1/32 ID vacuform A-7E Corsair II w.i.p.

[ghodges]

Thought I'd post a "ride-along" for anyone interested in seeing a rather extensive vac project. While I have plenty of reference books on the A-7, my best reference I'm using is my built 1/48 Hasagawa A-7E! If I can make this thing to look anything like that, I'll be happy! I decided to build this to give to my pastor who was a maintenance officer with VA-105, the Gunslingers. Why build this and not a "nicer" kit? Because it was in the stash!

I bought this kit 2nd hand and as you can see the wings have been started, the vac nose and intake assembled, and the canopy section of the fuselage has already been removed (incorrectly, which will require work to correct). Knowing what a project it would be, I also bought aftermarket accessories designed to correct/better the Trumpter kit which will greatly aid my project. And lastly, I also have some 1/32 spare parts I've gathered to help flesh things out easier. The resin cockpit set is from Black Box, the metal landing gear from SAC, and I believe the intake and canopy sets are from Zactomodels. Note that ID made this a "generic" A-7.... with details in the drawings to allow for building an A-7A/B, A-7D, A-7E, or even a 2-seat TA-7A. That means I'd also have to make some items not included to build it as a US Navy A-7E.

I actually began by boxing in and detailing the gear bays. The detailing is generally spurious, though I did try to replicate "shapes" in the bays to replicate those evident in the Hasgawa 1/48 kit. It's all spare resin and plastic parts and lead soldering wire that should look busy enough after painting.

The landing gear, a mixture of the SAC metal stuff and spare plastic legs were assembled and test fit to the bays before adding all of their interior details. The resin tires are from Eduard Brassin. You can also see the resin side walls for the cockpit already glued in place, which was part of check fitting it to the model.

Once the gear bays were done, I decided to get their gear doors built. One reason for this was the torque tube style of gear door actuators for the main gear doors that needed to be fit. Although you wouldn't think so, the actual vacuform plastic cut out from the fuselage was too thick, so the doors were made from 2 different thicknesses of sheet plastic. Of note is that the main gear upper doors still need to have their smaller rear door sections cut apart from their front sections.

There was no arrestor hook bay, so it had to be built. Also, the kit came with a bogus bump in front of that area that has to be removed. I replaced it (after first building one wrongly) with the correct bump fairing seen here made from epoxy dough.

 

ID didn't provide the A-7E bulges on the bottom that go behind nose gear bay and between the rear of the main gear bays, or any tail hook. I built the bulges by making sheet plastic forms and then filling them with the epoxy dough which was then sanded to shape. The tail hook was made from strip plastic and spare parts. You can also see the first arrestor hook bump fairing that I built sloping the wrong way.... at least I caught that early on!

Another feature that needed to be built was the 20mm cannon fairing. I found a spare drop tank the right size, spliced it into the fuselage, and used it for the interior and exterior of the fairing. You can also see the cannon barrel facing built to go inside of it.

Yet another A-7E feature to be built was the Navy style refueling probe and housing. The A-7E probe was made from a spare A-4 Skyhawk probe with the tip bent to shape and tape reinforcement bands added. A trough was carved in the fuselage side to house it and the probe tip protective fairing made using epoxy putty. The fairing still need its final sanding to smooth it out.

This pic shows test fitting the gear, wings, and resin cockpit to check the overall sit of the model. Those wings have since had their outer tips cut off so I can build the model with folded wings.

More pics as I get more details and areas done! Questions, critiques, and comments welcome as always!

 

Gil 

Edited May 2, 2025 by ghodges

[ghodges]

A little more progress today.....

This shows the interior rib detailing and the exhaust pipe bulkhead area. The interior area is painted black and I also have a sponge with one facing painted black that will be added in the tail area to block it off so nothing can be seen through the rear bulkhead lightening holes after the fuselage is together. The tail pipe (the top of a lip balm stick from my wife's purse!) has had its interior painted black. It's exterior will be painted a burnt metallic black and it's designed to be added at the end of the build.

Since the wings were already started in the kit but I wanted to fold them, it presented a problem even after cutting off the wingtips: how to build up the wing fold detailing? It would be virtually impossible to do it accurately, so I had to devise something that will look busy and somewhat authentic. 

I decided the first order of business would be to make intermeshing "teeth" that could be used for the wing fold joints. I used a ruler to mark off every 1/16 on this strip of thick plastic in order to mark where the notches needed to be made.

The next part was tedious... but it worked. I used the cutting disc on the lowest speed to initially make the notches and then the thin square file to finish off each individual notch. This took several times back and forth between the tools to get both parts to mesh, but as you can see I now have 2 lengths of teeth I can cut to size to fit together for each wing fold.

More pics when I get those installed into the wings themselves!

 

Gil 

Edited May 4, 2025 by ghodges

[ghodges]

And the bogus wing folds are done!

Again..... not accurate at all, but corrected as much as the pre-built wing would allow and it should look somewhat busy/authentic after it's painted.

Glad to have this major chore out of the way!

 

Gil 

[Ron Bell]

Looks like a wing fold hinge to me. Nice work. 

[ghodges]

Lost a few days of work on the model early this week, but still made some important progress the last couple of days as the fuselage is together!

The resin interior is installed as well as the resin nose and intake. The wings, resin windshield frame, tail planes, and landing gear are just temporarily positioned for the pics and to take to my model club meeting tomorrow. Note the gray looking area at the back of the cockpit (a clear part sanded and blended in making it cloudy).... that's actually the rear section from the vacuform canopy that had to be cut off and then attached to the fuselage to correct the contour so an open canopy can be fit later.

This bottom view shows the typical bad fit along the bottom seam, where I first used superglue on to put the fuselage together, and after sanding the seam added old school 3M Acryl-Green body putty to smooth it all out.

I also got the resin main IP painted, added some 1/32 instrument decals to it and then did the glass for each one using a drop of clear UV cured resin.

Next up will be some priming and scribing while everything can still be worked on separately.

 

Gil 

[ghodges]

Progress and problems.....

The main wings have been glued into the fuselage! That's certainly a major step..... but not without first finding out that due to their balsa/body putty upper surface construction by the previous owner, they can't be scribed without tears and patches of putty flaking out. You can see a little of the attempt I made on the top of each wing..... but it didn't work. So what to do? I'll simply DRAW all of the panel lines on the model...... which if nothing else simplifies adding panel lines onto the fuselage when the time comes! Also note that the IP coaming and windshield frame have been glued in place. After adding the HUD glass the vac windscreen can then be glued and faired in to finish the forward fuselage body work.

Yet another problem (and not uncommon in old ID and Combat vacs) is contours that don't match up from one side to the other. Here you can see that the tail antenna housings are at very different levels on either side of the tail! The same thing happened with the fairings on the fuselage at the rear of the tail planes...... which were sliced off and filled (as can be seen as now missing in the first pic). So..... I've since sliced off the housing on the right (the left side of the tail fin) and filled it with epoxy putty. Once it's dry it'll all be sanded smooth and a new antenna housing will be added back onto the tail with care to be sure it lines up with the other one.

More pics to follow when all of that's done!

 

Gil 

Edited May 15, 2025 by ghodges

[ghodges]

Progress and solutions....

Added the new tail fairing, which was made from the same epoxy putty used to fill the hole it went over.

Not a perfect match, but at least they're aligned on each side now!

I also got the vac windscreen glued to the frame and did some filling with more epoxy putty which now needs to dry overnight.

Slowly but surely I'm getting there!

Gil 

 

 

[ghodges]

Plenty of progress on the things under the wings today!

I started by assembling the Snakeyes, the TERs, the drop tanks, and the Rockeyes; all of which were drilled and pinned to fit their scratchbuilt pylons. The pylons... in turn... were drilled and pinned to position them on the wings. The Sidewinder rails had to be scratchbuilt as I had none in the spares box to go with the missiles. Note that 2 of the bombs are from the spares box and I had to scratchbuild a nose fuse for one of the new bombs. The rest of the bombs will be painted to match them.

These pics show the relative positioning of the pylons and their stores to each other and the fuselage, as well as serving as a check that they all look symmetrical and can be aligned properly.

Just sort of a "glamor shot" showing off the work accomplished this afternoon. I still need to add all of the sway braces to the TERS and pylons and the fins to the drop tanks, so there's still more to be done to them! All of the stuff assembled today also still needs to be sanded.... but that's for another day!

 

Gil 

[WardEss]

Questions for you -- I'm wondering which of the epoxy putties are your favorites? I try to keep several of them in stock, and use whichever one seems right for the task at hand ... or whichever one isn't way past the "use by" date, when I try to use it. Ditto for auto body fillers or putties: I'm curious which ones you like, and use often ... that sort of thing. (Thanks!)

[ghodges]

I have 2 epoxy putties I use now.... Apoxy Sculp and Smooth-On Air Foam epoxy foam. The Apoxy Sculp is much like any 2-part 50/50 mix epoxy with a weightiness and consistency like clay. The Air Foam epoxy is MUCH lighter, airier, and softer; but it too is an easy 50/50 mix. Both dry hard in 24hrs and both can be sanded and scribed well. The real advantage to both is that they can be shaped with a wet finger (alcohol or water) to remove a lot of the excess and help finalize the part shape which cuts down on a lot of sanding later. The Air Foam epoxy seems to dry a bit harder and also seems to have better adhesive properties than the Apoxy Sculp; as well as being probably 10x lighter (probably developed for RC planes). Both should last indefinitely as long as their containers are only opened long enough to get out what's needed and kept properly sealed the rest of the time.

I actually seldom use bondo putties anymore, though I have what's left from their 2lb tubes of both the 3M Acryl green (seen above) and some Acryl red on my bench. Most often I use gel superglue to fill gaps. I also often use the Duro Perfect Plastic Putty for fast spot jobs since it too can be smoothed with a wet finger to remove most of the excess. BUT... you can't wet sand it (even after it sets) as it will soften again. If and when I can find a SLOW setting (cheap) regular viscosity superglue I like to mix talcum powder with it to make a filler.... but it doesn't work with most regular superglues because it sets too fast to get it in place.

Hope this helps!

 

Gil 

[WardEss]

Thanks much for that reply, Gil -- and for supplying that much detail. Much appreciated, Mr. Hodges!

I'll have to check out that Smooth-On product. Sounds interesting! (And I already use their resin and RTV rubber, and I like those, for what little mold-making or casting I end up doing. Which for me is mostly small sub-assemblies for projects I'm scratch-building.)

I don't want to pull your thread off into Tangent Land, too much, but I'm going to (gently) assume -- based on what you had said, a day or two ago, over on my "intro" page -- that you would be okay with it, if I chimed in / talked about some of my personal favorites (or  about products I have used) where things like epoxy putties go? Let me know if I'm over-stepping, by chiming in with such things.

Probably my all-time favorite of the two-part epoxy putties is Magic Sculpt; but I also use Apoxie Sculpt at times, too. And Milliput -- especially their "Black" and "Super Fine White" products. I like how those two mix together, to make a nice grey colored putty.

I have used "Green Stuff," at times -- which some folks may call "Duro"; or by various other names. Lately, for some tasks, I've been mixing a little bit of Green Stuff into Magic Sculpt (mixing them like normal, first; MS with MS, like it was all I was going to use; and GS with GS; also separately, like it was all I was going to use -- and then, mixing MS with GS: varying the proportions of mixed MS and mixed GS "on the fly," by color or by how it's feeling, as I'm kneading / mixing it) and I like some of the properties that hybrid mixture gives me. (But mostly that's for things like "deliberate practice" when I'm trying to teach myself how to sculpt things.)

Which product I end up using, largely depends on what "substrate" I'm trying to alter (plastic, wood, metal, MDF, etc.) and what size I'm working at; what the end goal is on the project, and some other factors, as to which one I end up using, on any given project. And shelf life -- I've found that I can keep big tubs of Magic Sculpt or Apoxie Sculpt around, for years, and it'll still be use-able.

To me, Magic Sculpt smooths easier with a wet finger, or a rag or something, than most of the others; including Apoxie Sculpt. And  I like that the color ends up being (or so it seems to me) a bit more uniform, after it's mixed. But I use both -- it "just depends" on if I'm running out of one or the other, and what mood I'm in, and so on.

Another thing I like about it Magic Sculpt is that, because it is so much easier than most products, to smooth it with just slightly damp fingers, or barely wet rags or towels, is that I could get away with stuff like filling big gaps I had forgotten about, that I should have dealt with, before a kit's paint job went on. For instance, I had almost completely forgotten about the transparent resin wind screen part, when I was working on my version of the resin "Hornethopter" kit -- and had the paint job, and all sorts of nifty little details, all sitting the way I wanted them ... and then, remembered to look in the box, to see if I had left any parts off. I was kicking myself, on that, big-time, for a while -- but "Magic Sculpt to the rescue". I got the windscreen added in, and blended, in minutes. I was thinking I had majorly screwed up; and with epoxy putties that "like" to use a solvent for smoothing, maybe it would have been a minor disaster. (Especially with a deadline looming, on that build-up!)

Apologies to all, if I'm "butting in" and/or end up "talking too much". I realize I tend to be rather wordy, by most people's standards!

Gil, I think I'm going to send you a private message. There's some other (way off-topic) things / ideas I want to kick around with you -- some of which are things like Deal's Wheels kits, which doesn't feel even remotely appropriate for this particular message thread!)

  -- Ward Shrake --

 

[ghodges]

Lots of little things that are starting to add up to some real progress......

The  black "interior color" has been sprayed on the windshield. You can also see the 2-3 primer coats of gray and white (Tamiya rattle can) that have been added thus far and then sanded back. 

All of the items needed to be added to the bottom are on: both of the radar dome antennas, the combat camera fairing, and a couple of chaff dispenser plates at the rear. I also carved the NACA V-shaped intake onto the right front fuselage, which can be seen at the bottom left of the nose in this pic. The last item to be carved in place (and almost overlooked!) was the opening ahead of the nose gear well for the nose gear catapult bar.

Here you can see the scratchbuilt catapult bar added to the SAC metal nose gear; an oval exhaust that goes under the fuselage nose by the nose gear door; the top position light and fuel dump for the fuselage bottom, both of which have been drilled and pinned for later addition; and the red light that goes on the bottom on the forward radar dome.

Many of these things aren't too exciting or particularly difficult to do, but it's starting to look like an A-7E!

 

Gil 

[ghodges]

The basic paint job is done!

There was one very late addition to the fuselage I almost forgot.... the 3 vertical vent slots on the nose side just below the front of the windshield. which can just be decerned in the top pic.

Still quite a ways to go.... but this IS a milestone in the build!  🙂

 

Gil 

 

[ghodges]

Working on getting the VA-105 markings/decals ready for the 1/32 ID vac A-7E. Most of them will come from a Victory productions 1/32 Corsair II sheet for other squadrons that has some usable numbers, modex, and generic markings. I'm also cheating in grabbing what can else I need from any other decal sheet in the stash. BUT.... the tail flash and the horsehead had to be made by me. 

These were hand drawn in pencil first and then inked in with a very fine tipped Sharpie pen. I then sprayed some Tamiya #13 clear gloss on them to seal them.

The tail flashes were made by first drawing the flash to size on the kit plans. Tracing paper was then used to make a template of the flash. That template was then laid onto the clear decal sheet and outlined in tape with a 5/8" disc cut and placed in each one. I mixed up my own "beret green" using Testors gloss green with about 5-10 drops of gloss dark blue to paint each flash. They still need to be outlined in black with the Sharpie pen and then sealed with a clear coat before they should be usable.

This is generally the layout that will be used for the markings with some minor variations. 

More pics after the markings have been applied!

 

Gil 

Edited May 27, 2025 by ghodges

[ghodges]

Markings are on!

All of the decals that will be applied are on! Also, as can be seen most of the ordnance is also done for the most part.

The squadron flashes on the tail did require some touchups in place after they'd dried for a day, but I'm quite happy with them; and especially the horse heads. The "AC" letters on the rudder are thicker than pics of the real letters; but I had them on a spare sheet in the correct colors and decided to use them as they do "represent".

This is the finished scratchbuilt vacuformed intake cover. I used white dry transfer lettering applied to clear decal sheet to do the "Gunslingers" and drew the smaller horsehead by hand and inked it in on a decal sheet just as I did the ones on the vertical tails.

Next up is all of the panel lines that need to be drawn on in pencil. After that I'll add some post shading with lighter gray to add some weathering. More pics then!

 

Gil 

[ghodges]

The panel lines and panel shading are done! I kept the panel shading on the subtle side and it really doesn't show well in these pics.

The panel lines were drawn on using a #6H pencil and using a thin, flexible plastic ruler as a straight edge. I also used several templates to add a few rectangular access panels here and there. The most complicated part was I had to make a tracing of the bottom speed brake from the kit plans and then transfer that to tape that I could stick on the bottom and then use that to trace its outline in place. That can bee seen around and behind the front radome dome and extending back between the wheel wells. I also had to use the drawings to make a plastic template of the top wing spoilers sitting just ahead of the wing flaps, but that was just a simple piece of sheet plastic that could be traced around.

All of the panel lines are (of course) greatly simplified as compared to the real plane or even those on the 1/48 Hasagawa kit (which I've been using as a reference!)... but I'm still happy with the amount of detail and interest they add overall to the surfaces. Everything has been sealed with a flat coat so that the panel lines won't smear in handling as I finish this thing up. The next pics should be of the finished build!

 

Gil 

Edited June 5, 2025 by ghodges

[ghodges]

The Pastor's Gunslinger A-7E is done!

See the regular Aircraft topic for more pics!

 

Gil 

[VMF211]

WOW!!!!