DarthCake

Well, if I look to your average build times, then I guess your current apache is finished before my current build is even painted . A step by step manual would be really nice!

Yeh tutorial , I'm talking about this post http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.p...mp;#entry276575 Thanks for explaining your technic, now I just need to test it and practice it myself (I have a Revell AH-64D on the shelf waiting for me, looks like a good candidate for it )

Nice painting! Do U use black with a combination of green or something for the pit? It doesn't look completely black. And how do you get managed to paint those way to small knobs of the side panels? (And nice paint tutorial btw)

You make it sound so easy. I don't have any acrylic or oil based paints. So I'm trying this with enamel paint and need to be very carefully. I don't have any experiences with washes. Especially not in such small spaces. Don't know if i will survive this . What color should be used for dry brushing this? The wheel bay is all light gray, so silver won't stand out?

Update: I just had to add some extra detail in the front wheel bay And even more wires. With the base paint coat. Now i need to find a way to let the extra details stand out a bit. All gray is so flat. I used some reference photos found on aircraftresourcecenter.com like here and here. Next i might do the other wheel bays as well. I hope you did like this update as usual

Thanks for the positive comments! Roughly the next steps: - optional: adding more detail to the wheel bays (wires etc) (depending on how patient I am at the start of it ) - painting the wheel bays - attaching the front wheel bay - attaching nose and gatling gun - adding rest of the details (antennas, sensors, ...) - masking (canopies, wheel bays, engine intakes) - paint camouflage - adding gears, doors, ladder and others. - adding decals (Not strictly this order.)

At least a new update! The engines attached. The wings attached, its getting an airplain now Some extra weight added. Even more weight. An overview of the process so far. The air brakes (i guess). Gaps are filled. We are getting closer I hope you did like this update to.

Time for an other update. Dry fitting Wheel bay details. New hood, looks much better then the old one (hmm, I didn't made a picture of the old one ) Details ... And some other Detials Some PE doors. Overall good fit, except for the engines. Those are the next step . I hope you liked it again .

Nice! Already finished ... I'm barely started. The Italeri is still waiting for take off?

Then you will need some careful painting around those engines. This isn't the easiest paint job because the camouflage goes completely around. I'm excited to see the final result. I did my last model (Heller 1/48 Mirage 2000N) freehand. That was my first camouflage job with an airbrush (Badger 150) and has gone very well. But I had some over spraying at the cockpit where the engine intakes are, but no big problems after all. I might do my A-10 freehand too .

Do I see an Italeri 1/72 A-10 on the background ready to get painted? Wow, you go fast! I'm not even close to the painting phase. Now I'm curious how you are going to paint that camouflage. Free hand? Masking? Blu tack? Doesn't look easy with the over spray ...

Probably a lot of people are doing the same as me. Looking at your pictures and We are just too stunned. Your doing a great job, thats for sure!

Thanks to clear these things up for me! It looks like your right about the colours. Colours can look so different on photo's, when they are taken in different light conditions.

Thanks for the positive comments! @walrus: IPMS is going to add a new rule: "No metal or wooden parts should be used in any build!" Lucky me, I'm not yet an IPMS member (might change in the future). @Gary C: Thanks for the information. That explains a lot! About the bay, door and wheel wells. You could be right at this. See link. However the instructions tells me to paint the wheel wells white. I saw some pictures where the wheel wells are painted white-light grey. Picture1 Picture of the desert Belle I guess both have been used during the war? Do you know if the bays also have been painted white-grey? The inside of the cockpit also need this FS16473 ADC Grey

Second update! I have been counting a bit. It seems that I have a lot more PE parts then plastic parts. More then 200 PE parts! (About 130 different PE parts) The PE sprue's. Left side fuselage half. Ladder compartment. Eduard said: "To less detail! Add some PE!" (Who am I to disagree ) Used references from aircraftresourcecenter.com: Click1, Click2. PE parts added! I hope you liked this update as well .

Found some reference for the side panel (last picture above) on aircraftresourcecenter.com : click me The instructions tell me to paint it aluminium. Hmm, doesn't look aluminium to me?

Update! I actualy started on the last week op July to gather the right paints an cutting out some parts to dry fit (can't resits it). The last two weeks I have done the ejection seat and instrument panels. The cockpit interior is almost done. Color PE for the cockpit. This is only one PE sprue (don't know how you would call it), I'm also going to use three other bigger PE sprue for this build. Pics will follow later on, I forgot to take pics of them. Almost as much PE as plastic parts, if not more! The main instrument panel. A macro lens reveals the flaws. The ejection seat, with a lot of PE added. Just unbelievable what details are shown by a macro lens, a lot of details are not even visible with bare eye. I used this as reference for the seat: Clikc1 Click2 Click3 The bath tube! The Main panel came back off. Some AC glue will fix it. Sides of the cockpit. Need some paint. Some details at a technical maintenance panel. The wood is a teeth stick for comparison. (I can't even see that little hair/dust ) That was it for now, I hope you liked it!

Mish, i'm following your Tamiya build in the GB already. But it looks like i have missed your Italeri build, thanks to tell me ! Mike, thanks for the tip. Lucky these sets don't have many complex bends as far as i see. Also the fold/bend lines are etched in, so bending is made easier. I'll let you know how it goes. I update as soon as possible.

Thanks for the warm welcome! (and PE tip ) I found the build of the Italeri version of this kit on the neighbor forum of this forum: ARC Link (i hope you don't mind). The Revell kit seems to be a reboxed Italeri kit. But only the plastic is the same. Decals are different. The builder in that topic used only the Eduard Interior PE color set, while I'm also going to use the exterior and weapon set. Good to see some reference

Hi, I would like to join this GB with a Revell 1/72 Fairchild A-10A Thunderbolt II kit. This will be my fist group build and also my first post on this forum. I will try to build it like the box art on the front of the box. This aircraft is from the 511th TFS/354th TFW During Destert Storm. However, here it looks like it is from the 511th TFS/10th TFW? Don’t know who is right, maybe both are . On this last site you can find a few reference pictures of this airplane with serial number 81-0947 and listen to the name “Desert Belle”. I haven’t found any builds of this kit yet, except the kit review on this site, but it doesn’t cover a full build. linky It looks like a very nice kit (mind you, I didn’t build so many kits yet and I’m missing a lot of experience, but it looks like a nice kit to me). The fits look good and the details are fine but not always very accurate. As an experiment I decided to get some Eduard PE parts for this kit. I haven’t used any PE before, thus this is something new to me. The PE set is the Eduard BIG7213 set (Italeri/Revell). It looks all so nice, but so tiny ! . This is not going to be a very easy job. Hopefully I get this done before the year is over . Also my apologies for my English.