Jump to content

Fujimi A-7B Corsair II 1/72 - VA-303


Recommended Posts

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!

40208221551_f7f4126b9c_o.jpga71

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!

25337173987_58664896a9_o.jpga76 

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.

40208220571_931cb05a70_o.jpga75 

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.

40208219901_9db25dca55_o.jpga77 

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.

40208221121_192a17cc1d_o.jpga73 

Hope you like!!!!

 

40208221271_f45ab82b77_o.jpga72 

Pat

Edited by Pat C
  • Like 28
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Pat, as you know, I'm a sucker for an A-7 and you've made a slendid job of the Fujiimi kit. It's one I haven't looked too hard at yet, so maybe I should. Congratulations and thanks for sharing your pics.

Colin

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Colin - I'm glad you like it!! This "Golden Hawks" scheme is quite a spectacular one I think. There's something about the A-7 that I find rather appealing - must be the same thing that draws people to the Fairey Gannet!!!!

Pat

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very nice work. Sorry to hear about the difficulties, although you overcame them. I have a Fujimi A7E, and it looks like a really nice kit, is there much difference between the two?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

One of my favourite aircraft ever! And in ,my eyes, you have done it justice.

One would never know you had so much trouble!

Great build

JR

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks great; very high quality work and equally good photos. The A-7 is on my list to do.

Chris

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Surprised to hear that you had trouble with the kit. I've built +/- six of these over the years and not had that level of problem with any of them. Great choice of decals and really well photographed too. Well done sir.

Ian

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Surprised to hear that you had trouble with the kit. I've built +/- six of these over the years and not had that level of problem with any of them. Great choice of decals and really well photographed too. Well done sir.

Ian

Thanks for the comments everyone. It's entirely possible that the troubles were down to my own ineptitude, although a fellow BM'er was kind enough to send me a Fujimi A-7E and the moulding seems superior to this one. So it's maybe a combination of bad moulding and me modelling like I'm wearing boxing gloves as usual!!

Pat

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...