Hoops

Air Graphics does to a set of them in 1/72, but if they're worth £6.50 is a question left to any possible purchasers. Link to their webstore page: I would like to scratch them myself as I know I can do a better job for much less. I would love to the actual measurements rather than making educated guesses. If it comes to making educated guesses, I'll go with that. Cheers, Hoops

Wow, those castings are rough. At least there are photos of the set on the website so the customer can see what they get ahead of time. For most of the Air Graphics sets, that does not seem to be the case.

There is no need to kitbash between the A-4E and the A-4M, just go with the A-4E kit. The A-4K had the squared off top to the vertical tail just like early A-4Ms did, to the best of my knowledge the only boxing of the Fujimi kit that includes this tail is the A-4KU (Kuwait). The Fujimi A-4M and the Hobby 2000 rebox have the "hot dog" fairing on the top of the tail from the late A-4Ms. Either way you'll have to modify the top tail, whether your starting with the A-4E or the A-4M kit. I think you might as well save yourself the money of buying a second kit and just go with the A-4E kit. I've done that modification myself years ago making an Israeli A-4F. I just used a saw to cut off the front corner of the vertical stabilizer, glued in an appropriate piece of sheet styrene and sanded to shape. It was a very easy process and didn't take more than a few minutes. As mentioned above, to get a post Kahu mod "K" there are a few other antennas that need to be added, but nothing very difficult. Decals are now available from Armycast, previously that would have been the greatest challenge. Cheers, and happy modelling, Hoops

This is what I will call the "late style heavyweight wheels" Block 50/52 had these from the beginning, and block 40/42 was later retrofitted with this style. The nosewheels are also wider on both, necessitating a small bulge visible inside the intake for clearance. The lightwieght nose wheels never really changed, so those aren't going to be really any different across the board. What is pictured here is what I'll call the "late style lightweight wheels." Most F-16s with the leightweight landing gear (All A/Bs, and C/Ds up until block 30/32) seem to have been retrofitted with these later in their career. The "early style lightweight wheels" looked like this: Link to Burkhard Domke's photo. The early block 40/42 main wheels look like this: Resin items in 1/48. I find that they look awfully similar to the F-2 wheels, also of note, the same style was used on the F-16XL. Link to a F-16XL photo on Flickr where the Block 40 syle are visible. As the Block 40/42 aircraft were later retrofitted with the Block 50 style in US Air Force service, older photos are going to be the only ones to show them. Cheers, Hoops

I'm on mobile right now, so I can't upload any photos. That being said the F-2 Wheels are very similar to the original Block 40 heavyweight wheels, which is not pictured above. I'll see if I can link or upload a photo later.

To me, the F-2 intake looks similar to the "Large Normal Shock Inlet" (LNSI) used by F-16XL #2, 75-0747. A discussion of that intake can be found on page 84 of the NASA "book" on the program: https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/elegance_in_flight.pdf Cheers, Hoops

I don't have any photo comparisons or red lines to back it up, but I think that the angle of the windscreen on these kits is too shallow. Looking at the clear plastic parts in my hands, as well as completed builds on the internet compared to my experience and photos of the aircraft, I don't think that they quite got the angles right. Of note, in all of the illustrations and packaging, the angle looks a lot better, just not in the plastic. I don't know if there is a good way to fix the windscreen angle though, we are probably stuck with it. Has anyone else noticed that as well? Other than that I think it's a decent short run kit, and at an easier price point than that the RVHP resin kit. Cheers, Hoops

This is a really old thread, but I stumbled across it while looking for dimensions to build the chaff/flare mounts for a 1/72 Tornado F3. I found a photo on Flickr of a F3 taken almost directly from the bottom, scaled it to 1/72 in Inkscape and then did some measurements. The following are my interpretations: Total length: 9mm Width: 3.6mm Height: 3mm Hopefully if anybody else conducts a similar search this will help them, Tornado F3 Flare Buckets v1 by J2Hoops, on Flickr I still need to match the bottom to the curve of the fuselage, but I think it's a good start. Cheers, Hoops

Thank you for the update! Hoops

This decal sheet doesn't seem to be released quite yet? I don't see it on the Army Cast website or anywhere else for that matter, I doubt it has already sold out? Cheers, Hoops

There are really good photos of both of the cockpits in the link Inposted above. The differences between a normal A-10A and the N/AW front instrument panel that I noted are as follows: 1. The weapons selector panel is moved to the center 2. The flight instrument "6 pack" is moved to the left side 3. An "up front controller" for the HUD is added to the upper center that stands proud from the instrument panel. It seems to have controls for the LLTV, radalt, and others. The right side of the panel seems to be the same though. Now this based on the early configuration covered by the New York digital archive, which I would associate with the taller tails and initial testing. The ARC photos are much less complete but you can sus out some, but not all, of the differences, and it is still different from the normal A-10 instrument panel

There was only one aircraft converted to the N/AW configuration 73-1664, and it is on exterior display at the US Air Force Flight Test Museum on board Edwards Air Force Base. The aircraft was based on one of the original Full Scale Development aircraft, so there are some minor differences between the N/AW and a production A-10 despite the two seat cockpit. I'm not a 1/32 scale modeller so I don't know how many of them Trumpeter represents or not. I know that the cockpit did have some changes throughout the aircraft's career, the photos on ARC seem represent how it was at the very end after being retired, and there are a bunch of photos here from the aircraft early in it's testing: https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll109/search/searchterm/a-10 all weather There are some minor difference between the front cockpit and that of a standard A-10, it may be close enough for your preferences to just use a standard set. I've made line drawing for the aircraft and rear cockpit to support my conversion in 1/72 scale, but haven't actually started the project yet. Cheers, Hoops

Really good job Chris, The kit is "challenge" to say the least, and I'm glad that the transition from fuselage to exhaust worked out as well as it did. Congratulations on a great looking build! Hoops

OK, down the rabbit hole we go... I have no confirmation of this as an amateur internet sleuth, but I think that there was at least a static installation of the M197 turret on a line OV-10D (i.e. not the two YOV-10Ds 155395 or 155396) with VMO-2 at Camp Pendleton in the 1980s. See this link to an archive of an old Ebay slide auction Looking at the background there are a few other aircraft visible 155483 and 155484 (side number 27). Another picture of 155484 can been seen here on Facebook from Detail and Scale, showing the 27 side number on the nose. This photo on Flickr shows a whole line up of VMO-2 Aircraft on the Pendleton flightline. Of note 155484 is all the way down at the end, and can been seen with the same tail markings as seen in the background of of the ebay slide above. The aircraft with the M197 turret installation is side number 22, but it's BuNo cannot be seen in that photo. In this Flickr photo, the tail for "22" is visible and is clearly BuNo 155466 and the machine gun sponsons have been removed from the fuselage! With both aircraft are painted the same across the multiple photos and interpolating from incomplete data, and I think that the slide previously sold is of 155466 with a M197 at least temporarily and statically installed. I doubt any of us have it, but it would be amazing to see more information. Cheers, Hoops

CT7567, This is the diameter that I am looking for: Bell_AH-1J_Sea_Cobra_2_(4685837287) by J2Hoops, on Flickr From that I think I can interpolate the rest of the measurements close enough to look the part in 1/72 scale. There seems to be two versions of the turret that were installed on OV-10s for various "NOGS" tests. The first version that deployed to Vietnam, has the turret mounted at the very aft of the center fuselage. This version had a larger aerodynamic fairing between the fuselage and the turret itself. The turret seemed to be mounted at a slight downward angle, and is the version depicted rather basically in the Airfix kit. It seems to have had the same shroud around the gun itself as the AH-1, but the bottom rounded "pan" was sometimes removed it seems (see your third photo) yov-10d_canon by J2Hoops, on Flickr There also seems to be a later version of the installation, where the turret was mounted immediately behind the rear seat. This version had only a very short (vertically) spacer between the fuselage and the turret, which had a much deeper, hemispherical, shroud around it. Link! as well as your 4th photo. There are also some images of this version of the installation without the lower "pan" portion of the shroud installed either. This later turret is the one that I'm more interested in, as I really don't like the look of the three color camouflage or the early FLIR. I think that the later AAS-37 FLIR is more visually appealing, as well as either the overall dark green, or dark green over light grey camouflages. I would be designing the turret in CAD and 3D printing it, but would use the Master M197 Barrels. Cheers, Hoops