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


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Hey Chuck-

I've not followed this build completely, but "checked in" periodically, and I happened to check Spruebrothers the other day, and came across this set that may interest you if you have not seen it already. It is the Master gun barrel set for the A-10. If you have not gotten your gun figured out yet, with your penchant for detail, it is right up your alley!

Aaron

http://store.spruebrothers.com/product_p/masam32059.htm

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Hey Chuck-

I've not followed this build completely, but "checked in" periodically, and I happened to check Spruebrothers the other day, and came across this set that may interest you if you have not seen it already. It is the Master gun barrel set for the A-10. If you have not gotten your gun figured out yet, with your penchant for detail, it is right up your alley!

Aaron

http://store.spruebrothers.com/product_p/masam32059.htm

Thanks Aaron! I just placed an order. The Cutting Edge resin gun I have now is really good, but you can't beat real brass. It comes with a pitot tube too, which I wish I had a few months ago, so we'll see if it fits in the one I have installed already. THIS is why I do WIP threads. I give info and I receive info I would never know about without you guys. :thumbsup:

Edited by chuck540z3
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Chuck, the Mavericks looks great, very clean work as usual. Keen to see how the yellow seeker will end up looking, the flattish finish of the real deal may be tricky to replicate.

:thumbsup:/>

Marcel

Hi Marcel! Thanks. I believe the real deal IRR seeker heads are shiny, although opaque, and the inert ones are flat and almost rough. If I'm wrong, somebody please tell me before it's too late!

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I had been waiting forever for the new Sierra Hotel A-10 wheels to show up, but I think there's a better chance of me making an anime figurine- and that's NEVER going to happen!

Well, I hope you white glued those on, because I got a small package dropped of to me tonight with your name on it... :woot.gif:

Curt

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Chuck here are some nose views of Mavericks:

http://www.defense.gov/dodcmsshare/newsphoto/2009-02/hires_090204-F-7747R-004.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Three_AGM-65_Maverick_Missiles_on_an_A-10_Thunderbolt.JPEG

http://www.nspa.nato.int/images/logistics/agm65-1.jpg

http://www.osan.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/photos/2012/11/121105-F-HA794-060.jpg

a live missile would have nice clean shiny seeker glass while inert ones, CATM versions anyway, would be on a/c longer and thus be subject to the rigors of the elements.

Jari

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Well, I hope you white glued those on, because I got a small package dropped of to me tonight with your name on it... :woot.gif:/>

Curt

Thanks Curt! It's a good thing I work so slow, because now I have a new gun AND new wheels that I can still install. It will be interesting to see the wheels compare to the Cutting Edge ones I've painted already and, thankfully, did NOT glue on, just in case!

Thanks again.

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Chuck here are some nose views of Mavericks:

http://www.defense.gov/dodcmsshare/newsphoto/2009-02/hires_090204-F-7747R-004.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Three_AGM-65_Maverick_Missiles_on_an_A-10_Thunderbolt.JPEG

http://www.nspa.nato.int/images/logistics/agm65-1.jpg

http://www.osan.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/photos/2012/11/121105-F-HA794-060.jpg

a live missile would have nice clean shiny seeker glass while inert ones, CATM versions anyway, would be on a/c longer and thus be subject to the rigors of the elements.

Jari

Thanks Buddy! Those pics are great.

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Ha, good thing Jari comes in with Maverick close-ups to keep me on the straight and narrow.... I think your yellow lens looks good!

As far as less traffic around this place is concerned, I have noticed it also... maybe that means guys are spending more time building models :)

Marcel

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Compared to the other modeling forum I belong to: Aeroscale ( a secondary forum site to Armorama which is huge), this place is pro ball, and their triple A. There just isn't any comparison to the activity levels. So while you guys think it got slow here, I'm finding it difficult to keep up with all the threads I'm interested in. There always seems to be threads to read and post on. That's one of the main reasons why I use email notification.

Joel

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Well boys, I don't have much to show, but that's not because I haven't been putting in many hours on this project. These Northstar Mavericks have been a real challenge, notwithstanding the fact they are fantastic in almost every way. Without going into a long discussion about how I got to this stage, I'll offer these three important tips, other than the one I mentioned already above concerning the rail modifications:

1) DO NOT put the rear resin fins on until the very end of the build after paint. The reason is that they are SUPER fragile and I broke off at least 5 of the fins painting and decaling. Of course this often meant sanding the join down, re-gluing, then re-painting. Not fun if you have to do it 5 times! A better way of avoiding this problem is to build an inert Maverick, because the rear fins are left off.

2) The decals that come with the kit are generally quite good, but the yellow and red bands are useless. The red band should be more of a burgundy color and the yellow band has no white backing to it, so it is washed out against the paint color.

3) To replace some of the missing decals and change a few (like the "Laser" decal which is blue instead of black), find yourself the decal set from the 1/32 Academy F/A-18 kit, which has LOTS of ordnance and decals for them, including Mavericks. These decals are very tough to soften with Microsol, but other than the yellow band, they will soften and conform to underlying surfaces eventually. The yellow band should be avoided, because it will not soften, no matter how much Microsol you place on it. I even left a bit of this decal in a cap filled with 100% Microsol for 10 minutes and it came out of the solution like it was made of vinyl! Fortunately, I found another replacement in a Trumpeter ordnance kit, which worked quite well. The Academy set also includes the thin red band around the lens of the front, which is missing in every other decal set I know of.

Anyway, here they are: An AGM-65L (2012) Laser missile on the left and an AGM-65G (2007) Infra-red missile on the right.

Maverick1-1.jpg

When checking references I found that many stencils were either missing or moved from decal instructions, so I went with what I saw on pics of the real deal. The "UP" arrow decal on the nose, for instance, is missing on the Laser- or at least in 3 pics I found of it. I also created some big serial numbers for the launch rails from spares, because they always have them. The black and silver bands on the IRR Maverick were created from spare decal material as well. Weathering, if you can call it that, was limited to subtle pastel smudges because I think real missiles would look a lot newer than inert ones. I tried to dirty up the launch rails a bit more, but the pics wash out this detail due to the strong light.

Maverick2-1.jpg

Maverick6-1.jpg

Maverick4-1.jpg

I experimented with many different paints to make the IRR seeker head opaque yellow/orange yet shiny, but I didn't like the look of any of them, so I went back to the clear look. This time art trumps reality, but man it looks cool in real life....

Maverick3-1.jpg

The rear motor area was detailed as well, but I didn't go too crazy because this area will be hidden under the wing at the back. To mount the launch rails to the pylons, I will be using pins and modified sway bars, which I have yet to do.

Maverick5-1.jpg

I also got started on a few new small projects, like the brand new Master brass gun assembly that Aaron found for me recently at Sprue Bros. It is really well made, but a real pain to put together.....

Newgun1.jpg

To assemble this gun, you need to glue the front and rear barrel plates to the vented cylinder first. I tried and failed at other methods, so I need to paint the gun barrels and interior of the cylinder first before assembly. Here they are after a coat of Krylon gloss black lacquer, to prepare them for Alclad Steel. You may notice I also painted the areas of the upcoming Zactomodel AIM-9M missiles that are metallic for the same reason. I paint the metallic areas first with thin lacquer to retain the tiny little detail on the missiles, rather than paint the whole missile first with FS36375 Light Ghost Grey paint, which tends to fill. For those not familiar with these missiles, they are the finest resin product I have ever worked with. More on that later!

Newgun2.jpg

Thanks for checking in. This slow boat of a build is taking FOREVER admittedly, but I'm enjoying the ride and trying to savor the ending.

Edited by chuck540z3
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Holy Jesus Chuck, wow, those Mav's look awesome !! Great job as usual, really looking forward to the rest of the ordnance.

FYI, The YELLOW bands on missles, bombs, etc. denotes explosive material in the bomb body, warhead. The BROWN band, ( not burgundy ) denotes a live rocket motor installed on that weapon.

The numbers assigned to suspension equipment, ( TER's, DRA's, LAU-117's, etc. ) are used by the back shop personel and the Weapons flightline expeditor to keep track of each item. This way you know when a certain piece of equipment is due for maintenance. There is a configuration sheet that lists all the aircraft tail numbers and each piece of suspension equipment loaded on that aircraft from Station #1 thru Station#11. These numbers are checked regularly and updated daily to keep track of things and anytime a piece of equipment is uploaded, removed or, swapped out it gets annotated on the config sheet.

Steve

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Holy Jesus Chuck, wow, those Mav's look awesome !! Great job as usual, really looking forward to the rest of the ordnance.

FYI, The YELLOW bands on missles, bombs, etc. denotes explosive material in the bomb body, warhead. The BROWN band, ( not burgundy ) denotes a live rocket motor installed on that weapon.

The numbers assigned to suspension equipment, ( TER's, DRA's, LAU-117's, etc. ) are used by the back shop personel and the Weapons flightline expeditor to keep track of each item. This way you know when a certain piece of equipment is due for maintenance. There is a configuration sheet that lists all the aircraft tail numbers and each piece of suspension equipment loaded on that aircraft from Station #1 thru Station#11. These numbers are checked regularly and updated daily to keep track of things and anytime a piece of equipment is uploaded, removed or, swapped out it gets annotated on the config sheet.

Steve

Now what would a guy with the screen name "A-10 LOADER" know about loading an A-10? Huh ? :D/

Thanks for that Steve, I always wondered about some of the colors, which brings up a question. On the IRR Maverick, I used some of the pics on Page 98 of Jake's book which has both a black stripe with yellow lettering that looks like "COMP B", or something like that, and a metallic band ahead of it. What does the black stripe mean and why is the metallic band not on all Mavericks, like the Laser?

Any other Maverick tidbits we should know? I just love first hand knowledge of the real deal.

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Now what would a guy with the screen name "A-10 LOADER" know about loading an A-10? Huh ? :D/>/>/

Thanks for that Steve, I always wondered about some of the colors, which brings up a question. On the IRR Maverick, I used some of the pics on Page 98 of Jake's book which has both a black stripe with yellow lettering that looks like "COMP B", or something like that, and a metallic band ahead of it. What does the black stripe mean and why is the metallic band not on all Mavericks, like the Laser?

Any other Maverick tidbits we should know? I just love first hand knowledge of the real deal.

Hey Chuck on the IIR mav you should also see a little yellow arrow pointing up and the metallic band is a clamp the IIR GCU has to be oriented correctly so if you place one of the IIR Mav's on a shoulder station of a LAU-88 the loader folks would loosen the clamp and rotate the GCU so that its oriented correctly (little arrow pointed up)HTH

agm65side.jpg

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Hey Chuck on the IIR mav you should also see a little yellow arrow pointing up and the metallic band is a clamp the IIR GCU has to be oriented correctly so if you place one of the IIR Mav's on a shoulder station of a LAU-88 the loader folks would loosen the clamp and rotate the GCU so that its oriented correctly (little arrow pointed up)HTH

agm65side.jpg

Yes, the arrows I used are black instead because:

  1. The Northstar kit arrows only came in black.
  2. The Academy decals only come in black as well.
  3. The Trumpeter decals are HUGE and way overscaled.

Essentially, I went with what I had available.

Thanks for the info sir!

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Chuck....this pig is already a prize winner and it's just keep getting better and better all the time. "Lipstick on a pig".......yeah right!!!!.....folks that pig got a Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive make over.

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Hi Chuck. Those Mav's are just amazing :thumbsup:/> I know that the payload can be a daunting task, especially as much firepower as the Hog can carry... but when you put forth 100% into each missile and bomb, the work speaks for itself my friend! I don't have any advice or suggestions at the moment, but I'm here for moral support :worship:/>

/Jesse

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