Italeri A-10 A/C Thunderbolt II 1/72

[Kasparov]

Hello there fine gentlemen!

This build kept me busy over the holiday while I'm also building my personal Gundam "masterpiece", or at least trying to make it one, and have a half-started Tamiya 1/32 F16.

 

When I saw this box marked down I just couldn't resist. The A-10 is one of the coolest planes ever built in my opinion, simple, sturdy, pragmatic, actually just a big cannon with wings. I couldn't resist making "Whoosj" and  "Brrrrrtrrt" noises while building, the lady thinks I'm retarded regardless so very little is lost. Two mates of mine saw this thing in action while being stationed in the middle east and had some impressive stories to take home. Seeing a half mile stretch of land obliterated by 30mm grenades at 3900rpm in front of you must be a true sight indeed.

 

The kit that I needed a diversion from below.

Lovely one, when it comes to engineering Bandai kits are amazing, but lots of decals and parts, and I decided to paint quite a bit which gets a bit tedious at some point with such a big complex kit.

 

But anyways. The Italeri A-10. I did not enjoy this kit as much as I hoped, fit and engineering was not as good as I like, even though still good by most standards. If I had to condense it in one sentence I would say good for an Italeri kit, bad for a Tamiya kit (Tamiya also released this kit with the same moulds). I messed up a few steps. Overpainted it quite a bit with old Humbrol spraycans, left my airbrush kit at the ladyfriend her home, so panel lines and detail were lost a bit. The two shades of grey I originally chose where a bit too contrasting so another layer of paint and some sanding it was. In the end I'm quite content, especially for an in-betweener that was built quickly for pleasure, the holiday spirits and white russians might have made some parts of the build a bit sloppy too.

 

Methods used:

• Humbrol rattlecans for the main paint layers
• Detail painting with Tamiya and Vallejo acrylics
• Weathered with Tamiya and Mig powdered pigments
• Panel lines with Flory washes and Tamiya panel line accent colour
• Base from a aluminium picture frame and Heller "platz folie" painted and weathered to look like a stretch of runway
• Seatbelts and buckles from tape and left over PE
• Glossed with Mr. Hobby Superclear, finished with Tamiya satin clear
• Decals set with Tamiya Markfit
• Liberal use of MIG Gun Metal powdered pigment
• Some minor rescribing of panel lines (HATE doing that)

 

It took me a while to get some good pics, the weather in Holland was not photo friendly and indoor pictures always just look bland to me. I hope you'll still excuse me the dark shade of the photos, grey is quite difficult to get right. In real life the plane is quite a bit lighter and the tonal variation has been crushed quite a bit in the photos. I'll try to get better ones on a more sunny day, which may take a while because Holland tends to be very grey the coming months.

 

 

The whole plane

 

 

 

Some details

 

 

The underside (in artificial light)

 

 

Well, I think I might have to consider a dedicated photo setup.

 

Thanks for watching guys, comments, suggestions and criticism are always much appreciated.

Have a nice weekend!

 

Cheers,

Kas.

 

Edited January 14, 2017 by Kasparov
Spelling and additions

[jean]

Goeden avond Kaas,

 

I read your post, and one word stuck out: White Russian.... deadly concoction if there is one... but Oh so good! I had forgotten such illegal pleasures existed!

I don't know the Italeri kit, but I do know that nothing will build like a Tamiya....

Your model is possibly a bit "over painted" as you put it, and has a kind of metallic sheen on the photos, but it looks very well built.

Of course outside photos in bright sunny weather would be best, but that is science fiction where you live. 

 

Well done!

JR