooo - I like it in black too! Nice work

 

[Glorfindel]

Looks freaky great!

 

[Dave The Chef]

Very nice work, please continue 8)

 

[billb]

I've had very very little time for the bench over the last few weeks but I have got a couple of sessions in.
I reverse pre-shaded with Tamiya IJN grey over citadel spray can undercoat. Mainly because it's a couple of years since i've done anything complex with my airbrush so wanted the practice.

I also started on the first layer of overcoat. I'd forgotten how much paint a big single colour scheme takes! Another couple of coats and we might be getting somewhere

 

[geegad]

looks superb real nice effect

 

[Glorfindel]

Great job pre shading. She's definitely coming along.