A-10 LOADER

Make your own. Go to your local picture framing shop or craft store and get some matte board in the shade you're looking for. Draw some lines with a fine tip GEL pen to represent the concrete pads then spray a matte sealer coat over this for the next step. You can add some taxi lines, grounding point spots, etc. depending on what you want to duplicate. Finally seal everything again with the matte sealer. I'll use MDF for the base, attaching the matte board with some 3M Contact adhesive spray and add some wood trim to the finished base. Steve

It's black. Steve

Maybe these will help ? Yes, those areas are black. Steve

Drawing #1 is correct. The fins are always in a "X" configuration in relation to the bomb's lugs. Steve

Thanks Geoff. Steve

Oh cool. Steve

Any paint with this symbol on it ( the flame ) tells you it's solvent based and, Mr. Color is most definitely a solvent based lacquer. Steve

Very nice Fred. Steve

Nice progress Jost. Steve

😆 Thanks guys. A few other items were accomplished which gets me closer to the primer / paint stage. The .040" brass rods that I added to the horizontal stabs will allow me to paint these separately and install them at the end of the build. The plastic "blocks" that I installed, before gluing the fuselage halves together, for the horizontal stabs rods to go into were drilled. Now the horizontal stabs can just be pushed into their holes at the end of the build and, there's no worry of them breaking off. Exhaust nozzle parts

Do some testing, they're both lacquers. Steve

Viper update, the canopy details. In order to add the Phase Hanger Resin JHMCS sensor to the inside canopy rail I needed a flat surface. Using my reference pics, I marked the outside of the canopy as to where the sensor should be when viewed from the outside. Using some Evergreen 90 degree angle pieces I made the four canopy rails. I used some .010" plastic to cap the ends of the angle pieces for more rigidity. The JHMCS sensor, along with it's power cable, were added to the port side rails. I used UMM-USA 0.2mm round lead wire for the cable.

WOW, she looks fantastic Drew. How did you mask off that curved area, on the bottom between the intakes, with the intakes in the way ?? Steve

For my F-16D that I'm currently on, I'm using AK Real Colors "Have Glass" Gray FS 36170, which has a metallic sheen to it out of the bottle. I wanted a bit more of a silvery sheen so I mixed in some Mr. Color Super Metallic2 ( Super Stainless ) SM 204. This was top-coated with MRP-126 Super Clear Semimatt. To my eye it represents the jet that I'm building when I look at my reference pics, yours may vary. Steve

Kudos to you for sticking with such a bear of a project Tracy. Things are really coming together now, she's looking good and, this will be quite a unique piece when finished. Steve