Romeo Alpha Yankee

Its now on the wheels and I am sorting out a weapons load. Gear doors are painted and to be fitted Regarding the weapons, the only pictures of the aircraft with any load show a single AGM-65 Maverick and/or centreline fuel tank. The prototype did carry two pods when the centreline was not on. They were a FLIR pod and Radar pod. If it had gone into production than the radar and FLIR would have been mounted in extended MLG pods. I half thought about making some up. See how I go! So I will make it up starting with these which singles seaters carried regularly. These were sourced for some Hasegawa Weapons sets I have Test fitting before paint I'm looking for some bombs in the spares, perhaps some MK82 Snakeyes or MK84s, we'll see what my search brings up.

You're right, I've seen pictures with the radar pod and FLIR pod mainly and a couple with the centreline tank or a single Maverick

Good idea with the weight in the wings Dave. I added weight in the nose of mine thinking it was enough with even a test showing all OK. I had to add some more after everything was buttoned up. Fortunately there was a slot in the wheel well and it was just big enough to slide a bit of lead sheet into.

Nice progress Stu, I have been doing a little work on mine as well. You are a tad ahead of me. Any weapons going on yours?

OK, how about Cocos Island (part of the Australian Indian Ocean Territories), our AP-3s would use it as short term base of operations to patrol the Indian Ocean areas of interest.

You motor is looking very good Robin, a huge improvement on the kit offerings

Too bad about the tail, any progress? I found my Kiwi Resins CT-4 and have started to resurrect it along with a PC-9

Great to see it on the finished end of the build. Looks great A credit to you John! 🏆

Thanks Mate, I was surprised the wheels cleaned as well as they did. The bug smasher in the background is a NZ Aerospace CT-4A, it was the RAAF basic trainer from 1975 to 1992. I started it for the Trainers GB back in 2019 and it languished due to self induced stuff ups. I am thinking of starting a thread for it here even though Julien is building a 3D printed version. Mine will be in a later orange/white scheme and one of the aircraft I flew a couple of Navigation sorties in. It is still in a bit of a mess at the moment

I saw this kit the other day, well week at the Melbourne Model Expo and half thought about buying it and doing similar with it. Well it was a half thought and I didn't buy it so I will follow along with your build instead!

Great progress Jeff, I would like to do the same one day, though my scratch building skills are rather monolithic compared to yours. Perhaps I will just sit back and enjoy build rather than worry about doing the same

Looks great John.

Nicely done Bill, the finish is great. Glad you picked up on the speed brake issue

I don't and exactly the same happens, but not with just clear coats, also paint. I have 2 on the shelf of doom awaiting a partial repaint due to this.

Thanks gents, some more paint and markings The engines are being repainted for the third and hopefully final time with Tamiya Royal Blue.