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1/48 Hasegawa A-7E


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I'll finally be starting on my build within the next couple of days. This will be the 1/48 Hasegawa A-7E with Eduard PE, True Details ejection seat, Royale Resin wheels, and Superscale decals for VA-27 in low-viz markings. I have no idea what the loadout will be yet.

A-7E001.jpg

Edited by kilroy
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Some progress made although not much.

Instrument side panels glued to cockpit.

A-7E001-1.jpg

IP detail sanded down in preparation for the Eduard PE replacement.

A-7E002.jpg

True Details resin seat detail looks good, although I haven't yet compared it to pics of the real thing to know differences.

A-7E003.jpg

The intake halves maddeningly have numorous ejection marks that will need to fixed. Also, there is a weird plastic ripple along the joint line that will have to be fixed. Easier to see in the second pic.

A-7E004.jpg

A-7E005.jpg

Lastly, PE bulkhead at the exhaust has been glued in. Nice touch, although how much will be visible once the exhaust is installed is debatable. For those who know A-7's (Reddog?), what is the interior color for this area? Instructions say an interior green, is that correct?

A-7E006.jpg

Cheers

Edited by kilroy
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Testors Yellow Zinc Chromate was the proper color for the inside of all panels, except for the wheel wells of course. And of course it would be rather dirty.

As far as the engine area being opened, it was, if you took a flash light and shined it up the exhuast area you could see the engine bay.

HTH

Reddog

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No problem, always glad to help out.

I worked on A-7E's for about three and a half years, if you have a questions just drop me a note. I also have several reference books on them so if I don't know the answer (time does take it's toll sometimes) I can always look them up.

Reddog

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Looking forward to following another A-7 build.

My kit had exactly the same plastic ripple down the intake trunk so I suspect it is a common problem with the mold. I fround that once I glued the halves together it was horrible to clean up. That primarily influenced my decision to cut the back plate off and extend the pipe. With the back off clean up was far easier, but, next time I would definitely clean up as much as I could before halves are joined.

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That's exactly where my head is at. Clean it up as much as possible before glueing the intake halves together 'cause otherwise it will be nearly impossible to fix.

Interesting that you had the same plastic mold problems. Since everyone else with this kit has the same issue guess I can't complain as much. :)

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Testors Yellow Zinc Chromate was the proper color for the inside of all panels, except for the wheel wells of course. And of course it would be rather dirty.

As far as the engine area being opened, it was, if you took a flash light and shined it up the exhuast area you could see the engine bay.

HTH

Reddog

Reddog,

Is this color true for all A-7E's? I am suspicious of museum pieces, but we have a VA-46 E from Desert Storm that I am pretty certain has not been painted and it is a green zinc not yellow zinc. Curious because if you tell me it should be yellow zinc, I will chalk the green up to museum and time and do mine in yellow.

Mark

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Reddog,

Is this color true for all A-7E's? I am suspicious of museum pieces, but we have a VA-46 E from Desert Storm that I am pretty certain has not been painted and it is a green zinc not yellow zinc. Curious because if you tell me it should be yellow zinc, I will chalk the green up to museum and time and do mine in yellow.

Mark

All the A-7's I've seen and worked on had the yellow zinc chromate, I think the green may have been a one time thing or the museum fudged on the color a little.

Reddog

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"True Details resin seat detail looks good, although I haven't yet compared it to pics of the real thing to know differences."

I may be wrong but the Operation Desert Storm A-7Es for the markings you're using utilized the SJU-8/A Stencel seat. I got mine from Sprue Brothers. I didn't know Aires just popped this one out! I need the British Harrier seat bad...

http://store.spruebrothers.com/shared/Stor...CS=sbm&All=

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An unrestored A-7A Corsair II interior planned for restoration. It was in pieces when I took the photos. The camera flash makes the zinc chromate green a lot brighter but it is green. Photo by me. Hope that helps.

DSCN2064.jpg

I never worked on Alpha's but I must say that that engine bay is awful clean for being a 40 year old plane, it looks freshly painted. I've never seen an engine bay that clean, let along any other panel that clean on any of the Echo's I worked on or was around.

Even the bolts and nuts are shiny and new. Looks like that area has already been restored and the paint has not faded and gotten dirty like it would have out in the fleet.

Reddog

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I never worked on Alpha's but I must say that that engine bay is awful clean for being a 40 year old plane, it looks freshly painted. I've never seen an engine bay that clean, let along any other panel that clean on any of the Echo's I worked on or was around.

Even the bolts and nuts are shiny and new. Looks like that area has already been restored and the paint has not faded and gotten dirty like it would have out in the fleet.

Reddog

I forgot to mention that the jet was taken apart and power washed inside and out, Reddog...I sent ya the sneezing SLUF pic, LOL. Maybe they painted it? Other parts of the jet were dirty and still had the zinc chromate green. I haven't been to the museum where it's stored lately so I have no idea what state it's in now. :thumbsup: I still need to wait for permission on photographing the rest of the jet, especially the cockpit! (Sorry, Harold!)

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Some progress made, albeit slowly.

Cockpit painted and switches detailed.

A-7E001-2.jpg

Ejection seat painted and washed. Whether it's correct for the timeframe, I'm not concerned. It's the seat I have, moving on.

A-7E002-1.jpg

A-7E003-1.jpg

Eduard PE IP sandwiched together.

A-7E004-1.jpg

Exhaust painted with Alcad Jet Exhaust. I may highlight the burner section with some Pale Burnt Metal, but I haven't decided yet. Unless you shine a flashlight up the tailpipe it will be difficult to see anyway.

A-7E005-1.jpg

Painted the Yellow Zinc Chromate on the fuselage at the exhaust section and applied a wash.

A-7E006-1.jpg

And managed to smooth out the plastic issues in the intakes. Now just need to glue the halves together and figure out how to deal with the seam. :cheers:

A-7E007.jpg

Cheers

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Some more progress. Finally got the fuselage closed up. Fit was very good.

A-7E009.jpg

Cockpit isn't quite finished. There are still a few PE side pieces to install, and of course the IP/cowling as well.

A-7E008.jpg

Fit at the intake turned out better than I thought it would. Still have to fill the seams, but nothing typical seam filling techniques won't solve.

A-7E010.jpg

Exhaust section.

A-7E011.jpg

And started to assemble the external fuel tanks.

A-7E012.jpg

I'm starting to think about ordnance loadout. I've managed to narrow down this particular set of markings to 1990, and I'm know VA-27 transitioned to the F/A-18A after 1990. I'm not sure what a typical loadout would be for this particular time. Mk 81's, 82's, Rockeyes? Anything else they might have carried? I'm not interested in the FLIR pod the kit comes with. I'll keep doing some more research on my end, but if anyone has some thoughts or a good link I would appreciate it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

More progress pics.

Wing sections are assembled and installed on the fuselage. I'll be building this with the wingtips folded, those are built and set aside. Fit is pretty good, nothing some putty skills won't take care of.

A-7E001-3.jpg

I realize that typically the avionics bays were opened while the aircraft was sitting on the ground, but I like the clean lines when they are closed and didn't want to paint the bays anyway. So I closed them.

A-7E002-2.jpg

Finally decided on an ordnance loadout. Sidewinders, Walleyes, and Mk82's, oh my. Plus the fuel tanks. I've assembled the kit Sidewinders, Walleyes are underway, and haven't started the Mk82's. The Walleyes and Mk82's are from the Hasegawa weapon sets.

A-7E003-2.jpg

Slow, but steady. Cheers!

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