ghodges Posted December 11, 2008 Report Share Posted December 11, 2008 This is another of those projects begun with high hopes and finished with a "whew, got it done!" It's not that I'm unhappy with it; it just didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, and I have no one to blame but myself! The Hasagawa 1/48 A-7D is a nice kit of '80s vintage. You can get a lot of aftermarket for it, and I threw in a Black Box interior. The two notes about that are: 1) the resin coaming may need trimming in order to allow the windshield to fit. This is especially true if you throw a new PE HUD on top of it (as I did). 2) The canopy rear bulkhead and the canopy breaker triangles immediately behind the seat interfered with each other. The canopy would not fit in the proper open stance until I removed them. Since this is an original issue kit, the bombs and the multi-ejection rack had to come from the spares box, and are mostly from the Hasagawa weapons set. The good news is that this kit has just been re-issued (at a higher price!), BUT it now includes most all of the sprues from the Hasagawa bomb set so you won't need to dig for ordnance. I copied the color profile from the rear of the first "A-7 in Action" book". These markings are included on the kit sheet. The kit decals worked OK, but not perfectly, as I still ended up with a few small areas of silvering. They also took forever to loosen off of the backing paper, probably due to their being almost 20yrs old! I primered with the Tamiya Fine White Primer (spray can) and decided to leave this as the bottom color. References say the bottom of the SEA camo should be 36622 Light Gray. However, after looking at color pics and profiles, it seemed that the white would work. It doesn't bother me. Hope it doesn't bother you! The weathering was done by streaking pastels randomly in the direction of airflow. I used some of the MIG powders for this. They worked well, and a little goes a long way! (Good stuff!) As stated up top, there are just so many little glitches (like installing the windshield coaming and forgetting to FIRST put in the main panel!) with subsequent repairs that by the end of the project I'm just pleased to get it done! I met my goal of building a 'Nam era SLUF, so in the end this taught me that it's only a model, and when things don't go the way you like; finish it up, set it on the shelf, and move on to the next one! By the way, this is the 3rd Has. 1/48 A-7 I've built (the previous 2 were Navy A-7E's) and the A-7D is tougher, since you generally need to put the wings straight and all of the control surfaces up. The Navy bird with everything folded and drooped is an easier build! Cheers! GIL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dreamsof51 Posted December 11, 2008 Report Share Posted December 11, 2008 I think it looks great. I so know what you mean about starting with the best of intentions and somewhere in the process you realize its not going to match the vision you had in your mind when you started. I used to hurry up and finish but now when I sense that motivation drop I put that project aside and work on something else till I get it back. if that does not happen and I start to feel the project is not worth the time to make it right, I'll dump it and move on. My modeling time is so limited, I want to enjoy what little I get. Then I go buy another FM models product and torture myself somemore! Go figure! Your model reminds me of my Air Force days in Alexandria LA with the 23rd TAC (A-10s). As part of our quarterly unit readyness exercises our base was "attacked," by aircraft from other bases. During these mock attacks we had to don chem suits and take cover. I of course could not resist staying out in the open to see who/what the attackers were. A group of A-7s did a particurilly good job of bombing us. They were so low I could see the pilots faces. Pretty exciting stuff for an airplane lover. Thanks for the memories Gil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Lindsey Posted December 12, 2008 Report Share Posted December 12, 2008 Very nice! Thanks for the great info and images. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ikar Posted December 12, 2008 Report Share Posted December 12, 2008 Looks pretty good. I remember these guys at Korat. I have a couple "D" SLUFFS in line for building this year. This one will look like this: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghodges Posted December 12, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 12, 2008 That's a cool mouth on that SLUF! As I mentioned above, note the stark contrast between the top camo and the bottom color. The bottom color also seems to match the MER rack and the nose wheels, which are white. IMO it's just too much contrast/coincidence for the bottom to be LG36622. Anyway, it's pics like those that I based my color scheme on. Cheers! GIL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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