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How to improve OV-10 from Academy


Dennis_C

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Hi everyone!

Yesterday I've taken Academy's Bronco box from the stash to build the Vietnam OV-10A and quite quickly came to the conclusion that the kit needs some improvements. Would love to listen to advice/experience of building this bird!

First topic - undercarriage. Academy provides very basic undercarriage bays and very.... questionable and fiddly main gear. I was able to collect a number of photos of both bays and chassis, but couple of question remain unclear.

#1. As far as I get it, the area in front of the cockpit was actually empty and was used to accommodate nose wheel, front taxiing lamp and some wiring. Such as like this.

Is it the best way to just keep it empty, adding just the wiring and a bump for the front lamp? Or I'm missing something?

#2. I'm seriously concerned about capability of Academy's plastic sticks representing main gear to keep the whole thing standing upright :fraidnot: Moreover these sticks have nothing in common with actual main gear :angry: I do not see any metal/resin alternatives - so would be grateful if anybody could advice how to scratchbuild more or less reliable replacements :worthy:

Second topic - dimensional accuracy. From what I was able to learn from WIPs and comparison with photoes - Academy's model is pretty OK - the main area that is completely off is intakes above the propellers. Seems to be an easy fix though. Are the things really that good or I miss something major?

Third topic - I've got the CMK's interior set and would love to use the vacformed canopy as I'm afraid of gluing together the fiddly thing from Academy. Does anybody have any experience of using CMK's canopy? Does it fit well or not really? Would be grateful for any advise before I start cutting it out.

:thanks:

Dennis

P.S. Almost forgot - where could I put enough weight to keep it standing on the wheels??? Nose bay seems to be unavailable for that :weep:

Edited by Dennis_C
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Sorry I can't help with much of this but in terms of ballast anywhere forward of the main wheels is good, but the closer to the legs it gets the more of it you will need. Sadly Aeroclub didn't do seats for the OV-10 in white metal, which surely would help, but you might be able to find white metal props.

IIRC the undercarriage in the old Airfix kit was quite good and could form a reasonable pattern for replacement parts but others may well know better. If you go for a scratch build of the undercarriage brass rod is a good material.

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Hi chaps - thanks for advise on placement of extra weight!!! Seems I have to use engine nacelles too and probably cut the rear part of resin cockpit to replace it with some lead. Maybe some will go under cockpit floor back of the front wheel bay.

I would be also grateful for advice on overall dimensions, nose undercarriage bay layout and improvements on main gear.

For the latter I think I would be able to use syringe needles + some foil/wiring. Just need to figure out how to make it as durable as possible.

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