Search the Community

This will be a nostalgia build for me: I've fond memories of building the old Esci boxing during the school summer holidays when I went quite mad on Cold War US Navy subjects. I did a low viz scheme hand-painted in unthinned Humbrol enamels. The matt finish and the matt decals weren't a good combination - and this was before I knew of gloss coating and sealing in decals or even setting solutions. The decals peeled off within days. Hopefully I can muster something better this time around On with the sprues: There is a bit of flash here and there, but everything seems ok, though the plastic is a bit grainy in places. Not decided on the scheme yet. To continue the nostalgia theme I should really do the low-viz scheme, but that VA-25 bird is very tempting... Good luck with your builds everybody. FLY NAVY

I will jump in with this old kit - I am sure I built as a young lad many moons ago.... To try to do something different I will use some aftermarket decals... From what I can find and see the Portuguese airforce effectively bought USN A-7Es - so I am not going into mega detail changes - the main obvious item is the refuelling probe...I can't see any after market and its a bit crazy to by a 1/72 E so i will either go with out, or try to fashion something that will look ok ish! I have bought a couple of quick boost A-4 Skyhawk probs - I may be able to cut them up to get something.... Earlier probe later Probe If anyone knows better please do let me know!

A-7D Corsair II, 356th Tactical Fighter Squadron Green Demons, 354th TFW, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina 1972 Kit: Matchbox Corsair II A-7D (#40101) Scale: 1/72 Paints: Vallejo Model Air Weathering: Flory Models Dark Dirt wash Simple hassle free build, built straight from the box without adding, altering or removing anything. Painted using Vallejo Model Air acrylics. Decals were old and colours were fuzzy but settled down suprisingly well. The kit has toy-like qualities but that was part of the charm - realistic details and finesse are for other builds. Thanks for looking!

I recently picked up a 1/72 Testors/Fujimi A-7E Corsair II. I'm planning on building it using the markings for VA-93 Blue Blazers NF303/160544 | USS Midway circa 1979(?). See cover photo below: Eventually, I'd like to build a 1/72 F-8 Crusader from the same carrier and time period and display them together. I'm wondering if anyone makes a F-8 kit with those markings, or if there are any aftermarket decal sets that match? If not, does anyone make decals for the two planes from the same carrier and time period (I'm not stuck on the Midway or the Blue Blazers, I'd just like a matched pair in the old grey over white paint scheme). As a follow up question, which would be the correct version of the F-8 to match the time period of the A-7E? Any recommendations on a particular F-8 kit? Thanks!

Amodel is to release 1/72nd Kamov A-7 BIS and A-7-3A Soviet autogyro kits - ref.72257 & 72289 Source: http://hobbyterra.com/product/a-7bis-soviet-autogyro-amodel-72257.html Source: http://hobbyterra.com/product/a-7-3a-soviet-autogiro-amodel-72289.html V.P.

I see that TheRealMrEd is working on a "Super SLUF" over in the WIP section: Maybe the pics below will provide some additional information/inspiration. The YA-7F was an attempt to create a faster close air support platform to supplement or replace the A-10. The old TF41 turbofan was replaced with a P&W F100 engine, the fuselage lengthened, the vertical tail enlarged, a leading edge root extension (LERX) added, and the horizontal tails "flipped" to create anhedral vs the original A-7's dihedral. In the end, the proposal was rejected in favor of using F-16s for fast response and soldiering on with the A-10 for heavy lifting and loitering. Here is USAF s/n 71-0344 showing the un-shrouded F100 exhaust. Note the orange wiring and strain gauges along the nozzle fairings at the 12,3,6,and 9 positions. The orange wiring and components in the avionics bays are also test instrumentation. Nose on showing the horizontal tail anhedral. '039 and '344 with shrouded exhaust. USAF s/n 70-1039 used for high-AOA testing with spin recovery chute assembly surrounding the engine exhaust. Spin chute load distribution straps running the length of the aft fuselage. Spin chute attachment assembly at the top of the exhaust shroud. The cable connecting the the chute running around the left side and into the compartment below the shroud housing the spin chute itself. Thanks for looking, Sven

Right calling this one finished and off the shelf of doom!! The Fujimi A-7 is reckoned to be the best in 1/72 but this one fought me all the way and was very very close at one stage to taking flight in the direction of the nearest landfill! a71 Maybe I had a bad moulding but one fuselage half seemed to be fractionally bigger than the other resulting in a nasty step all the way round top and bottom. That needed lots of frenzied sanding resulting in fine engraved panel lines and blade aerials vanishing in clouds of plastic and filler dust. Also the inside of the intake looked like it was shortshot - unless it was moulded to look like a SAM had gone off in there! a76 Talking of the intake, this is nice and deep unlike other A-7 kits in 1/72, but one has to make a choice. It comes in two halves and you can either glue them together first allowing the seam down the middle to be easily cleaned up and then attach them to the fuselage - where they don't quite fit, or fit each half to the fuselage and then poke about in the intake with a cocktail stick wrapped in sandpaper for half a lifetime. I opted for the latter. I had to make my own tail "sting" as the kit had an earlier style which was not correct for this aircraft. a75 Paints were Xtracrylix LGG over Citadel white, but I am giving up in the Citadel white as although it covers nicely it is just too damn fragile. I may try one of the new Humbrol acrylics next USN build. The blue is a Model Master enamel FS15102 True Blue which I believe is the correct FS for this aircraft. The enamel sprayed like a dream thinned with white spirit and in an ideal world I would junk all my acrylics and replace them with these but for the almighty stink caused by cleaning up the airbrush. a77 The tips of the ejector racks were brush painted and again the MM enamel went on beautifully with no brush marks. The rather nice markings for VA-303 (which I think is a second line squadron) came from an old Microscale sheet. As I am finding out these old sheets annoyingly don't seem to include the marking on the wing tops and because of the highly stylised "ND" used by this squadron I had to scratch around for an alternative. There are other errors on the sheet like the "300" on the nose should be in an italic style font etc. I ended up buying another Microscale sheet and used a tail marking from another scheme with more or less the correct size of "ND". The size and position of the "300" on the wing is bit an educated guess as I could find no clear pics showing this. a73 Hope you like!!!! a72 Pat

Hello! I'd like to show you an other little jewellery of mine. The construction started almost 7 years ago, more or less as a mile stone of my art, with a lot of shratch. And also a lot of struggle. It had terrible fit. I added a Pavla bang seat: Also a lot of home made gadgets were needed: Doors: The undercarriage had to get more: And then the first layers: Some masking: The intake cover: And finally, the paint job: Do you like this wood base? Conclusions: For a long time this kit was the best A-7 in the scale, and I am not sure if the Hobby Boss is better yet. Lets say unfortunatly. This is a tipycal Italeri (ESCI?) kit with rough details and poor fitting. Ok, not an A-model, but sill needs a lot of extra work to cerrect the manufecturers negligance. To tell something positive... is the nice selection of the paintings. I used a home-copy of the Part's echted detail sheet, which I highly recommend. I mean the original one. I still have it for a future A-7H.

Hi All, The Hasegawa 1/48 A-7E Corsair is a wonderful example of the state of the art in the late '80's as far as the mainstream injection Molded manufacturers are concerned- it has a level of detail and features, such as detailed avionics bays, separate flaps and detailed cockpit that set Hasegawa at the top of the tree in those heady days, and as a kit it outstrips it's contemporary's such as the Hasegawa 1/48 F-16 and F-15. It also sports the finest injected molded AIM-9's I have encountered in any kit to date, although more modern toolings may have overtaken this aspect of the kit. This is the Revell of Germany boxing of this venerable classic, and I snapped this edition up around 10 years ago, being familiar with the contents and harbouring a soft spot for the good old "SLUF" (Perhaps I feel a certain kinship with it's sobriquet!) I utilised the Superscale VA-97 Corsair decals, to depict the aircraft as it appeared in April 1980, part of the USS Coral Sea's air wing, and sporting the identification stripes applied to the US Navy aircraft as part of Operation Evening Light, which itself was the Airpower component of Operation Eagle Claw, the mission to rescue the Americans held in Tehran who didn't make it to the Canadian embassy. The sheet is still around in various outlets, and I also understand that Hasegawa released the kit with these markings as a special edition some years ago. Many hours of searching the web for the few photographs of the VA-97 aircraft of the period resulted in the identification of the weapons load as a pair of Rockeye II CBU on the middle pylons, two fuel tanks on the inners and a pair of AIM-9's for self defence. I used the kit's AIM-9D as they are superb, although some grainy black and white shots hint that AIM-9L's may have been utilised at the time, although I am unsure as to the Lima's in service date. I added a pair of the Eduard Brassin Rockeyes and Bob's your Uncle: I am very pleased with some aspects of this build, although there is a lot of room for improvement, but overall an enjoyable build. As always, thanks for looking, Cheers, Troffa (edited to correct Photobucket ineptitude)

Here is some photos, of the very recently completed 1/32 A-7E My apologies for not taking more photos during the build, this was mainly due to not having the correct setup until now. The current builds: 1/24 Vb Spitfire (commission) and the 1/32 F-14A and all future projects,will all have more info and pictures. My stash is getting quite big now and i'm also starting some AFV builds very soon. I've got 3 Tigers, including the 1/16 King Tiger in the pipeline and the HK 1/32 B-17G. So there will be a lot of threads appearing soon. VA-22 (USS Enterprise) LOW-VIS camo with AIRDOC decals: I'll take more photos tomorrow when I have better light.