1/72 North American A-11A Courser - Completed

[Speedman]

March 1974, the Vietnam Conflict was still raging and while the USAF, USN & USMC had air superiority over the Vietnamese, the ground war is a different story. Between them they had an impressive line up of strike and bomber aircraft, but since the USAF retired their A-1 Skyraiders two years previously, only the USMC had fixed wing aircraft capable of COIN missions. The USAF needed to fill this gap in their inventory and fill it fast.

Rather than go through the lengthy process of commissioning an aircraft from scratch they decided to look a suitable airframes from their inventory that could be adapted or converted for use in this role. The obvious choice was the OV-10 Bronco, all three services were using them to good effect and the airframe had plenty of potential. The main downfalls of the Bronco were it's lack of speed and weapon load, these were the main factors that would have to be addressed if a successful aircraft was to be produced.

In 1970 the USMC had trialled the YOV-10D in Vietnam and although the design was eventually changed for the production OV-10D it was of great interest to the USAF as a way forward for their project. Addressing the speed issue, it was decided to dispense with the twin turboprops and install a small turbofan engine on the centreline in place of the cargo hold, this would enable additional wing points to be installed and used for forward firing munitions now there were no props to worry about. The intake for the engine was dorsal mounted to reduce the risk of FOD ingestion and damage from ground fire, this configuration also enabled hot turnarounds without the risk of ground crew being ingested.

The YOV-10D had a FLIR turret mounted in a lengthened nose, no side sponsons and a ventral turret mounting a three barrelled 20mm rotary cannon. The USAF decided not to use the turret instead they kept the sponsons but replaced the four 7.62mm guns with two 20mm cannons. It was decided that the aircraft would be single seat only due to the fact that this was successful with the A-1, the additional space achieved through this would be utilised for fuel storage as would the space once occupied by the turboprop engines. All existing OV-10 avionics were moved to the lengthened nose and given protective armour, this would allow the entire avionics pack to be detached and replaced within minutes. The system could then be worked on independent of the airframe, this would greatly reduce the maintenance downtime of each aircraft. The FLIR system would be retained but as a revolutionary "split-system" installation on the front of the two booms., this allowed for greater coverage during maneuvering including inverted flight.

The hard point count was increased to 11, while it was not able to carry the same weapon loads as the Skyraider, it was never the less a very capable aircraft. Trials started September 1974, in January 1975 three evaluation aircraft were sent to Vietnam, within weeks it was obvious that this aircraft was what they were looking for. In March 1975 full production was approved and by June operational units began to receive their aircraft. Because the designation A-10 was already in use with Thunderbolt II (in development) the obvious change from OV-10 to A-10 could not be made. Because it had undergone such radical changes it was decide to rename the aircraft completely, and so the A-11A Courser (they wanted to keep the horse reference) was born.

Well that's the "little" bit of background info I've come up with. The kit will be Academy's 1/72 OV-10D, I originally bought it just for the props as I need them for my Grumman Goose, I've also robbed it of some rocket pod bits for my AH-1G. This group will save it just sitting in my stash forever and should be fun to build.

[Hockeyboy76]

Sounds cool.

[Col.]

This well thought-out back story is a great way to start your project. Look forward to watching it take shape now.

[Speedman]

I've at last managed to make a start on this one

I'm making a completely new bubble canopy rather than use the kit parts. I'm using an old Heller T-28 canopy from the spares box to make a pattern for plug moulding. Lot's of cutting, widening, filling and sanding involved.

I've built the sides of the fuselage up to match the angle of the new canopy.

The new tail section is the nose from a Matchbox Tempest I started converting to a Mk.I as a project 15 years ago. Back then I had removed the intake, filled it with card and smoothed it to shape so it doesn't need a lot of work to make it fit.

A few bits and bobs done including filling the gun ports in the sponsons.

[tc2324]

Nice bit of bashing.

[raptormodeller]

Nice, one question though: How exactly do you create the new canopy and what material do you use to do that?

chomp chomp

-raptor

[Speedman]

Nice, one question though: How exactly do you create the new canopy and what material do you use to do that?

Hi, when I get to that stage I'll do a step-by-step explanation for you

I'm finally able to concentrate on this build now that my BoB Hurricanes are finished. I've kitbashed a seat, detailed and painted the cockpit.

[Speedman]

Things have moved along nicely over the last few days.

Fusalage together and rear section grafted on. I weighted the nose and just behind the cockpit with some Liquid Gravity.

I added a "plug" of card and inverted the cowling for better contouring.

It looks like a plane!

[Speedman]

The start of the boundary layer splitter, I later removed this and redid it but positioned further forward.

Canopy framing added ready for moulding.

The front of the nodegear well was open so I boxed it in with some card. This allowed me to add some more weight by filling the nose cone.

Intake finished.

Canopy to fuselage section finished.

[Col.]

Nice to see this one take another leap forward

[Speedman]

It's taken a huge leap forward over the last week

Intake built and fitted and two short 6mm diameter tubed added.

I made a handle for the canopy and glued it to the inside. Next I cut a hole in some thin MDF, it's approximately 15% larger than the canopy.

I drilled holes in the MDF so I could hold the clear sheet for the canopy in place.

I use tiny wooden pegs I picked up from Hobbycraft a few years ago to hold the edges of the sheet in place. I use a pair of pliers to hold the board over an electric toaster and wait until the sheet softens and starts to sag. Once it has softened I pushed the canopy through and held it in position while it cooled.

The pins stop the sheet from slipping. Without the pegs the sheet will curl and droop down which can cause the sheet to crease when you push the form through.

Finished canopy complete with moulded in frame.

[Speedman]

I cut the Sidewinder rails off of the wing pylons and made new short mounts for them. I then added spare bomb mounts to the wing pylons.

Camera mounts filled & sanded.

Seat fitted and HUD frame added.

Ordnance painted.

[Speedman]

The USAF trialled a sky camouflage on A-37A (67-14525) in 1967. I was going to paint the Courser in the standard SEA scheme but decided this would be a bit different.

Off white (93% Revell acrylic 05 White + 7% Revell acrylic 76 Light grey) and sky blue (87% Xtracrylix XA1026 Azure blue + 13% Revell acrylic 05 White) airbrushed freehand followed by a few coats of Humbrol Clear.

Decals.

Panel lines done with a Faber Castell Pitt pen.

Exhaust shroud fitted.

Ordnance fitted along with the nose wheel.

More ordnance and undercarriage.

[Speedman]

Finished! More photos in the gallery.