Esci have produced
some reasonable 1:48 scale kits of modern military jets and their A7D and A7E
kits are not too bad - certainly not up to the standards of the Hasegawa (and
now Revell) kit but as the cost is likely to the 25% of the latter then the Esci
kit certainly scores highly in the value for money stakes. I obtained both
the A7D and A7E kits second hand. The plastic is silvery grey and the
parts have raised panel lines; the
undercarriage is basic, the cockpit rudimentary and the weapons/stores best
discarded. Having said that the separate cockpit access ladder and pull
down steps are a nice touch and the canopy parts are thin, clear and nicely
detailed.
The fuselage is split vertically and into front and rear sections, the joints
between which require filling to avoid unsightly steps. I joined the front
and rear sections of each fuselage half before joining the halves together to
minimise the "step potential". The kit provides decals for the
cockpit instruments so I scratch built a new console using plastic card with
holes drilled for the instruments and used the decal behind it (a bit like a
photoetched panel/film combination only much cheaper). I replaced the kit
seat with an Aeroclub white metal Escapac seat.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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The wings are
moulded so that they can be posed folded, I assembled them unfolded. The
stores pylons have the correct profile but are on the thin side. The kit
provides oversize "Snakeye" bombs with a poor representation of a MER.
These were not even worth keeping for spares so I binned them, instead using
spares box TERs and slick bombs (all ex-Monogram). After priming I brush
painted an all over camouflage pattern using Humbrol enamels and used Superscale
decals to represent an A7D of the 120th FIS/140th FW Colorado Air National Guard
as based at Buckley ANGB, Denver circa 1981.
Darius
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