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A-7E Corsair II - Hasegawa 1/48 (Twin build - Completed)


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A  couple suggestions for a less complicated way to paint on bomb stripes.  Get some heat shrink tube, the kind used for covering wire splices.  Get several diameters that are close to and smaller then the end of the bombs.

 

Paint the bombs OD green.  Slide one of the shrink tubes over the tip so it stretches over the tip of the bomb.  Experiment with different diameter tube till you like the result.   Spray the yellow at the tip.  Either using the same tube or switching to a slightly larger tube push and stretch the tube further up to cover some of the yellow and spray the OD green again.  Pull off the tube and you have a stripe.

 

You can also modify this technique with a balloon or latex gloves.  Prick a hole with a pin, do not cut a hole with a razor, in a glove or un-inflated balloon.  Paint bomb tip yellow.  Push bomb tip through the pin hole and stretch over bomb tip till some of the bomb tip is sticking through.  Paint OD green.  Once dry, push bomb through a bit more and paint back half of bomb od green.  Pull off balloon and you have a stripe.  Allow paint to dry fully before each step.

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CrackerJazz,

  I'm really impressed with your engineering of a vac formed mask.  I've never tried heat shrink tubing, but it should work just fine. Then there is always the good old masking tape. Ok, for my 1/32 scale A4 I used Tamiya curable tape and it worked ok. 

 

Joel

 

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Hi Gianni,  GW, route62us, Joel, wow thanks for the info -- I'm gonna look into that for sure!  : )

 

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Tried to make this look better as it looked kinda like a faucet.

 

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Crimped the rods with the long nose at an angle

 

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And chopped the ends off.

 

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CJ, nice work on modifying the nose fuze arming vanes. They look much better flattened out and cut down.

If I could make a suggestion on painting the bombs. Here's what I did for my 1/18th scale Tomcat's MK-83's,

Sanded the bomb bodies and used BIC "Wite Out" correction fluid for the thermal coating. Let this dry over night.

Painted the nose section of the bombs with Insignia Yellow. Let this dry over night.

Cut some thin strips of Tamiya tape and masked off for the yellow stripes.

Airbrushed the bomb colors on and unmasked as soon as possible.

Flat coated everything and weathered the bombs, then a final flat coat to lock everything in.

 This was my first time using the correction fluid and, it worked great. You might not be adding this coating to your bombs but, all the other steps are the same. Trust me, I've loaded a lot on bombs in my 20 year Air Force career and, bombs and their stripes are not perfect or pretty. Hope this helps.

Steve

 

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Hey CJ,

Not really sure. Some were better looking than others but, for the most part they did not look masked, just sprayed yellow with a soft demarcation line. The guys who build up the bombs and delivered them to the flightline are called AMMO troops. I was a Weapons Loader.

 

Steve

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5 hours ago, CaptainObvious said:

Crimping the arming vanes is INGENIOUS!

 

CrackerJazz, 

    I'm with Capt. Obcvious on your technique being ingenious. Looks fantastic. 

 

   A-10 Loader, thanks for all the 1st hand info. 

Joel

 

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Wow, awesome careers you guys are amazing!    Thanks for the stripes info!   Hey CapO, Joel, thanks guys : )

By the way, GW8345, I haven't decided yet about which squadron to do but I'm leaning towards these three, if I could find any 1/48 decals.

 

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  the stripes  are a real eye opener at least for me. We as modelers tend to want to make everything neat & done precisely with care, yet in the real world it was anything but that.  Now I just wonder what the judges would say, and how they would react to bomb stripes painted on free hand.  Food for thought. 

 

Joel

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Jazz,

 

For the aircraft you posted, follow the painting instructions I posted and you will be spot on.

 

Green bombs, two yellow stripes and the fuze would be tan color with silver propeller, the fin's will be a shade different than the bomb body.

 

Also, part of my time in the Navy was loading/working on A-7E's with VA-82.

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Thanks GW!   Hi TTomcaTT, regarding the bad clear parts -- I tried fixing the windscreen using boiling water but it twisted out of shape almost immediately after dunking   (I guess the water needs to be hot but not boiling).   Luckily, though, I found someone selling an old kit with clear parts in perfect shape so I used those for my build.   I think I'd like to build more A7s in the future so this morning I ordered a batch of 4 canopies (tree K) from Hobbico.   If they come from the new mold they might all end up being too wide, but I'm crossing my fingers.  I'll post up pics as soon as they get here -- It can take up to 8 weeks to receive from Japan I was told.

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Oh, that's because  I couldn't see any link for purchasing replacements parts in the Hasegawa Japan website:

http://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/gsite/top/

 

But Hasegawa USA has Hobbico as a dealer:

https://www.hasegawausa.com/techsupport.html

 

There's a dealer locator link as well but it directs you to a Japanese page : (

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Great work! Love the VA-147 and -113 options. There is a PrintScale sheet with VA-87 bird on it, but from a different timeframe. Clicky

 

I've had mixed experience with PrintScale decals. Interesting subjects, but decals were a bit thick.

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Hi John, thanks!  : )

 

A little more work on the firing lead cables.   The front ones that go downwards -- they weren't the simple question-mark shape -- they kind of curve around and twist at the ends so I had a little problem keeping them all uniform.   I had to fashion something to shape the wire right and make the task of bending and cutting wires a bit more relaxing.

 

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Just for future reference, the Breech Leads (firing cables) were not uniform on the way they curved. Those were flexible cables that were connected once the weapon was loaded and the cartridge was installed so the curve would be however the Ordies left them. You don't have to make them uniform, they weren't uniformed in real life.:thumbsup:

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  • crackerjazz changed the title to A-7E Corsair II - Hasegawa 1/48 (Twin build - Completed)

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