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A-7D 'Flying Tigers'


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Thanks for the heads-up. I can fix before painting B) I based positioning on photo I had but it only showed one side of the plane :rolleyes: I just thought that the both drooped due to bleeding of lines. Glad you guys are out there to help out. Any other pointers/comments greatly appreciated.

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You're doing a lot with your build, Nubaba :rolleyes: Detailing the cockpit, detailed wheel wells, angled rudder, flaps and ailerons and now the radome. Nice work! Looking forward to seeing some paint going on.

Cheers

Ian

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You're doing a lot with your build, Nubaba :cheers: Detailing the cockpit, detailed wheel wells, angled rudder, flaps and ailerons and now the radome. Nice work! Looking forward to seeing some paint going on.

Cheers

Ian

I am looking forward to painting as well, if I ever get there! No paint but I got a lot done tonight.

1: Corrected aileron issue - NB there are a lot of photo's on the internet and in my reference books showing A-7s with ailerons down. Only problem is that nearly all of them are taken side on and the other side is out of shot. Based on Reddogs advice I have decided to slightly offset ailerons assymetrically and increase offset on flaps (lots of photo's with both flaps down and I thought it looked interesting).

2: Corrected gun port - I agreed with Yoxford when looking at pictures and decided I had done so much already that I should do this

3: Added some detail to the sidewinder rails

4: Finished sanding seams and rescribed lost detail from sanding.

5: Attached all of the little bits that are going to be painted in camo colours, including, doors (blutak used to keep them in place)

Last thing to do is figure out what the vents are behind the tail hook. My verlinden set has some vents that instructions say should go behind the tail hook on the curved piece (with no detail) that comes in the kit. None of my pictures show this. Does anyone know what should be there?

Regarding, doing a lot, I think I am trying to do too much. Most of my models hang from the roof out of the way of my kids. Thus, I usually just do OOB builds with nearly everything shut up. My Hasegawa F-4J was the first time I had a go at detailing (cockpit and intake). With this kit I thought I would push myself and have a go at doing as much as possible. My next kit (probably an F-8 since I can't find a A-7E cockpit) will be OOB.

I can say that I am enjoying what I am doing so I guess that is what counts in the end :cheers:

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The A-7 ailerons did not act like flaps and only would slightly droop. Also, the leading edge flaps down the trailing edge flaps would be down fully, they where connected. Usually the ailerons would be in the neutral position and may droop a little but not much.

HTH

Reddog

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The A-7 ailerons did not act like flaps and only would slightly droop. Also, the leading edge flaps down the trailing edge flaps would be down fully, they where connected. Usually the ailerons would be in the neutral position and may droop a little but not much.

HTH

Reddog

Thanks Reddog. I have quite a lot of photos with both trailing edge flaps down and leading edge flaps up so I take it that this was fairly normal on the ground and shut down? However, think I will reduce angle of flaps to be safe.

When I first decided to droop ailerons it was based on the picture below of the plane I am building.

70-102076TFS23TFWFlyingTigers.jpg

I liked the look of ailerons down and flaps up as it was different. However, I mainly found side-on pictures and had no idea what was going on with the other side. I did find one picture this morning of an A-7D with both ailerons very slightly down, which I think I will do just to show some work done. Next time I won't bother dropping any of the flaps.

Also, did you have any idea what is directly behind the arrester hook? As per previous post my verlinden set has what looks like vents being stuck onto the plain part that Hasegawa provides.

Thanks :whistle:

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I worked on A-7E's so I can't comment on how the Air Force did their flaps upon shut down. For us we normally had the flaps in the up position prior to engine shut down. The leading and tailing edge flaps where connected but it was possible to drop one without the other by pulling circut breakers.

It is possible for the ailerons to droop a little but not much, maybe four or five inches.

I know that later in life the A-7D had chaff dispensers just aft of the tail hook, two on either side just aft of the hook point but I don't know if they where installed on the A-7 you are doing. The chaff dispensers where different then the Navy ones.

HTH

Reddog

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I worked on A-7E's so I can't comment on how the Air Force did their flaps upon shut down. For us we normally had the flaps in the up position prior to engine shut down. The leading and tailing edge flaps where connected but it was possible to drop one without the other by pulling circut breakers.

It is possible for the ailerons to droop a little but not much, maybe four or five inches.

I know that later in life the A-7D had chaff dispensers just aft of the tail hook, two on either side just aft of the hook point but I don't know if they where installed on the A-7 you are doing. The chaff dispensers where different then the Navy ones.

HTH

Reddog

Thanks Reddog, you have been a huge help.

I think that you are right in that they are chaff dispensers, but, I cannot tell from all of my references if my aircraft had them.

In the meantime I have found some good pictures of another aircraft from the same squadron and it looks clean behind the hook. I will do this aircraft to make sure I get things right. It just means that I will have to make some of my own decals for it ;)

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Need help with camo colours please. I am doing the standard three tone Brown/Green/Dark Green scheme. I started painting the brown colour on my SLUF and it (Humbrol 119) looks too dark when compared to pictures. Humbrol 119 is apparantly a direct match with my FS reference #30219. Any suggestions on what to do/use to get the best match or is it ok to leave it? Greens are Humbrol 117 and 116 and I am hoping that they look better.

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Need help with camo colours please. I am doing the standard three tone Brown/Green/Dark Green scheme. I started painting the brown colour on my SLUF and it (Humbrol 119) looks too dark when compared to pictures. Humbrol 119 is apparantly a direct match with my FS reference #30219. Any suggestions on what to do/use to get the best match or is it ok to leave it? Greens are Humbrol 117 and 116 and I am hoping that they look better.

Hi Nubaba

In the Humbrol colour charts ...

http://scale-models.nl/cc-humbrol.html

118 in shown as US Tan and seems to appear slightly lighter than 119 that's listed as Light Earth. Try 118?

Ian

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Fresh out of the paint shop with main SEA colours down. Used Humbrol 116, 117 and 118.

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Little bit to clean up around wheel wells and intakes before laying down a coat of Johnsons Klear to seal this puppy :wub:

Gee I hate camera shots, I just noticed that my real world painting needs to be touched up :D

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I love that colour scheme, Nubaba!

Your model is looking just like the real aircraft I had so much fun pointing out to the pilot in the front of the CF-5 during a Maple Flag mission many years ago - they were USAF A-7Ds. As I look at your pics, I can almost see the vapour trails coming off the wingtips as it carves around in a tight low-level turn.

Keep it up!

And send some of that 25 to 30 degree weather our way. It went to -27C last night, and with the howling wind it felt like -39C. Only 3 months until it starts to melt...

ALF

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This is looking really good, Nubaba. You're really coming on a speed now and have overtaken me. And I only have two colours to apply!!! Keep up the good work! Don't worry about the real world painting - just make sure the models are neat and we'll ignore the rest! :rolleyes:

Cheers

Ian

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I love that colour scheme, Nubaba!

Your model is looking just like the real aircraft I had so much fun pointing out to the pilot in the front of the CF-5 during a Maple Flag mission many years ago - they were USAF A-7Ds. As I look at your pics, I can almost see the vapour trails coming off the wingtips as it carves around in a tight low-level turn.

Keep it up!

And send some of that 25 to 30 degree weather our way. It went to -27C last night, and with the howling wind it felt like -39C. Only 3 months until it starts to melt...

ALF

I like the 3 tone scheme as well. Wish I could send some heat your way, but, not sure it would do any good. I cannot even begin to imagine what minus 27C feels like. Coldest I have ever been in was minus 4 while tramping on Mount Ruapehu :thumbsup:

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Things have been going slowly, but, starting to get closer to the finish post.

I am working on decals at the moment and have finished adding the tail markings. I had to make my own decals for the red band and serial numbers. The red may be slightly off register, however, it was the best I could do. It was a real challenge to get the white under the banner looking ok. 1 picture for now as getting on with the rest :thumbsup:

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That looks really nice, nubaba!! Little bit of color looks good on any lo-vis scheme. What weapons are you planning to hang?

Don

I have a photo of aircraft carrying 6 MK-82 Snake eyes so thought I would do that

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I have drilled and glued 2 steel pins into bombs to make locating on pylon easier and it should give a stronger join. Painting still to be completed and decals to add :thumbsup:

Edited by nubaba
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Managed to finish the bulk of the painting today; including all of the doors, hatches, pylons and bombs.

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Photo's taken after sealing everything with coat of Klear. Please let me know if anything looks wrong as I would rather fix it now before I start putting on all the little fiddly bits.

All things being equal, I will be moving onto the Radome/radar assembly and upper canopy.

I am still trying to figure out how I will do the skinny yellow line that runs along the inside of the outer rim. Originally I was going to paint them, then saw that some of you have used Tamiya tape. When using the tape; how do you get it to stick/stay on; does it need to be sealed; and, does it stay in place ok?

My other thought was to print some yellow strips on decal paper and use those, but again not sure how successful that will be.

Thoughts please (NB: sorry that my photo's still suck. I am still recovering from Christmas/New Years and can't afford to replace my camera yet).

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I am still trying to figure out how I will do the skinny yellow line that runs along the inside of the outer rim. Originally I was going to paint them, then saw that some of you have used Tamiya tape. When using the tape; how do you get it to stick/stay on; does it need to be sealed; and, does it stay in place ok?

My other thought was to print some yellow strips on decal paper and use those, but again not sure how successful that will be.

Hey Nubaba. looking good. You've made some real progress there.

On the yellow strips, I've used Tamita tape on mine but it's the first time I've tried it. I put the tape on the inside of the glass and then masked the outside so that hopefully a thin yellow line will be seem from the outside. I say hopefully because it's still masked up. Truth will come out very close to the end of the build once I've finished decals, applied more Klear, weathered and then flat coated. That's a way away!

Like you I'd be interested to hear what others are doing to achieve a good effect.

Keep up the good work, mate!

Ian

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Done :D

What a nightmare trying to line up all the little bits with big clumsy fingers.

Top view

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Side Views: Radome and radar assembly are slightly askew, but I gave up in the end. First time I have tried to do this and learned heaps for next time.

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Undercarriage: next time I will put the wheelwells together a lot earlier in the build and get alignment of all the parts correct. I also added detail that could only be added after the undercarriage went in. inevitably this ruined the paintwork and I had to redo stuff.

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Cockpit: Struggled to get alignment right and canopy is sitting high when compared to my references. I might have another go at it....

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Avionic Bay

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In a dingy room, without a magnifying glass or the unforgiving eye of a camera, she looks alright in this ameteur builders eyes.

Critique welcome please, as the only way I will get better is to learn from the experts :D

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