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1/32 Trumpeter A-7E converted to Hellenic A-7H


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Good morning guys, i have this new project wondering around my modelling table for a year now, but i have finally found some time to do some work and to have something to show.

You all know the kit, it is the trumpeter's A-7E, there are some things that have to be changed in order to become a -H model but also a lot of things that have to be corrected as the model has a lot of mistakes.

I have all the zacto goodies (you cannot build an accurate A-7 without these), eduard and Aires ones as well as some other stuff, that you will see during the build.

I think that it is now the time to thank Harold (aka AMS resin) for his help with the A-7 wheels he produced as well as Barry who helped Harold with his scratch work and of course John Wolstenholme (who, IMHO, has built the best A-7 in 1/32 scale) for his help and advice as well as a fellow Greek modeler and a good friend of mine, Vaggelis who has provided me with a lot of pics and measurements of specific parts of the real plane.

Here you can see the things i have to correct, sand down, rescribe, scratchbuild etc.

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I started by trying to correct some bad molding issues and trying to sand down the refueling prob detail, as the -H ones had this item removed

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I closed the gap and scratch built the cover that was put there

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I opened the air condition inlet and modified it

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I sanded down the antennas from the vertical stabilizer and corrected them in terms of shape and position

 

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Edited by zaxos345
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In order to make the exhaust section of the air condition more correct i produced a stencil as i could mot find one at these dimensions and rescribed the new one

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I sanded down and rescribed the LORAN antenna...

 

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Opened the holes underneath (the one was the exhaust section for the starter)

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opened, narrowed, shortened and moved the grilles of the right electronics bay door

 

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I have a lot of work ahead of me trying to build as correctly as i can the aircraft that i flew with for almost 2000 hours and loved so much.

You may not all of you be aware but the Hellenic A-7s are the last ones that fly in the skies and their last fly will take place in 17th of October when their retirement ceremony will take place at Araxos AFB.

So i think of this build as a tribute to this adorable aircraft as well as to the guys and my colleagues who flew with it, loved it and some were killed!

John

Edited by zaxos345
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Hi John - wow - the mods you're doing are terriffic - very inspiring! I'll certainly be following your build. Just seeing those louvres makes me wanna copy you already (hope you don't mind!) I didn't know they're retiring the Hellenic planes soon, and sorry to hear about your colleagues who have gotten killed - this will surely be a fitting tribute to them.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Thanks for the comments and interest guys, Mike the -H model was a hybrid one, mostly early -E but with a lot of -D features! I have to wipe away some panels, to scribe some others and to correct a lot of inaccuracies and bad moldings!!

John

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  • 6 months later...

Good morning guys,

A lot of things kept me away from her...but i am back again!!

Work is really slow due to limited time as well as to the fact that there are a lot of things that have to be corrected or changed.

I started to deal with the M-61 Vulcan area where a lot of thing are going to be visible and had to be corrected.

 

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Next the gun fairing area...

The kit....

 

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The real one

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Joe (aka crackerjazz) , a very good guy, modeler and friend in here worked on the same area and he really did a superb job and he was very kind to provide me with some vac of his mods. I used it to modify the kits part cause the vac was very thin. So i followed his steps like a hound dog!!!

 

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Edited by zaxos345
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P1090522_zpssjstlem7.jpg

And this is what i made, i have not modify all the area yet.

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Next thing was the ladder which was totally out of scale!!!

The real one

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And mine in 1/32

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Thats all for now, till the next update, have a nice weekend,

John

Edited by zaxos345
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Awesome work...top notch all the way and quite inspirational :thumbsup: . Well done. Looking forward to more progress reports.

Regards,

Don.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Good evening guys, a little progress to present...

I built the ladder but i was not pleased with the look of the place where it stored as well as with the access panel, so i tried to fix them, first with the store place..

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Here an image with the access door pre build and with the ladder...Due to the right proportionals the angle of the ladder with the fuselage is almost perfect.

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Next, time for the access door. I sanded all the detail, which was wrong, and sanded more in order to bring it to scale thickness. I also added a small PE from Eduard...

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And here everything dryfitted...i have added a couple of photos of the original

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Edited by zaxos345
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