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N/AW-10A Thunderbolt II, Hobbyboss in 1/72


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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":

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"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:

 

xOxwq67.jpg

 

I lived in the east of the city, here:

 

WdisScc.jpg

 

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!

 

7w5Ywqd.jpg

 

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.

 

RfJgQXT.jpg

 

The kit will be the Hobbyboss 1/72-model, I built one some years ago and remember it a very nice project.

 

 

HAJO

 

Edited by Hajo L.
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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

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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. 

 

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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.

 

8gpSeC7.jpg

 

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... 😉

 

E1lOEZu.jpg

 

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.

 

NIrDTSP.jpg

 

 

HAJO

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Did I mention "only a few parts"? To get to this it took only a couple of minutes:

 

yeWdQCh.jpg

 

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...

 

iZMg2Vz.jpg

 

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

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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:

 

Gni3lSC.jpg

 

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...

 

ndE0kjV.jpg

 

 

HAJO

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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.

 

Ox4Nshu.jpg

 

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! 😉

 

EQG71BR.jpg

 

CTxpSZ7.jpg

 

Tomorrow I should be able to finish with the last color.

 

 

HAJO

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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.

 

KzXpqJe.jpg

 

 

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!

 

nL5gyoA.jpg

 

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

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Thank you for your comments, guys!

 

Now it´s done!

 

A1V2EK7.jpg

 

I think it´s looking like the "Mothership of Close-Air-Support"!

 

Here a comparison with a "normal" A-10 (Italeri):

 

hy6BIZ3.jpg

 

AS2b00y.jpg

 

Both cockpit in comparison:

 

b62dZYt.jpg

 

"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:

 

AOLp5IV.jpg

 

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.

 

EPCJHPp.jpg

 

Nice shark-mouth!

 

p4fLFpu.jpg

 

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.

 

W00lEPM.jpg

 

rVbAIBM.jpg

 

47gzri4.jpg

 

And in natural environment:

 

mJdU2LE.jpg

 

PzaDP8Y.jpg

 

 

HAJO

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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.

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Thank you guys!

 

I built the same kit some years ago, but it´s currently at my parents place.

 

1Q3meLY.jpg

 

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:

 

074nDPd.jpg

 

 

HAJO

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