1/48 Monogram A-10A Thunderbolt II

by Patrick Spitaels

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Here is it...finally I can say!  This Monogram kit is one I've had sitting on my shelf for a long time, but I've never attempted it. Now, after lots of work, it's finally done!
- First, I rescribed all the panels lines, but tried to leave the rivets on!

- Second, I used two kits in this plane, the VERLINDEN detail set and the Black Box cockpit; use the BB cockpit, it's wonderful,  but don't forget to sand the bottom of the cockpit, because it's tricky to place with the front wheel well !!

 

- Third; I've got several fitting problems with the fuselage and the wings, the front fuselage is glued with cyano.  You need putty too, tons of it, especially in the front fuselage and the right side (nose), where you've got sink holes.

- Fourth, I decided to lower the flaps, so I cut them from the kit, added plastic cards on the flaps to extend them, sanded inside the wings to have a smaller edge, and it looks good at the end!

-  Fifth, I never found a solution to improve the faces of the engines, so I closed them !

- Sixth; the paint is all from TESTOR, I know that the Hogs are not really dirty, I just try to have different tones in the paint, it looks good but maybe not "natural ", you be the judge.

- Seventh; the décals are from a SUPERSCALE sheet, n° 48-433, and depict a bird from the 23 TASS, it's normally a FAC during the Gulf War

- Eigth, and worth...the " play-load "!  I never found information about the FAC load during the war, I know they carried smoke pods, but about the rest, so I gave it some Mk. 20 Rockeyes. AGM-65 Mavericks, AIM-9L/M Sidewinders,  and two smoke rocket pods. Then I realized that those pods don't exist ! This is a 7 rocket pod, so I built two of them.  The faces are from plastic cards and were punched, the bodies came from the napalm bombs in the kit box.

- Last thing !!!! this bird have a heavy....... ( you understand no ?)so at the first stage of the building i put some weight in the nose, but at the final stage I realized that it still needed weight!  Gee, I used the hole you have in the fuselage right behind the cockpit to insert more....hope the gears hold !!

Finally, this is a " big" bird, but it looks great and aggressive, try it!

Patrick

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Photos and text © by Patrick Spitaels