Hajo L. Posted April 18, 2019 Share Posted April 18, 2019 (edited) As announced I will give some love to the N/AW-10A, the double-seater Thunderbolt II. For me the Cold War was always something that was geographically very close - I grew up in the eastern suburbs of the german town of Lübeck. Lübeck was once mentionend in Winston Churchills speech about the "Iron Curtain": Quote "An iron curtain is drawn down upon their front. We do not know what is going on behind. There seems little doubt that the whole of the region Lubeck-Trieste-Corfu will soon be completely in their hands." To give you some idea: Here is Lübeck: I lived in the east of the city, here: To be precise, I lived where the arrow of "1" is aiming to. As young kids, me and my friends usually went to the surrounding fields, and very often we paid the railway track (blue line) a visit. There we would watch the trains that went across the inner-german border (red line), mostly loaded with coal, and sometimes we just stared eastwards. And at "2", we could see trucks and cars crossing the track, east german vehicles! For us young boys it felt like we would look right into the heart of the communist empire! So, growing up as a son of a german reserve officer, and sometimes hearing and seeing east german Mi-24s flying patrol on "their" side, while we had UH-1Ds and Alouette IIs flying on "our" side, I knew very well that if the Cold War would ever go hot, we´d be among the first to notice! One of the things we west germans would have to count on the tackle the "Red Steamroller" of various battle tanks would have been the A-10 Thunderbolt. Long story short: I will do a double-seater Thunderbolt, "as if" it became operational during the mid-80ies and forward deployed to Germany. The kit will be the Hobbyboss 1/72-model, I built one some years ago and remember it a very nice project. HAJO Edited April 18, 2019 by Hajo L. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
southwestforests Posted April 18, 2019 Share Posted April 18, 2019 Will the model be in West German livery? Lubeck is a name I know of from railroad history; don't recall having ever thought about its proximity to the iron curtain's frontier and fences. The Lübeck-Büchener Steam-Motor Locomotive http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/lubeck/lubeck.htm Quote Updated: 23 Jan 2006 What little information exists on this most obscure of projects is in German. I have done my best with it, but if anything is egregiously wrong please let me know. The L�beck-B�chener Eisenbahn Gesellschaft (LBE) was an important private railway company in the North of Germany, noted for adopting new and progressive ideas with enthusiasm. As early as 1936 they were running a high-speed passenger service with air-conditioned coaches. They also used double-decker coaches at an early date. The line linked L�beck, B�chener, Kiel and Hamburg. Its initial construction was considerably complicated by the Schleswig-Holstein question, and there are few railways that can say that. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hajo L. Posted April 19, 2019 Author Share Posted April 19, 2019 I just googled the LBE and I know these double-decker coaches! I remember seeing them during the 150-year-anniversary of the Deutsche Bahn, when a pair of them travelled round Lübeck! Back to the Thunderbolt... No, it will be in USAF-livery. The kit itself is something along an "easy-kit", which means, that there are only a few parts and many stuff is without much detail. So I had to add some instruments to the panel, since it came without any details. Having bought the kit second hand without any decals also didn´t help much, since the original plan was to have decals for the instrument panel... 😉 The back-seater has two big displays for his sensor suite. And of course I added some ballast to this part to keep the aircraft balanced. HAJO Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantom Posted April 20, 2019 Share Posted April 20, 2019 Beauty, I have a 1/48 A-10 missing a bunch of parts I was thinking of doing in Non-US colours too. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hajo L. Posted April 20, 2019 Author Share Posted April 20, 2019 I *think* there have been some sort of idea or thoughts about procuring the A-10 for the Luftwaffe... Would have made sense back then! HAJO Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hajo L. Posted April 21, 2019 Author Share Posted April 21, 2019 Did I mention "only a few parts"? To get to this it took only a couple of minutes: There are two reasons why the N/AW-10 looks strange. #1 of course is the two-seater cockpit, #2 are the bigger rudders. Apparently the prototype got bigger rudders to compensate for the changed front part of the aircraft (because of #1). Since I think this looks too much off, I cut away about 5mm of the upper part of the rudders. Dumb me forgot to take pictures before and after... So this is after. They are still bigger that the "normal" rudders, I will take a picture with one of my standard Thunderbolts later. HAJO Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Els Posted April 21, 2019 Share Posted April 21, 2019 It's looking good. I always liked the 2-seater and now you have me wanting to build one. Els Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hajo L. Posted April 22, 2019 Author Share Posted April 22, 2019 21 hours ago, Els said: ...now you have me wanting to build one. Els ...ok, my work here is done... 😉 Engines have been fitted: HAJO Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hajo L. Posted April 24, 2019 Author Share Posted April 24, 2019 You can tell by the layout of the parts that this kit is an update of the one-seater A-10. Problem is: They obviously forgot a part that propably is located on a "one-seater"-only sprue: Those small duck-tails that finish up the back of the gear sponsons below the wing. So, I just added some PE-parts to simulate Chaff/Flare-launchers: At the moment I´m working on the crew, using two figures of my beloved Revell Modern Pilots Set. I must have used up about 7 or 8 sets since their release, and have stored another 4 packs in the cellar... HAJO Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hajo L. Posted April 26, 2019 Author Share Posted April 26, 2019 I was busy applying the camo. my new habit of noting the colors I used in my WIPs paid off, I simply looked into my A-10-thread from the Shelfqueen GB and found the right colors. The brighter green is one of my mixes, using Revells 65 as base, lightened up with a bit of Khaki 86 and Yellow 15 (both Revell Acryllics). The dark green is Revell 39. Also two closer looks of the crew, which got color and therefor life! 😉 Tomorrow I should be able to finish with the last color. HAJO Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantom Posted April 26, 2019 Share Posted April 26, 2019 Looks good. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CaptainObvious Posted April 28, 2019 Share Posted April 28, 2019 Nice progress! -co Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hajo L. Posted April 29, 2019 Author Share Posted April 29, 2019 I skipped making a picture after applying the black spots. I wish they`d be a bit more greyish, but hopefully the final matt coating will reduce the contrast. As you can see, I have already added the decals using a set from Microscale since the kit came without decals (2nd hand). The Microscale-decals looked a bit old and I was doubtful if they will do good - but they did excellent! They went on very smoothly and reacted good to Mr. Softer, which was important for the shark mouth on the nose! In the background: A letter accusing me having done a violation of § 41 Abs 1 iVm Anlage 2, § 49 StVO; § 24 StVG; 11.3.5 BKat. 😄 Or, in short: A speeding ticket! 😉 HAJO Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Els Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 Somebody better tell Phantom that they are giving speeding tickets for building to fast now! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantom Posted May 2, 2019 Share Posted May 2, 2019 Not me. Glad to see someone else getting their stuff done! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hajo L. Posted May 2, 2019 Author Share Posted May 2, 2019 Yep, the aircraft itself is done! But it is still missing one of the main features of the A-10: Weapons!!! 😄 HAJO Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ChernayaAkula Posted May 3, 2019 Share Posted May 3, 2019 Really like where you're going with this! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hajo L. Posted May 4, 2019 Author Share Posted May 4, 2019 Thank you for your comments, guys! Now it´s done! I think it´s looking like the "Mothership of Close-Air-Support"! Here a comparison with a "normal" A-10 (Italeri): Both cockpit in comparison: "Who´s got a bigger tail?" 😉 Even though the rudders of the N/AW-10A haven been cut smaller by me, they are still a good portion bigger than on the normal A-10: I had planned to nstall the Mavericks in a triple, but like on the original aircraft the inner missile collided with the gear sponson, so I had to leave it off. Nice shark-mouth! I mounted an additional sensor-pod. First idea was to place it between the Sidewinders and the Mavericks on station 10, but that would be too narrow. So I put it on station 8 and a LGB as counterweight. This way the wing is also a bit cleaner with the stations 2 and 10 empty. And in natural environment: HAJO Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantom Posted May 4, 2019 Share Posted May 4, 2019 For a what if , it looks pretty real to me. Great job. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Els Posted May 5, 2019 Share Posted May 5, 2019 That turned out nice. It just looks so right in that camo. I never realized that the rudders on the 2 seaters were that much bigger, I think it was a good idea that you trimmed it down a little. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hajo L. Posted May 5, 2019 Author Share Posted May 5, 2019 Thank you guys! I built the same kit some years ago, but it´s currently at my parents place. I think the rudders are too big and ruin the look of the aircraft. My idea back then was to use it as a "Super FAC", and that´s why I have chosen the following armament: HAJO Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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