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


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19 hours ago, JohnS said:

Love that HUD! :worship:

 

Agree 100%. I thought that scratching the framework, at that scale, was impressive but, adding the details to the glass work ...... speechless.  :thumbsup:

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Hi Peter, Thommo, Joel, Fighting-Eighty Four, John, Steve -- thanks for the kind words!  : )  

 

I'm done rescribing, although there may be more after the wings are attached.   

 

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I found an easier way to rescribe Apoxie Sculpt to prevent crumbling --- you have to time it to dry for 4 hours at which point (midway between clay-soft and rock hard) you can scribe onto it without it breaking apart -- producing really smooth scribe lines with very slight pressure.   Too late I was onto the last doors before I found out but I'll try that technique on the 1/32 and on succeeding builds.

 

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I then attached the wing.    I made sure the top is aligned with the fuselage when viewed from the side.   

 

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The front end cross-section of the wing part is a bit squarish and doesn't match the fuselage too well so there's a bit of a step.

 

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It should be rounded as seen in this pic.  I had to sand it down.

 

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For the gun fairing I had to trim the bottom a little...

 

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The edges are filletted on the real aircraft so I had to use some Apoxie Sculpt.  I wet the tip of a Tamiya paintbrush handle and ran it along the edge of the fairing.

 

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Thanks for stopping by!

Edited by crackerjazz
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I'm glad to see that i wasn't the only one to make a tiny mistake :-)

You might be aware of it, but allow me to reference it now just in case. It's an easy fix that can be added later

 

Ever wondered why the arm for the catapult shuttle is sometimes painted grey  and not white as the rest of the gear?

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because there is no door covering that one .... :)

 

I'm working on a in-flight of an desert storm A-7E and i forgot to add that piece before closing the nose gear doors.

It should be easy enough to add it later on

 

:)

 

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2 hours ago, Joel_W said:

wouldn't the arm that is outside of any housing be painted the same color as the bottom of the aircraft? 

Joel

Not exactly, the launch bar is considered part of the nose landing gear and therefore usually white, it was only in the late stages of the A-7E career that they were painted grey. When I was in VA-82 (84-87), our launch bars were white.

 

The only squadrons that I saw that had grey launch bars were VA-46 and VA-72, they painted the forward 2/3 of the launch bar gray when they got over to the Red Sea for Desert Shield.

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Hi MFAF, thanks!  Hi zaxos345, really great to have you come by!  Hey, Peter you're welcome.  Red Dog, thanks.  I was wondering about that opening --- I was looking for a door to cover that.    Joel, I thought so, too.   Thanks, GW8345.

 

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But, yeah it does look white.

 

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Tied one with some floss.   I just had to harness it or I knew I'd lose it.   Struggled putting it in place, the floss slipped and the launch bar got lost in the crevasse.    And it wouldn't come out anymore.  I'll have to scratchbuild another one.

 

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Tied another from the other kit and finally got it in place and glued it down.  I'm not sure how correct the placement is but I'll leave like it is.  What I'd really like to understand, though, is why parts of the opening are too small for the launch bar.   Either the door on the model isn't shaped correctly or parts of the opening are actually little doors that open up when the nose gear extends or retracts.   Wish I had more photos to compare to.

Edited by crackerjazz
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Crackerjazz,

  it's sure a weird how they dealt with that tow bar.  I've had a few parts from time to time that for some reason I had to do a similar install, and for me it was a nightmare. You seam to have found a workable way.

 

Joel

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Hi Joel, thanks, they would've been easier to install before closing up the nose gear doors --  I think : (   Hi GW8345, really nice to have inputs from someone who worked on the real aircraft  : )   

 

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Scratchbuilt a launch bar to replace the one that disappeared into the tow bar pit : )   Had the same trouble installing it -- it would just twist this way and that.   And without much space for tweezers it was hard to control.  

 

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Two tug points did the trick.  Hey, that putty around the gun fairing needs some refining : ) 

 

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Hi Peter, thanks!  

 

I remember coming across a thread somewhere about someone having trouble with the wingtips not wanting to attach properly in the extended position.   I was worried about facing the same.  Now I understand what he meant.

 

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When attaching the wing tips I noticed something would snag and the part would seesaw around this point but couldn't figure out what it was.  I would trim the wing part at various areas and tried to force it to mesh.   I finished 3 of the wingtips doing it this way until I found out what it was that was causing the trouble.

 

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I even suspected this part that filled the open space in the middle...

 

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But it was actually because of this thing.    When you glue the two halves of the wing tip together there's this little tab that juts out.   I thought maybe it was there for a reason -- maybe it's needed for a folded-wing config, I'm not sure.   But it shouldn't be there if you plan on an extended-wing config.

 

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So I cut off the part..

 

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And the wing parts meshed really nicely.

 

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Edited by crackerjazz
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Wings are practically done except for the elevators -- I'll probably add those with blue tac to make them moveable instead of gluing them in place.    Wanted to do the same for the slats but they don't really hug the edge well so I had to push them in and glue them in place.  The A-7 does look like a drainpipe with wings especially  when viewed directly from underneath, heheh.

 

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Edited by crackerjazz
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Crackerjazz,

  The wings look good.  just two questions, aren't they flaps not elevators?  And are you saying that you'll be leaving them attached with just Blu-Tac rather then gluing them in position?

Joel

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Don't recommend using blu-tac to "glue" the flaps in place, after a while blu-tac dries out and loses it adhesion properties.

 

If you want to make them movable I would recommend drilling a couple of holes in the flap and wing, and using wire.

 

Also, the flaps and slats were connected, if you droop the flaps, the slats would droop also.

 

Just my $0.02

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30 minutes ago, GW8345 said:

also, the flaps and slats were connected, if you droop the flaps, the slats would droop also.

 

Just my $0.02

 Oops, Ive glued the slats on solid on both kits : (  What would be the position of the slats on an A7 in a steep bank? How I wish I"d asked here first :(

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4 hours ago, crackerjazz said:

 Oops, Ive glued the slats on solid on both kits : (  What would be the position of the slats on an A7 in a steep bank? How I wish I"d asked here first :(

It would depend on the airspeed but they would generally be up. In a bank the ailerons and spoilers would be displaced (i.e. not neutral) but the flaps/slats would be in the up position.

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A-7 slats don’t move like that CJ. They are strictly a flap function. Aircraft like Hornets, or Falcons with fly-by-wire flight controls have the chamber of the wing automatically adjusted to the angle of attack by auto deploying the leading edges via computer input. 

 

The A-4 Skyhawk’s leading edge slats were different as well. They rolled back from relative wind pressure, and rolled forward when the AOA (Angle of Attack) increased. Sitting on the ground, gravity slid them forward.

 

The A-7’s slats are hydrolically actuated as a flap function only...

 

If your slats are up, to be correct, the flaps should be up.

 

Tracy

Edited by Vidar_710
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12 hours ago, Vidar_710 said:

A-7 slats don’t move like that CJ. They are strictly a flap function. Aircraft like Hornets, or Falcons with fly-by-wire flight controls have the chamber of the wing automatically adjusted to the angle of attack by auto deploying the leading edges via computer input. 

 

The A-4 Skyhawk’s leading edge slats were different as well. They rolled back from relative wind pressure, and rolled forward when the AOA (Angle of Attack) increased. Sitting on the ground, gravity slid them forward.

 

The A-7’s slats are hydrolically actuated as a flap function only...

 

If your slats are up, to be correct, the flaps should be up.

 

Tracy

That's what I was thinking but couldn't quite remember. I remember only seeing them down for take off and landings, never for maneuvering.

Edited by GW8345
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  • crackerjazz changed the title to A-7E Corsair II - Hasegawa 1/48 (Twin build - Completed)

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