chuck540z3 Posted June 2, 2014 Author Share Posted June 2, 2014 Thank you Gents, for the kind words of encouragement. Work, golf, trips to my cabin and all sorts of summer activities are really getting in the way of modeling! Don't worry, I will finish this pig, but it will take some more time. I'm also waiting for the new Sierra Hotel A-10 wheels and Dual Rail Adapter that Curt (Netz) recently mailed. If they are anything like the Sierra Hotel engines on this build, we are all in for a treat! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TaiidanTomcat Posted June 2, 2014 Share Posted June 2, 2014 Work, golf, trips to my cabin and all sorts of summer activities are really getting in the way of modeling! Someone has to do it Love those mavericks and I have been following this and learning some helpful tips so thank you! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kagemusha Posted June 2, 2014 Share Posted June 2, 2014 Superb work on those Mavericks, a great advertisement for those wonderful Northstar products. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Joel_W Posted June 2, 2014 Share Posted June 2, 2014 Chuck, I sincerely hope that those trips to your cabin are for some Smallmouth Bass fishing. Nicer weather for me means working around the outside of the house, and fluke and Porgy fishing a few times per month. Joel Quote Link to post Share on other sites
A-10 LOADER Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 Sorry Chuck, been away from the computer for a few days, it appears you got your answers about the Mavericks. Steve Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Aggressor01 Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 I love the decals! I remember as a kid watching the F-4s fly out of Boise. Now it's the A-10. Many memories watching them over the Bruneau Desert south of Boise. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
John Wolstenholme Posted June 10, 2014 Share Posted June 10, 2014 Hello Chuck, what can I say, but continuing beautiful, fantastic work. 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. Having seen the Northstar Mavericks that’s the first thing I noticed. Bit late, but would removing the resin pivot in the fins and fit suitable dia. metal pins be of benefit? Regards John Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted June 10, 2014 Author Share Posted June 10, 2014 Thanks guys for your kind comments AND patience! As mentioned too many times, I don't have much time for modeling lately so the progress is painfully slow. I was in Chicago for the last 4 days for a pleasure visit and man was that fun. What a city! So much to see and do in a clean safe environment- or at least it is downtown where all we tourists are spending our money on great restaurants, museums and LOTS of shopping. My wife, unfortunately, has a shopping problem that drives me nuts, but after 35 years of marriage, I'm still working on it! Having seen the Northstar Mavericks that’s the first thing I noticed. Bit late, but would removing the resin pivot in the fins and fit suitable dia. metal pins be of benefit? Regards John Hi John. Thanks for dropping by. The metal pin idea would be helpful, but the fins are so thin that I think you'd still break a few. There really is nothing wrong with the fins and once mounted on the pylons, they will never move, but when you're focusing on other parts of the missile when painting and adding decals, any accidental bending of the fins results in a broken fin, so just leaving them off until the end should save you a lot of hassle and extra work. I should be able to get back to this project this week and have an update soon. The Zactomodel AIM-9M's are so good, they require extra care in painting to make them live up to the perfect resin casting. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted June 13, 2014 Author Share Posted June 13, 2014 Nothing to show today, but I am still working on the fantastic Zactomodel AIM-9M missiles. What a joy to work with, so I'm spending a lot of extra time painting them as accurately as possible. This means lots of "micro-masking" of tiny parts and lots of different colors of Alclad to go with the FS36375 grey paint. I'll likely spend 8-10 hours on these missiles alone. Also, as mentioned many times earlier, I was hoping to use the new Sierra Hotel Model 1/32 A-10 wheels, which I have yet to see. If the wheels are anything like the great engines for this kit, they should be quite an improvement, but since production of these new wheels has been quite delayed, I went ahead with the Cutting Edge wheels instead. The CE wheels are quite good, so just how much better could the SH wheels be anyway? Well, I just received an introductory set of these wheels/tires today, complimentary of Curt (Netz) of SHM, along with their Dual Rail Adapter for the AIM-9's, which I had already purchased. I tried to pay for them, but Curt wouldn't let me. Anyway, checking them out, I have only one word to say: WOW! They are definitely worth the wait! The wheels are separate from the tires, so painting them will be a lot easier than with the CE wheels and the detail is amazing. Thank you Curt! I will try to assemble and paint them to the same level of detail and accuracy they are cast in. Man this hobby can fun at times like this. Only a die-hard modeler would pee his pants over a few small pieces of "toy plastic"! :D Quote Link to post Share on other sites
A-10 LOADER Posted June 13, 2014 Share Posted June 13, 2014 Cool, very much looking forward to your next update. Steve Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted June 19, 2014 Author Share Posted June 19, 2014 (edited) OK Boys, a bit of an update. In chronological order, I made up and painted the Master brass front gun. Here it is on the far right, with the kit one on the far left (yuk), Verlinden next to it (so-so) and the Cutting Edge one I had already made up (Pretty good, although it's a bit fat and needs sanding at the rear to fit in the gun shroud) ..... A few more close-ups. This should really improve the look of the front gun area- and it even fits without sanding! In my last post I was raving about the new Sierra Hotel A-10 wheel/tire kit that's about to come out, hopefully soon. Curt (Netz) gave me this kit to try out and am I ever glad he did. Look at all the details! Another added bonus is that the wheels are separate from the tires, so you don't have to do very difficult masking to paint the two parts.... Here's the Cutting Edge wheel/tire I had already made up. It looks pretty good compared to the kit parts, but compared to the SH kit parts, it is now looking a little sad.... I started making them up already and the wheels fit perfectly into the tires, which is a nice change from other resin wheel products. Stay tuned for the final product. Now the BIG update! I finally assembled and painted the EXCELLENT Zactomodels AIM-9M Sidewinder Missiles. These missiles were originally mastered by Alexander Rogal ("Eastern") in Russia 4 years ago, then Chris Wilson (Zactoman) created the resin copies and sells them on his website here: ZactoModels I'm not sure what's more impressive; Alexander making them in the first place or Chris creating such great flaw-free copies! The resin is super thin, but flexible and strong and there's almost no clean-up required. All I can say is, BUY THEM! Buy them now and put a bunch away in your stash. Alexander/Chris also have AIM-9D/G/H and the new AIM-9X Sidewinders, so get a couple of these too for future builds. Here's a bunch of pictures to show you why they are so good. To accomplish this, I spent many hours using micromasks of tiny bits of Tamiya masking tape, Gloss Black Krylon for the Alclad primer, then I painted the metallic details in Alclad Steel, Stainless Steel, Duraluminum and Gun Metal. The seeker head tips were dipped into a mix of very light grey acrylic paint mixed with Future. For decals, I used a combination of the Two Bobs decals which are mostly for Inert missiles and leftovers from the Academy F/A-18 kit. Some of the placards are missing in these decal sets, so I just went with what I have. The Hobbydecal dry transfers have all of the placards available, but I have had terrible luck getting them to stick properly, so I didn't take a chance screwing up the work I had accomplished already. Now the pics.... Getting the arming label (Red/Green) to fit around the tiny arming handle was very difficult and I had to piece the decal around it, but they turned out looking pretty good anyway. Live Sidewinders have a light yellow solid fuel back that is mostly featureless. The little circular windows were filled with several applications of clear Future... Edited June 19, 2014 by chuck540z3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted June 19, 2014 Author Share Posted June 19, 2014 (edited) A few more.... I also bought the Sierra Hotel Dual Rail Adapter (DRA) required for the A-10 and Curt sent me a replacement copy. This product is also excellent, with nice details and it is even hollowed out at the front with some internal detail like the real deal, where the umbilical cord goes. I threw on a few serial number decals on the launchers and DRA base to match some pics. You will notice in all the pics I have inserted tiny pins in the missile rails to attach them to the DRA without glue. These SH DRA's have notches that fit the Zactomodel AIM-9M rail hangers perfectly, so I'm guessing it's not by coincidence? Anyway, the SH holes in the notches are bit too far back, so I drilled a hole just forward of them using a #80 drill bit. The pins are made from #79 drill bits (which are slightly fatter), so the fit is nice and tight..... Here's the missile pins lined up with the holes before total insertion. I would have shown a pic of them flush with the launch rails, but the fit is quite tight and I had trouble pulling them apart, so I'll keep them loose for now so that I can get a bit rough with the DRA to pylon fit, which will also be using more pins and modified sway braces. After I finish with the new SH wheels, I'll be making up the Mk 82 bombs, ALQ-184 pod, AN/AAQ-28 Litening pod and rocket launchers. After these Mavericks and Sidewinders, this will be a hard act to follow! Edited June 19, 2014 by chuck540z3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
skyhawk174 Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Chuck, those barrel front ends sure look nice. I have the CE one but after seeing your results with Master I think I will go with that. The AIM-9s look awesome too. That is the great thing about these in progress builds, you learn a whole lot. My only issue now is that I have the 2 seater, NAW-10 and I was planning on doing the prototype but I think I will go the what-if and maybe do it in some sort of desert camo. And to make it even more exciting, I was thinking I should do it as Canadian Forces, maybe with AETE as that would make sense. It does not really matter what I do with the kit as I am sure your build will provide a lot of improvements to that version too. Thanks for posting your updates and I will keep looking out for more. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Aigore Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Gorgeous ordinance! ; D Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Finn Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Chuck before you secure the AIM-9's check the photos here for the correct positioning: http://www.eielson.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/photos/061215-F-3488S-083.jpg http://www.bredow-web.de/US_Air_Force/Kampfjets/A-10A_Thunderbolt_II/A-10A_Thunderbolt_II_-_Sidewinder.jpg http://www.rocketryonline.com/jimball/jimball/sidewinder/sidewinder.htm they should be more forward, note the fins are held in place by clips at the front end of the launcher. jari Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted June 19, 2014 Author Share Posted June 19, 2014 Chuck before you secure the AIM-9's check the photos here for the correct positioning: http://www.eielson.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/photos/061215-F-3488S-083.jpg http://www.bredow-web.de/US_Air_Force/Kampfjets/A-10A_Thunderbolt_II/A-10A_Thunderbolt_II_-_Sidewinder.jpg http://www.rocketryonline.com/jimball/jimball/sidewinder/sidewinder.htm they should be more forward, note the fins are held in place by clips at the front end of the launcher. jari Gotcha, thanks Jari! I was so impressed with how the hangers fit the launcher I didn't pay much attention to the front alignment. Thankfully this is an easy fix with no glue or marks to fill. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
zaxos345 Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Absolutely amazing work On these details Chuck, as always!!!! John Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Joel_W Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Chuck, Amazing. Simply amazing. Between the level of detail on those Loads, and your modeling skills, it's nearly impossible to tell the difference from model to the real deal. Joel Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nicholassagan Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Schist! Blowin' me away here, Chuck. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted June 19, 2014 Author Share Posted June 19, 2014 Than you very much gentlemen! The Pig sits beside my workbench screaming, "Finish Me!", but I need to do the best job I can on what hangs underneath- and there's a LOT of it!- before I do. Ever see a nice looking model in the Display Case Forum or at a Model Contest and then notice that the ordnance attached to it looks like crap? It distracts from the overall build and drags it down, so I'm trying to avoid that. The more I look at this A-10, the more I think it will be a stunner when finished, especially if the ordnance and other little bits attached to it look really good. Backtracking and re-doing the front gun and now the wheels doesn't help with time either, but I just know it will be worth it in the end. With summer finally here I'm less dedicated to the build as well, but hey!, it's just a stupid hobby right? Again, thanks for your patience. Chuck Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Joel_W Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Chuck, Enjoy your outdoor summer activities. Like you, I've been cooped up in my modeling room for most of the year other then being at work. When the "Pig" is done, the wait will be more then worth it. Joel Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Finn Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Chuck here is a video of an AIM-9 being loaded, on a F-15E but the principle is the same, the hanger fits into the notches on the launcher and then the missile is slide forward. AIM-9 Load Jari Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted June 19, 2014 Author Share Posted June 19, 2014 Chuck here is a video of an AIM-9 being loaded, on a F-15E but the principle is the same, the hanger fits into the notches on the launcher and then the missile is slide forward. AIM-9 Load Jari Cool- a live missile at that! I don't see them doing anything with the umbilical cord. Was that done later? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
A-10 LOADER Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 WOW, very nice Chuck ! Those AIM-9's look awesome. The umbilical gets hooked up last followed by closing the front cover and snapping the canard retainers ( springs that keep the front canards steady in flight ) onto the fins. Steve Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Marcel111 Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Wow, those are surely the best scale sidewinders I have seen, and like everyone else, I have seen many. Awesome! The launchers also looks fantastic. The Master gun muzzle looks very convincing, and big score on those SH wheels and tires. Marcel Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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