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1/32 Trumpeter A-10C Hog- "Putting Lipstick on a Pig of a Kit"


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Thanks for the pics guys and the words of encouragement, although I'm starting to feel a little pressure now. What if I screw up!?

I'm still away from my man cave for a few more days, but I was asked by Jesse (JesniF-16) how I take my final pics with a whitish background without showing any seam lines or other distractions. An example of this is in my Display Case thread here:

1/32 Tamiya P-51D

The answer is simple. I use ordinary poster paper on a wide roll you can buy at any craft store (Michaels in this case), then drape it over my desk with the top taped about 2 feet up the wall behind my desk with a curve at the wall to desk join. This way there are no seams to worry about. For lighting, I have a couple of high intensity full spectrum lamps that give out the equivalent of 170 watts each and my regular overhead halogen lamp to highlight certain areas where I don't want strong shadows. This produces a white balance shift, with the florescent lamps emitting a greenish hue and the halogen lamp a reddish one, so you need to shift your white balance accordingly. Most decent cameras have a white balance setting where you can measure the white by taking a picture of a white or gray card, then saving the setting. I like this mix of florescent and halogen, because I often get some neat reddish glows behind the model to give the picture some interesting contrast, which you can see in the first few pics in the link above. This whole set-up costs only about $25- $30 and there's no fancy flash or reflective tents required. What you see in the view finder is what you get- now!

Light bulbs are here:

ALZO Full Spectrum Bulbs

Also make sure you use a tripod with the highest f-stop (smallest aperture) to maximize your depth of field, which often means slow shutter speeds of 1/2 second or longer, depending on ISO.

Edited by chuck540z3
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Thanks Chuck for sharing another great step by step with us. A shame that the kit is not up to snuff, but as you say, perhaps with you and Chris working on it, something good may be available.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed photos and info.

Edited by Av8fan
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Chuck, great work on the nose! I think what you did is the toughest part of modelling, since in the event that you screw up, you're really in the ...

The answer is simple. I use ordinary poster paper on a wide roll you can buy at any craft store (Michaels in this case), then drape it over my desk with the top taped about 2 feet up the wall behind my desk with a curve at the wall to desk join. This way there are no seams to worry about. For lighting, I have a couple of high intensity fluorescent lamps that give out the equivalent of 200 watts each and my regular overhead halogen lamp to highlight certain areas where I don't want strong shadows. This produces a white balance shift, with the florescent lamps emitting a greenish hue and the halogen lamp a reddish one, so you need to shift your white balance accordingly. Most decent cameras have a white balance setting where you can measure the white by taking a picture of a white or gray card, then saving the setting. I like this mix of florescent and halogen, because I often get some neat reddish glows behind the model to give the picture some interesting contrast, which you can see in the first few pics in the link above.

Also make sure you use a tripod with the highest f-stop (smallest aperture) to maximize your depth of field, which often means slow shutter speeds of 1/2 second or longer, depending on ISO.

Great advice, I was going to ask you the same thing!

Cheers,

Marcel

Edited by Marcel111
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Great advise, I was going to ask you the same thing!

Cheers,

Marcel

Hey Guys,

I just got home today and checked the light bulbs. They are "ALZO Digital" Full Spectrum with a color temp of 5500 K. Here is their website:

ALZO Photo Bulbs

Buy them! They are terrific for photographing your models without a need for a tent or fancy flash photography. For my weekly WIP pics, however, I just stick with the overhead halogen lamp. It's not perfect, but it works and I don't have to move in extra lighting equipment.

I have FINALLY ground down the sides of the nose and I really like what I see so far. I should have pics up in the next day or so and I'm happy to say that I don't think a resin replacement is necessary- just a LOT of sanding!

Edited by chuck540z3
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Thanks for posting those tips Chuck :thumbsup:/> They will help tremendously! I particularly like the shadows that are cast in your photos, nice work... Can't wait to see the nose job you've done on this PIG :woot.gif:/>

/Jesse

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Now some actual modeling, albeit small progress. Let's revisit "The Salamander", to remind us how bad this nose really is:

Nosejob1.jpg

After trimming just the top to create a bit of a sculptured nose, the sides were still way too fat and the antenna were too wide apart. Back to the grinder!

Nosejob9.jpg

If you do this, tape the two sides together like I did to make sure you grind off a uniform amount on each side and keep checking side to side for symmetry. You might also add some more CA glue to the back side of the nose just in case you grind all the way through, but the kit plastic is really thick and it turned out I didn't cut all the way through. Now some preliminary results after a LOT of sanding, before I re-scribe the eroded panel lines, insert new rivets and replace the antennae with better ones that are closer together near the nose. The old antenna holes are now filled with clear CA glue......

Nosejob10.jpg

Nosejob11.jpg

When I glue to the two fuselage halves together, I can then round off the nose a bit more....

Nosejob12.jpg

Since I was replacing panel lines, I decided to also replace some vents in the most forward access door on the port side that holds the AC inverter and battery relay. While I was figuring out how I was going to do this, I threw on part M-24 and M-25 which are gun cooling vent fairings. No, I didn't butcher the parts getting them off the sprue tree. They come off ugly all on their own!....

Nosejob13.jpg

It turns out that these vent fairings are for A-10's until early 2003, when they were removed due to interference with the AOA sensor behind them. Here's my contribution to the reference pics with one I took at Nellis in 2010. Note the exposed vents instead- and the nice vertical and symmetrical vents in front of and behind the main one. In the pic above, they are crooked, fat and all over the place!

Nosejob14.jpg

Soooo, it looks like I'll be ripping those panels off and creating new ones with proper vents, THEN I'll re-scribe new panels lines etc. One step forward, two steps back. I'm sensing a pattern here in this build and I've just begun!.... :bandhead2:

Edited by chuck540z3
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Hey chuck great progress

found this at the squadron sale might be good for you Clicky

Thanks Neo for looking out for me. However, if you check my first pic in this thread, I have that decal sheet buried behind the Cutting Edge one- and I'm using NONE of them! It will remain a mystery Hog for a bit longer, sorry!

In this pic you can see where they put the windshield washer fluid:

http://www.188fw.ang.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/photos/120412-Z-EF792-009.JPG

Jari

What a GREAT pic! You are the internet master of finding unique pics for all my builds. Thanks again Buddy!

Slooooow progress the last 2 days and it will be slow going forward as well. I will save you all from another boring altered nose pic until I've added all the panel lines, rivets and many new additions. Every square inch of this kit is like a mini-model that needs fixing and rather than get frustrated with it any longer, I'm starting to actually enjoy the challenge. This entire build will basically be a pic of how the kit is wrong and how I tried to fix it. This is why I'm not too concerned about accuracy, because the more I learn about the A-10, the more I realize that there isn't one build of this kit out there that is truly "correct"- at least not with the ones I've found so far.

Edited by chuck540z3
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Hi Chuck,

Enjoying the new WIP like I thought I would. You may have already thought of this, but I was thinking about the dings on the nose the other night, and thought a good way to do them would be with your dremel using the different rounded bits for them. Since the nose is pretty thick plastic, you could grind out the dings, then smooth them up, apply some chipping, etc.

BTW, thanks for the help on selecting the jet model. I settled on the TAM 1/32 F-16 Block 30 T-Birds. I'm going to do it with the black/gray/white Artic Aggressor scheme.

Stephen

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In case you want to show off the ammo drum:

http://www.moody.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/photos/070906-F-4569G-001.JPG

note the gun is loaded and the TERS on the pylons so it's most likely a flightline check of the system.

Jari

Thanks again Jari. If you (or anybody else) could please find me more pics of that front gun door area, I'd appreciate it. In this pic it is the one closest to the front, which shows the shell belt and it has quick release tabs dangling down. I just received the Verlinden detail kit and it has this smaller front door in resin, as well as some decent brass to create the shell feeder, so now I'm going to cut the fuselage bottom and expose part of the gun. What I need to see is the rest of the interior, including the door itself, so that I can scratch build something that looks similar.

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Here are some more pics, not the best quality:

http://www.442fw.afrc.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/photos/070414-F-8110H-001.jpg

Several more here:

http://www.dm.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123334670

6 and 8 show the ammo bay & door.

edit: look here for the small door details:

http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/AWA1/001-100/walk003_A-10/walk003.htm

Jari

Edited by Finn
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If you (or anybody else) could please find me more pics of that front gun door area, I'd appreciate it.

Bottom right corner of page 12 is a close-up of that door, Chuck.

Jake

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Bottom right corner of page 12 is a close-up of that door, Chuck.

Jake

Edit: Sorry, I screwed up in my description of which door I need pics of. The door I need interior pics of is on Page 13 (middle), in front of the panel with the "towel rack", which covers the breach assembly and has the position light on the bottom. You have a pic of this door attached to the bigger door behind it on Page 13 (lower right), so what I really need is pics of the fuselage interior above this door.

Edited by chuck540z3
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Page 9, bottom left and middle right.

Thanks again. Now that I know what the heck is going on, I think my plans have changed a tiny bit.

PS. I'm pretty sure we're torturing all those out there without your OUT OF PRINT book! :lol:

Edited by chuck540z3
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Water Boarding would be a more pleasant experience!!

Hey Gary, when I'm done with this sucker, all you guys will be out buying this kit (along with 10 other after-market kits)!

I once saw a 1/32 Revell F-14A build that sort of looked like a Tomcat, so there's hope for me yet! :rolleyes:

Edited by chuck540z3
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