Hey yall! It's good to be back here after a short while and I'm very very proud and privileged to present to you my recently completed model of the world's premier anti-tank warfare aircraft, the OA-10A 'Warthog'. 

Just to give you a short history of this aircraft.  This big and mean machine has been in service with the U.S. armed forces for about 20 years.  It has thus been the backbone of the ground support units.  With its sturdy fuselage and highly powerful 30mm gun, it has proven itself to be extremely deadly when engaging enemy ground units.  It was used with great success during Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and is still continuing to support ground units in Afghanistan and Iraq to this day, keeping up its good reputation as the best friend for ground units who are under fire from enemy ground forces.

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Alright, back to the topic, this kit was my Christmas present last year and I found it to be quite good detail wise.  It was basically built OOB except for the 2 GBU-8 guided bombs which were robbed from a Hasegawa weapons set as I wanted to make the weapons load more colourful!  Overall it was a joy to assemble and to paint this aircraft.  I didn't scratch-build anything as I did not do much research on A-10s. 

However I faced a setback.  A-10s have a very heavy tail because of the engine.  After I assembled the basic fuselage and landing gear together, the plane's CG was shifted to the back and the plane was sitting on it's tail and the nose gear was airborne.  As I had cemented the plane together, I knew that it was risky to pull the plane apart as the plane could crack, so I could apply more plasticine to the nose. After a few moments of panic, I managed to force open the fuselage to apply the extra weight to the nose to weigh the nose gear down.  Fortunately, the plane did not crack and it's successfully standing on it's nose gear now!

This plane was finished with paints H307 and 308 for the basic scheme for the fuselage.  As you know, I'm still young and new to painting so pardon my flaws in some places yeah?  This plane was weathered by smudging pencil dust in the flight direction. This was a new weathering method I discovered and I've found out that it produces very realistic results!  This weathering method has since been applied to all my recent models in my never-ending collection of warplanes.  The panel lines were highlighted using a sharp 2B pencil and the excess dust were smudged in the flight direction to create extra realism. 

Ok I think I'll let the rest of the pictures do the talking for you!  Will be back soon with next article on my 1/48 Italeri F-15A 'Baz' of the Israeli Air Force (IAF).  Stay tuned!

God bless! 

Cheers!!

Chuang Xue Qian

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