Buckmeister

The final settled-on scheme (after a lot of trial and error) for production A-10As was called the MASK-10A scheme. It consisted of two shades, one of which, in most lighting conditions, looked every bit like RAF Sky Type S. After a few dozen had been delivered, the wrap-around Euro-I scheme came along and all remaining A-10s were delivered in that scheme.

And the intakes on the sides of the front cowl opening on the Hasegawa kit are far too small as well. The nacelle is the right size (unlike Academy), but the Hasegawa cowling doesn’t look right with those small intakes.

Check your PMs…

The new Kinetic kit with the Hypersonic Block 1-5 backdate set is what you need.

According to a family friend who was a 354th FG P-51 crew chief (who passed on a few years ago at age 98!), he always installed the liners in his airplane. Since UK based aircraft flew from improved fields, not dusty/muddy strips like in other areas, they weren’t strictly necessary, but he said they helped keep the airplane clean. He said he thought they were probably pretty widely used in places where they were operating from less well prepared strips like Italy and the coral strips in the Pacific.

Tom Cooper’s research indicates the clear varnish was tinted with 5% and 10% aluminum. With such a small amount of aluminum, the underlying details could still be visible, but it would dull the shiny appearance of new aluminum skin - which is precisely what you see on Soviet aircraft of that era. Compare almost any MiG to a contemporary natural metal American fighter like an F-104 or an F-86. American types are blindingly bright and shiny. Soviet aircraft are not. And as I said previously, the very well regarded Armada book on the MiG-15 confirms that aluminum tinted varnish wa

The Hasegawa F-15 is only 6 years newer than the Monogram kit, and 7 years newer than the Tamiya kit. For the amount of work the Hasegawa C would take to back date it to a very early A, you might as well start with the GWH kit and do the same work

Their strategy is to make as much money as possible with the kit. And since people are impatient and impulsive, manufacturers almost always do the least desirable version(s) first, knowing that impatient, impulsive people will buy them even if they don't really want them, and knowing that when the version(s) they really want come out later, they will purchase them as well.

GWH has said they are doing an A-10A after the C. They don't have a history of putting multiple versions in one box, so I would not expect them to start doing that with the A-10.

Tom Cooper is a very well respected researcher, author, and artist. He has (among other things) published a six volume series of books called “Arab MiGs”. If you don’t have them, you should get them. Additionally, the highly regarded Russian Armada book on the MiG-15 talks about the aluminum pigmented varnish that was applied to that aircraft. I also have a copy of the USAF exploitation report on the MiG-15bis that No Kum-sok flew to Kimpo Air Base in 1953, and it speaks about the painted aluminum finish found on that aircraft. Take that for what it’s worth.

In the case of Soviet aircraft, I have to disagree. There is a lot of documentary evidence that the Soviet manufacturers coated the aircraft with clear varnish that contained aluminum powder. Tom Cooper has done a lot of research on this, and he says they received two coats - one with 10% aluminum and one with 5% aluminum. A lot of Soviet aircraft have a very dull appearance as a result of this. I think it is clear from photos that the treatment was not the same on every type, since on some you can see different shades of metal, while on others the overall finish is a uniform silver color.

APR-25/26 RHAW system. It came along starting in 1966. I don’t know for sure when the F-100s got it, but probably about that time. On the F-100 there is also an antenna attached to the aft end of the fairing on the vertical fin for the aft hemisphere.

Did you know that every Mustang was shipped from the factory with a set of canvas snap-in wheel well liners and tail wheel boot? And I’m told that the well well liners were regularly used to help keep junk out of the inside of the wings.

That’s the 30 year old Hobby Craft kit. Move along.

You’ll be waiting a very long time, since Monogram doesn’t exist anymore 😁