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Italeri 1/72 A-7D "Sluf"


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As I have in plan to acquire HobbyBoss A-7 in some future, I decided to 'spare' this "oldy" for this group build, but as what-if bird.

I already have 2 Italeri F4U-4B kits - one is destined to be Honduras bird from "Soccer War", while other is going to be what-if - in some of A-7D liveries from this kit! Sooooo....this A-7 will get F4U-4B VMA-323 markings and it will be painted in FS15050! :D

This "livery_swap" idea seems very interesting in artistic sense, so this is not going to be the last adventure of this type for me! ;)

Anyway, here is the boxart of this kit

Day00-01.jpg

And here are the sprues...

Day00-02.jpg

Day00-03.jpg

Day00-04.jpg

Aftermarket parts include Eduard SS185 ZOOM set for Italeri (ESCI) A-7E, and resin ejection seat SJU-7 - as this is going to be what-if, I don't care much about 100% authenticity ;)

Day00-05.jpg

OK, this just an intro, I hope to start with work in decent period of time ;)

(I'm waiting for Gunze H328 Blue FS15050 to arrive from LuckyModel)

See you soon with official start of work on this one!

Regards,

Srdjan

Edited by SrkiRad
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thnx Ian!

I measured decals from F4U, and it looks they will fit onto A-7 frame - I was a bit worried about "MARINES" decal that goes ont wing - it is pretty big, but it will fit :salute: there are also few more decals that I'm not yet sure how they will fit, but I'll think of it later during work.... :salute:

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hello and Happy New Year to all ARC members! :D

I finally started work on this one.

I cleaned fuselage halves from small amount of flash, and checked whether cockpit assembly fits well into fuselage halves - it's OK!

Day01-01.jpg

Cockpit is assembled, etched side instrument panels, control stick and resin seat are glued to their positions.

Day01-02.jpg

Day01-03.jpg

Next step is painting of cockpit and cockpit sides of fuselage into grey, and instrument panel into black, and after that I can glue printed instrument sheet onto instrument panel...

Dry fit of fuselage halves shows some minor missalignment on belly side, but it's nothing that cannot be fixed with some sandpaper :D

Cheers,

Srdjan

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Thanx for kind wors Pompeo! :bandhead2:

Today was "The Cockpit Day"... :monkeydance:

I managed to paint all parts of cockpit, to give them coat of matt varnish, and to glue front etched intrument panel together with instrument printout "film"....

I tried to do my best regarding to painting instruments on side panels as they are microscopic in 1/72! :crying2:

Day02-01.jpg

Day02-02.jpg

Day02-03.jpg

Day02-04.jpg

Now it's time to find proper balast to put it in nose section, as this kit is tail-sitter!

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  • 3 weeks later...

As I've been busy at work during past few weeks, I had some break in modelling this kit.

Well, let's see what's new since last update...

I made balast from melted tin, while its "bed" was made from plasticine - with this method I avoided using of any glue for fixating of balast, as plasticine when "dried" becomes very hard, and it won't melt on normal temperatures, except if you put it on very heated surface (bulb cover for example).

Day03-01.jpg

On following photo I already covered balasts with more plasticine so this is their final look.

I also glued cockpit and front wheelbay onto right fuselage half...

Day03-02.jpg

This is close-up of thinned sprue glued to rear section of front wheelbay - there was a small gap behind it, so I decided to fix it in this way ;)

Day03-03.jpg

I put everything to dry well now, as next step is joining of fuselage halves...

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Thanx PELE (Nenad) :trolls:

More streched sprue was glued behind cockpit, because cockpit had some gaps beetween itself and inner fuselage walls

Day04-01.jpg

Day04-02.jpg

In front of front wheelbay I also put a piece of stretched sprue because a minor gap exist here, so it will be easier to fill it...

Day04-03.jpg

Fuselage done...

Day04-04.jpg

...but a lot of sanding will be required! :P :D

Day04-05.jpg

Arrows indicate effect of streched sprue shown on first 2 photos in this post!

I will add some Mr.Surfacer here later, and repaint it with brush...

Day04-06.jpg

Details of instrument panel when installed

Day04-07.jpg

So, work that follows will be based on sanding/puttying... :touche:

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  • 3 weeks later...

I was off some time... Wow Baba, nice work you have here... Cockpit is really gr8, ok, I know, you are "picajzla"-mad man for small details... :D

Great job bro' keep up good work. Don't be scare because you need to sand big seam-line... It isn't big problem for you... Can't wait to see this machine in unique paint scheme.

Dada

Edited by papa_bear
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  • 2 weeks later...

Have fun trying to close the canopy over your new seat. I was wondering why the kit one was so small, when I replaced it (Aeroclub white metal for me) I found out why...... Either grind away the bottom of the seat, or cut a hole in the cockpit floor. Even easier would be to lower the cockpit sides/floor part in the fuselage, but obviously you can only do that when putting it in first time...

See your past that already!

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good noticing roym, I've also noticed this while dryfitting the seat, and actually I did shave it a bit already, but, I will glue canopy in opened position so that's the reason I'm not too worried about this :woot.gif:

oh, and sorry for not posting anything new in recent weeks - I'm quite busy with modeling of IK-3 at the moment (I'm preparing it for exhibition at Mosonmagyarovar modeling contest in April), so hopefully I'll restart work on Sluf in near future! :unsure:

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