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


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Chuck,

I can only echo what others have said. You have completed a truly outstanding build. Your attention to detail and dedication to perfecting your craft is amazing. Thank you for sharing your trials, tribulations and successes in this almost two year long journey. I wish you good luck with your P-38 build. If it turns out as well as your CF-18, P-51, F-4 and A-10 builds, we are in for one heck of a ride.

Mike

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Thank you again everyone! I just got back from Vegas and the “Aviation Nation” air show at Nellis AFB. The air show itself was excellent, but the organization of getting people into and out of the air base was “not so good”. It took me 2 ½ hours from when I got to the parking lot and actually stepped foot on the tarmac. I won’t complain as much as I might, because the show is free and the organizers always try their best. I will say one thing, however. Ehe number one reason for the extra delay for me personally (and a lot of others) was because I drove in the lanes I was supposed to and waiting in the lines I was supposed to and didn’t try to cheat and cut into lineups. Many, many did and got away with it, delaying wait times for everyone.

Enough whining, here’s some HOG pics! I have a few other air show pics I’ll post in the General Forum, so I’ll keep these pics focused on the A-10 and areas that I had trouble finding as reference pics while building my Hog. Here’s a couple of A-10C’s that flew in a mock battle. Note the lack of the rear blade antenna between the engine and the vertical stabilizer, which I found common to all 3 Hogs that were there (more on that later). I’m getting all my info from Jake’s book, so hopefully I’m not making any mistakes and please correct me if I'm wrong about something.

Hog1.jpg

This front view of another Hog shows that the “Towel Rack” VHF/FM antenna is missing on the belly as well, but there are two small blade antennas just aft of where it used to be.

Hog2.jpg

Here’s a close-up of the AN/AAR Missile Warning System “eye” at the front of the wing I scratch built using an old missile and clear sprue. Note also that the installation of the formation light is fairly messy.

Hog3.jpg

The rear, with one eye focused to the Six and one straight down…

Hog4.jpg

Here’s where the towel rack VHF/FM anttenna used to be, with just two plugs in it’s place. Those blade antennae are the new LARS (Light Airborne Recovery System) system to help locate downed airmen.

Hog5.jpg

Here’s the rear where the AN/ARC 210 secure voice radio antenna used to be on the left, which is a bit strange since this antenna is already an upgrade over the VHF/AM antenna that used to be here before it.

Hog6.jpg

A good view underneath the wing with the rear flaps down, which is a rare shot.

Hog7.jpg

Detail of the front leading edge stall strips. Note how it is actually two-piece and has a triangular cut on the inboard side. I removed the plastic kit ones and made mine out of brass.

Hog8.jpg

The kit wing pylon to wing fit leaves a large gap which I filled with lead wire, to both fill the gap and provide the round gasket at the base.

Hog9.jpg

The landing gear sponsons have a subtle panel line on the sides that is parallel to the ground, not a large curved one where the sponson kit parts are joined. The big panel line on the top of each sponson should also be deleted.

Hog10.jpg

Edited by chuck540z3
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Just under the wing on both sides of the sponson is a reinforcement tab. I made mine out of thin styrene.

Hog11.jpg

The vertical shrake should actually touch the wing underneath, not sit well forward as positioned on the kit. I moved mine back enough to get slightly under the wing, while leaving enough of the shrake forward to match other panels above it. I’m not sure what it’s made of, but it’s quite thin and feels like it might be made of fibreglass.

Hog12.jpg

This shot shows that you can see daylight out the top of the inner leading edge slats. The kit slats are positioned at totally the wrong angle, so they must be modified accordingly.

Hog13.jpg

A shot from below showing the side of the sponson and the circular access panel.

Hog14.jpg

The main landing gear has a 3-piece jigsaw puzzle gear door. On the kit parts, the middle piece is positioned well to the rear, not against the gear leg like it should be. I cut the attachment points for this part in order to get it to fit properly.

Hog15.jpg

If you ever thought the Trumpeter rivets at the rear of the aircraft were way too high, think again…..

Hog16.jpg

The vertical stabilizer has them too, but a bit more subtle, so you may want to sand the kit ones down a bit. I didn’t, because I like the armored look, although they were a bear to decal over!

Hog17.jpg

Getting pics under the engine is tough, so I provide the following…..

Hog18.jpg

Hog19.jpg

This shot is particularly rare, if you want to add panel lines and screw detail to the curved wing root piece like I did.

Hog20.jpg

Edited by chuck540z3
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Another rare shot between the engines, where there’s vents all over the place.

Hog21.jpg

Proof that the aileron/deceleron can sometimes be parked slightly down from horizontal (as I mistakenly did when photographing the starboard side of my model!)…

Hog22.jpg

Now here’s something I’ve never seen before. There are a bunch of dots above the pilots head on the canopy with a plastic thingy in the middle, just forward of the static strip. More anti-static protection maybe?

Hog23.jpg

The front square antenna that replaced the ADF antenna. It looks a lot like a formation light and of course is always dirty due to the front gun.

Hog24.jpg

It has been mentioned that the edges to the nose on my model might be a little too harsh. From this angle, they aren’t harsh enough!

Hog25.jpg

Here’s where the Pave Penny pod used to be hang on the starboard side of the nose. Now there are only 4 large attachment plugs and a lighter colored square where it used to be. I always thought the paint underneath was lighter, so when they took the pod off, it left a lighter color against the Dark Ghost Gray. This looks like it was actually painted this way. Weird!

Hog26.jpg

That famous tab near the front of the windscreen that Trumpeter got all wrong. On the kit it is positioned all the way to the front of the panel and has 3 screws instead of 4.

Hog27.jpg

Another rare shot of the starboard side of the nose, because everybody photographs the port side where the ladder and all the action is. Instead of a series of tight rivets just aft of the windshield washer filler, this Hog has a reinforcement plate to go with it….

Hog28.jpg

So that should conclude this build thread and to compress it a bit, I have deleted much of the vacation pics and other non- A-10 Warthog items. I do, however, offer one more TIP! This one came to me very recently, as you will soon see.

Repairing Silvered Decals late in the game.

So you’ve put down a perfect coat or two of Future (or other gloss coat) and then applied decals, making sure they lay down perfectly flat and you used Microsol on every decal, just to make sure nothing pops up and silvers later. To ensure that no air ever gets underneath your decals, you even re-sprayed some more gloss coat on every decal to seal them all in. They look perfect!

Later, when you’re just about finished your model after many months of hard work, you apply a dull coat and admire the flat finish and…….AAAAGHH!!! Some of the $#%&@# decals have silvered!! After you have recovered, my advice to you is to relax. This happens to just about every modeler including some of the very best modelers I know, who are perennial contest winners and a lot better than I am. This happened to a few decals on this very build and at a recent model contest, I shook my head at a beautifully constructed and painted 1/32 F-15C which was otherwise almost perfect, but the model had many small silvered decals that absolutely killed the build. It’s seems that it’s ALWAYS the tiny ones that silver! Here’s how to fix them, which I’ve learned from others with a few of my own twists at decal recovery. Yes, I know that using Future to settle down a decal will prevent silvering 95% of the time, but I find it’s messy, it leaves a rough surface and it limits the time I can move the decal around for the correct positioning. Good luck removing the decal later if you don’t like it too!

1)-Sand the decal lightly with 2000# sandpaper or other fine emery cloth to remove some of the dull coat and/or gloss coat

2)-Using a sharp needle or even the end of a NEW #11 knife, poke holes in all the silvered areas of the decal. Yes, a #11 knife seems kind of drastic, but if you’re very careful and just stab tiny holes without twisting the blade, you will never see them. I use a needle on small silvered areas and maybe a blade on larger ones.

3)-Apply Microsol to the silvered area leaving a drop of solution over the affected area. Using a needle only, poke more tiny holes where you see silvering. You will see the silvered areas get darker as the Microsol is allowed to leak underneath the decal and do its thing.

4)-As with any application of Microsol, let it sit for at least 15 minutes and dry. If it bubbles up a bit, don’t worry. The bubbles will either go away themselves or you will have further chances to eliminate them later.

5)-If you’re lucky the first time, which is rare, the silvering will be gone. If not, repeat #3 followed by #4, which will also give you a chance to poke any small bubbles that may have popped up. Be careful not to overdo it with each application of Microsol. This usually takes 2-3 tries, but I’ve actually fought with a stubborn decal for 6-8 applications over the span of 2 days.

6)- When the decal is bone dry and you’re happy with the results, lightly sand it again with 2000# sandpaper. This will remove any high spots, but again, be careful and don’t overdo it.

7)- Apply another coat of dull coat, but this time let the clear coat pool a bit over the decal to completely seal it in. If it comes out a bit lumpy, let it thoroughly dry again, sand it, then reapply the clear dull coat.

8)- Smile. That silvered decal now looks perfect again and shows no sign of being worked on.

My track record with silvered decals using the above method is about 95%. I have had a few rare decals that really kicked my butt, so I either left them alone because I didn’t really care and they were mostly hidden, or I completely sanded them down, repainted the affected area and tried it all over again.

Good Luck!

Chuck Sawyer

Edited by chuck540z3
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The pícs of the real thing are the proof your build is almost perfect! only small "flaws" to notice it's been hand made and not machined! way to go Chuck, respect!!!!

Edited by kike
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Boy Chuck those pics bring back a lot of memories. But If I may point out a few things. Those Nellis jets are test jets and may not show the operational configuration. I.e. the towel rack andtenna and the LARS antenna on the drum door.

Hog5.jpg

The towel rack antenna may be gone now I will have to check with my guys. Also the two antenna that are there are from what use to be called the Lightweight Airborne Recovery System or LARS. We got rid of that system years ago and litterally cut the antennas off at the base with a hacksaw. If they are using those for a different radio setup it wouldn't surprise me as that where they do all the testing for the A-10 mods.

Hog23.jpg

I am almost positive the little dots are for the helmet mounted cueing system which was just coming on line for the service jets when I retired. Since that is a test jet they may be calibration marks for that HMCS.

Finally that patch behind the windshield was filler port is just a doubler repair, probably had a crack in the skin.

Thanks again!

Edited by boom175
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Thanks again guys.

Craig, thanks for the feedback! Based upon what you mentioned, I thought I would look up my very jet from the Oregon ANG (78-0707) and see if it has changed at all recently. Sure enough, it is configured identically to the 3 "OT" Hogs I saw at Nellis. Note the lack of towel rack at the front and rear antenna, as well as the inclusion of the LARS blades which it never had before. Maybe these antennae are now used for something else? Check it out:

78-0707 on May 30, 2014

I kind of like this shot because the circular swirl marks around the AOA vane are still there and very clear.

78-0707 on May 16, 2014

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Chuck,

Thanks so much for those pictures.

I'm planning on building the HB 1/48 scale N/AW A-10 just to be a little different. I know that there was only two prototypes, but it's such a rare and strange looking aircraft, I just couldn't resist. Well, anyway that's the plan.

Joel

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Chuck,

Thanks so much for those pictures.

I'm planning on building the HB 1/48 scale N/AW A-10 just to be a little different. I know that there was only two prototypes, but it's such a rare and strange looking aircraft, I just couldn't resist. Well, anyway that's the plan.

Joel

Actually there was only one.

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Thanks again guys.

Craig, thanks for the feedback! Based upon what you mentioned, I thought I would look up my very jet from the Oregon ANG (78-0707) and see if it has changed at all recently. Sure enough, it is configured identically to the 3 "OT" Hogs I saw at Nellis. Note the lack of towel rack at the front and rear antenna, as well as the inclusion of the LARS blades which it never had before. Maybe these antennae are now used for something else? Check it out:

78-0707 on May 30, 2014

I kind of like this shot because the circular swirl marks around the AOA vane are still there and very clear.

78-0707 on May 16, 2014

Thats coolI'm going to have to contact an ol buddy who now runs the avionics shop and see what else is new!!

BTW the swirl marks around the AOA sensor are caused by a dirty RBF flag being whipped around. Take a look at some other hogs and you might notice some other dirty spots as well!

Again, congrats on a beautiful model!!!

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Craig, the towel racks are gone now. And, since the DOD does such a great job of making sense, they've brought back the LARS system on the Hogs and have reinstalled the two antennas.

Great job, Chuck. It was fun watching this one come together. What's next?

Jake

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Great job, Chuck. It was fun watching this one come together. What's next?

Jake

Thanks Jake. Right now the *** shudder *** TRUMPETER P-38L in 1/32 scale appears to be my next victim! I'm still doing lots of research on this aircraft and kit before I commit, but the chances are about 85% at this stage. Stay tuned.

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