Chris Baer

I'm pleased to present my most recent build, the 1/48 Hasegawa A-4F, wearing the colorful test livery of BuNo 154175, assigned to the Naval Air Test Center at NAS Patuxent River, circa July 1969 (reference photo). Decals come from the Caracal Models' A-4E/F Skyhawk sheet, and a handful of aftermarket rounds out the presentation. The build itself was mostly pleasant. The Hasegawa A-4 tooling as been around for almost twenty-five years, so it's strengths and weaknesses are well-defined at this point. I opted not to fix the step at the back of the slat wells; any scratch repair job on my part would have been far more noticeable than a subtle geometry error you have to know to look for. The only really iffy issues for me were with the engine intakes and the rear fuselage air brakes. The intakes are a bit of a mini-model in their own right; I had to paint, assemble, and mask them prior to fairing them into the fuselage. Because my reference aircraft didn't have the stiffening plate, I was able to remove it, which let me line up the intake to the fuselage without much bother -- otherwise, the two halves of the stiffening plate weren't going to match up no matter how much I sanded or prayed. It's an adage that if a part can be opened, the kit maker probably expects you're going to pose it open, and the air brakes are no different here. It took some (mostly) judicious sanding to get them basically flush with the surrounding fuselage area. Full marks for any kit maker that includes a bespoke closed part for anything that can be opened! The aftermarket for this one includes an engine exhaust plug from Phase Hangar Resin; intake FOD covers from Quickboost; and most notably, brand new Aero 1D 300-gallon drop tanks from Flying Leatherneck. The kit drop tanks are frightfully basic, lacking any detail whatsoever. These tanks have detail to spare, particularly with the characteristic fuel-filler cap towards the left front of the tanks. I fumbled a bit with the tank assembly, thinking the joins where the nose and fin attach were meant to have a visible seam; they were most decidedly not, and much filling, sanding, and swearing ensued, but the final result isn't too bad. They required a bit of surgery to fit on the kit pylons, but nothing too radical, and they don't affect the center of gravity sufficiently to turn a properly-weighted Hasegawa A-4 into a tail-sitter. (I did manage to drop one and snap off the fin, alas, after painting, so the starboard tank has a slightly cracked fin.) I tried to use a LP Models crew ladder, but I just couldn't get the mounting rod to match up with the matching hole I drilled before I bought it. Shame, because it's very nice. The ladder on the ground in some of the pictures is the LP version; the mounted ladder is from the kit. The figures are from the very nice ICM US Pilots and Ground Personnel (Vietnam War) set, and the base is a pre-made Zoukei-Mura model, which remains the best $20 I've ever spent in the hobby. Decals went down like a dream, just as you'd expect from Caracal and Cartograf. The only iffy decal issue arose when it came time to place the US insignia over the wing vortex generators on the port wing, the bane of any US Navy or Marine Skyhawk build. I erred on the side of caution and hoped that prodigious applications of MicroSol would get the decal to conform, but I needed to have been more aggressive with actually pressing down on the decal during the initial application, I think, as it's not a "painted on" look, with slight bumpy contours visible between the strakes. To their credit, the Cartograf/Caracal decals held up to the MicroSol, only tearing when I tried to force the issue (literally). A tiny piece of white decal from a spare on the sheet covered most of my sins, but it's the one weak point with the decals on the build, all due to the user. Paints are a mixture of Mr. Paint and Mr. Color lacquers, laid down over black and pink Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500. The red landing gear bay door outlines were applied with a red paint pen. I went for a black-basing technique on the light gull grey uppers and white lowers, and I opted against a glossy finish. I really wanted a worn-down aircraft in this one, so I used an off-white instead of an insignia white and put down a final dull coat using Winsor & Newton Galeria Matt. Indeed, it's a heavily weathered bird, probably not to everyone's taste, but I wanted to work on my weathering skills. I went for an overall uniformity of grub, using a warm grey oil wash. Though I'm sure no crew chief would let his or her aircraft out of the hangar quite so scuffed up, I'm envisioning the end of a series of grueling test flights in the frankly oppressive summer humidity of southern Maryland, as well as claiming a bit of artistic license. This particular airframe went through so many changes of scheme that I wager it was repainted as often as it was scrubbed down. On the whole, this was an enjoyable project, one that really stretched my skills. Thanks for reading and for taking a look.

Thanks, that's a huge help, Rich. Didn't even think of a PE option. I'll have to keep that in mind -- might even be able to find them on a sheet somewhere in the stash here. And those are great looking drop tanks. Appreciate your sharing the photos.

Brilliant, thank you for the help, Santti and Steve. I can definitely work with those details. (Or at least, I know what to shoot for! Whether my skills can completely pull it off are another matter, but that's why we build these things . . .)

I was wondering if anyone could share a reference image for the filler cap on the top of an Aero 1D 300-gallon drop tank? I've got the 1/48 Hasegawa A-4F on the bench, and the above tank from the kit has an uninspiring dent where the filler cap should be. I'm having a tough time finding pictures that isolate/focus on that area, either on the real drop tank or on built versions of the A-4, so any help appreciated. Thanks, Chris

I'm pleased to present my most recent build, a dual-build of Great Wall Hobby's 1/48 T-33A (Early) Shooting Star, and ICM's 1/48 KDA-1 Ryan Firebee. The T-33 represents a TV-2D drone controller aircraft of the US Navy's GMGRU-1, circa 1959-1960, using a scheme from the Iliad Design T-33 decal sheet. Though GMGRU-1 is better known for its support of the Navy's Regulus guided missile program, I was able to find a source indicating that they also flew the TV-2D with the KDA-1 Ryan Firebee. As my resin skills aren't quite up to the challenge of Belcher Bits' fine-looking Regulus I, I opted for the very nice ICM drone kit for this dual display. I'm not certain if the two paint schemes were in service together at the same time, so I acknowledge that I've taken a bit of license here. Figures come from ICM's US Pilots & Ground Personnel (Vietnam War) set, and the base is a pre-made by Zoukei-Mura, which remains the best $20 I ever spent in this hobby. If, as is often said, the perfect is the enemy of the good, then I would add that sometimes the good is the enemy of the finished! This was one of those builds that fought me, broadly through my own errors as opposed to any issue with the kits. I would note for anyone working on the GWH T-33 that the nosecone is too narrow for a seamless fit with the rest of the fuselage, which necessitated a fair bit of filling and sanding and occasional swearing to get an acceptable taper. I might have been better off with a shim to push the join out a bit, but the top and bottom of the cone were exact fits, so I opted for brute force. Too, the interconnection between the wing spar, fuselage, and engine intakes proved tricky, with small imperfections in the sub-assembly builds multiplying when it all came together. Many panel lines were sacrificed in the process, and inevitably I missed a few when I made a rescribing pass. Several small parts became victims of the carpet monster, including the T-33 front gear scissor torque link and several small vanes on the bottom of the fuselage. I managed to break the front gear when installing it after painting, and I fear the aircraft rides a bit higher than it should as a result. I also left off several smaller gear struts on the front and main gear bay doors, which proved beyond my capability to wrangle into place neatly. The extent of the yellow paint scheme on the bottom of the aircraft is conjectural, as I could not find good reference photos. As for the ICM KDA-1 kit, it went together in a very tidy and simple manner. The plastic is quite soft, so care is needed in fitting and sanding, but there were no significant issues to speak of, though I did manage to snap off the very pointy tail end of the drone. Paints are a combination of Mr. Color and Hataka Orange Line lacquers, sprayed over Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 -- black for the fuselage, pink for the wings and tail. I've come to very much appreciate using pink primer for anything that will wind up white, red, yellow, or orange, but I still needed several coats for the yellow to get the depth of color I wanted. Subsequent rounds of overspray touch-up on the yellow surfaces wound up requiring additional coats of the pink primer going down first, which greatly increased the time this build took, with the knock-on effect that not all of the yellow has the same hue, particularly the horizontal stabilizers. For reference, the yellow on both models is Mr. Color C329 Insignia Yellow; the red on both models is Mr. Color C327 Insignia Red; the orange is Hataka C062 International Orange; and the main fuselage grey is Mr. Color C339 Engine Grey. Some light washes with oils followed, topped off by a final dull coat of Winsor & Newton Galeria Matt sealing it all in. The main marking decals for the T-33 come from Iliad Design's Naval T-Birds sheet, and they behaved quite nicely. They are thin, but they are also reasonably durable, as I proved when I managed to fold a few of them during placement. A bit of propitiation to the modeling gods, plus some gentle coaxing with a soft wet brush, saw them good. The decals reacted well to MicroSet and MicroSol and bedded down on a gloss surface without any silvering. Iliad has some interesting sheets in their lineup, and I'm looking forward to using them again. The GWH stenciling decals from the box were fine, if a bit on the thick side. The KDA-1 decals are out of the box from ICM, and as with the build, they were simple enough to use, with no adverse reactions to MicroSet or MicroSol. As for the ICM figures, they built nicely, with ICM putting joins along natural breaks. I'm really not much of a figure painter, and I fear the mechanic has a touch of the dreaded "flesh wrench," but they do add to the overall effect of the vignette, plus I managed to position them so that they hide some spots that need yet more paint touch-ups. As noted, this was a build that just kept fighting me, mostly because of the constant need for paint correction. I really thought I had sealed all the painted areas, but somehow I've developed the ability to cause airbrushed paint to transmigrate through multiple layers of tape. It's an odd and unwelcome talent. Still, the paint schemes are striking, of that there can be little doubt. On the whole, I'm sufficiently pleased with the final result, and so long as a respectful viewing distance is maintained, this dual build should look colorful enough on a shelf dominated by the broadly monotonous hues to which military aircraft are prone. Thank you for reading and for taking a look.

Some exceptional pictures, Tiger331. Thank you. That's a tempting display method for the travel pods, on fairly simple wood planks. They show some signs of rough handling, too, which is good, since I had a devil of a time smoothing off the casting marks on the resin travel pods I picked up! The original linked image in the topmost post, my reference aircraft, is from 2005, so certainly dated. There's another really good picture of a different A-10 from the same ANG unit on the same day over the same live fire range showing the full ordnance loadout. I'm assuming my aircraft had the same load, so that's what I'm building. My only question is whether or not to attach some tiny BDU-33s (Eduard makes them in 1/48) to the two TERs just for a splash of color. I take the point that there wouldn't be explode-y things, even tiny explode-y things, on the wings at the same time as the travel pods -- it's notable that none of the images from that day have anything on the TERs -- so I might leave them off or pose them nearby on a trailer or some such. I appreciate all the help in this thread. Absurdly informative all around!

I had some success with the Eduard removable carrier film decals on my recent 1/48 Mustang Mk. IV (RFI post with pictures here), but I did have some issues with the underlying decal pulling and/or tearing when I removed the film in a few cases. I used my standard approach of laying down a gloss coat, then preparing the surface with MicroSet, placing the decal, tamping it down with a cotton bud, then hitting it with a healthy dollop of MIcroSol. The next day, I pushed all around the edges of the film with a toothpick until the film started to give, then I pulled it off gently (and painstakingly) with tweezers. When it worked, it the results were amazing, but when it didn't, well, at least the tears in the decals looked like natural paint chipping/tearing. I hit the decals with another gloss coat before weathering, since I wasn't sure how the now-exposed decals would react to white spirit and such. I had the best success when I put down a lot of MicroSet, didn't move the decals much, and pressed down intensively to get the decal to really adhere. More MicroSol than seems healthy, left overnight, also appears to have helped, though as with many things modeling, I can't always tell what is alchemy and what is science . . . I'll use the removable film decals again -- they look painted on when you can successfully remove the film -- but it's an anxious process, no doubt.

Another really sharp photo, and the airfield itself gives me some ideas for a base . . . I appreciate the insight into the flow of ordnance and racks on and off of pylons, Jari. My reference aircraft is from 2005, so I don't think the shark-fin high speed F-16 TER on the starboard wing above is suitable (thankfully -- I already have the Eduard standard TERs on the way!), but it's good to know that's an option for a later A-10. I had no idea just how many variables came into play with the otherwise unassuming Warthog. I'll be checking back to this thread frequently as the build progresses for sure.

Excellent pictures, Jari. Thanks for digging those up. Appreciate the insight on the lack of fins for the captive Maverick as well. Some surgery awaits! The travel pods are a real head-scratcher in that image I'm using as my main reference. I agree it wouldn't accord with standard practice -- I've read stories about the pods opening in flight due to excessive speed/g's! Oddly, though, the plane is clearly over the live-fire range and has the pods and (likely captive) ordnance, plus the empty TERs and what looks like an empty rocket launcher. I don't know if they'd leave the TERs or launcher on permanently if they weren't needed for a mission? Maybe a photo shoot as opposed to a live-fire shoot . . . I'm claiming the modeler's divine right of "the photo lets me do it" to throw the pods on with the Maverick/Sidewinder/Launcher, and the TERs would look empty without some bombs. So a bit of license, I suppose, and a mystery until the pilot or crew of 79-0170 from November 2005 comes forth with the story!

Appreciate the insight, Slater. I have a few other pictures from that same live-fire exercise/photo shoot, and that's the only one that shows the Maverick. I think I'll go for a full training/inert loadout, so blue bands on the CATM Sidewinder and Maverick, white/blue on what little you can see of the tips on the missiles in the LAU-68, and just for some color, blue body Mk. 82s, two hanging off each of the two TERs. Plus, of course, the two travel pods. And to think this started out as a quick build between more complicated projects . . .

Nice find on the picture of the training/practice loadout, Phixer. I appreciate the help. That A-10 is even from the same Pennsylvania ANG unit. That'll give me a good baseline to start with. I'll probably go with the blue practice bombs -- nice bit of color on an otherwise grey canvas. The range in question in my reference photo would have been a twenty minute flight from the ANG base, and the range airfield was pretty minimal. I would have to imagine that they armed at the home ANG base (Willow Grove, PA) and flew in loaded. I've been digging through the unit's archived newsletters trying to find info on their range days and whether they flew on to a further field thereafter to get the pilots their hours for the month, but no joy so far.

Brilliant, Murph. Thank you. Glad I didn't place the order for the aftermarket flare dispenser! I appreciate the guidance on the captive missile as well.

I was fortunate enough to finally find a set of TwoBob's "Philadelphia Freedom" A-10 decals, and I found a lovely shot of the airframe I'm planning on building, 79-0170, an A-10A, conducting live-fire at the Ft. Indiantown Gap range in 2005. I'd like to emulate that loadout, as seen in this quite evocative image (not hot linking for copyright reasons), but I was wondering if anyone better versed in the intricacies of ordnance could verify what I'm seeing in the image? My take is a single AIM-9L/M on the dual rail on pylon 11 (probably a CAP-9M -- are there visual differences from a regular -9L/M?); SUU-25 flare dispenser on pylon 10; a pair of MXU-648 travel pods (?!) on pylons 7 and 5; and an AGM-65 on pylon 3. It also has possibly dropped ordnance (6xMk 82?) from pylons 4 and 8. Thanks for any help on this admittedly obscure question. I'm most curious about whether those are actually travel pods on the A-10 in the near-center pylons during a live-fire. I'd hate to accidentally bomb a derelict tank with my pajamas . . .

The rudder is Mr. Color C34 Sky Blue, sprayed on top of a grey primer and covered with Winsor and Newton Galleria Matt. It's the color specified by Eduard, so it should be a close match to the color of the squadron codes on the fuselage.

Thank you for the kind words, all. I'd like to think I try to live by Boatie McB's tag line there, and "Model Bravely!" Definitely the right attitude to have with a hobby than can humble and inspire and amaze all within the same session at the workbench . . .