Italeri 1/48 A-10

[spitte311]

What can I say.......I love these machines, and was very fortunate to be able to work along side the guys who serviced and maintained them during Operation Iraqi Freedom 2003, Almed Al-Jaber Air Base, Kuwait. I was there to witness the battle damaged A-10 that successfully returned to Al-Jaber after sustaining a lucky (or not) RPG strike from hostile forces on the ground, piloted by Captain Kim Campbell. She was able to successfully return her aircraft after a complete hydraulic systems failure leaving the control column dead to any inputs and the A-10 heading downwards towards the streets of Bagdad........not a good place to bail out over. Due to the toughness of the machine and incredible quick thinking and skill under pressure of Captain Campbell she was able to select manual reversion, regain control and fly back to base and land without incident. I saw the aircraft parked up after the action and the rear fuselage and nacelles were peppered with holes and a large chunk of the leading edge of the R/H horizontal stab was missing. It never flew again. Deemed too expensive to repair it was dismantled, crated up and sent to an aircraft bone yard back home in the States. Its future looked bleak, however the kudos of its final flight and operational significance was enough to save it. The A-10 departed the scrap yard by road but in tact and is now on display at Seymour.Johnson AFB NC.

 

I built this model at the beginning of the year. Its Italeri's 1/48 kit and to be honest I wasn't that impressed. Poor fit everywhere, lots of filler required, I even attempted to scribed some sort of detail for the AAR door on the nose below the windscreen. This is quite a prominent detail and Italeri's solution was to mould it smooth and apply a decal. I also bought an after market decal set as I really wanted the sharks mouth. It is an absolute classic nose for the A-10, and also adorned the aircraft mentioned above. I  bought a pilot figure too as I think it gives a model a bit more character with a driver on board. Finally, I added lots of ordnance from a Hasegawa set as the items that came with the kit were fit only for the bin.  

 

A-10's that have seen a lot of action look quite patchy and I wanted to replicate this. Viewing the finished model I sometimes think 'Yeah that looks OK', and other times I think it looks a little too contrived. It's by no means perfect but I'm still pleased with the results over all, its just a shame it was such a pig to put together.

 

 

[markmcguire25]

Never see enough A-10s! Great job.

[SAT69]

Nothing like seeing a great looking model with an interesting story associated with it. Glad the real airplane didn't end up being scrapped. Kudos to the pilot whose quick thinking saved it and herself from disaster.

[Harry Callahan]

Despite of your fit issues, your model looks absolutely fantastic. I like the colour variations a lot. I love the A-10 since my youth, when i saw them at Ahlhorn air base near to Oldenburg /Germany in the 80th.

[exdraken]

Very nice model!

Is it a but dark? Or just the photos?

 

Not sure if an RPG hut the KC plane, more likely a IR guided shoulder launched Sam I guess! ( think of a Stinger type missile)

The load out looks like a very recent one because of the Jdams, no?

 

 

 

 

[Farmerboy]

Excellent, great looking model, well done for getting it finished, it was well worth the effort.

[F-32]

That's a wonderful build, I love the paint and weathering

[spitte311]

6 hours ago, exdraken said:

Very nice model!

Is it a but dark? Or just the photos?

 

Not sure if an RPG hut the KC plane, more likely a IR guided shoulder launched Sam I guess! ( think of a Stinger type missile)

The load out looks like a very recent one because of the Jdams, no?

 

 

 

 

You're absolutely right..... I just found an account of the incident by the pilot:

 

http://www.amarcexperience.com/ui/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=121076&catid=17&Itemid=214

 

2nd to last paragraph states it was a suspect SAM that inflicted the damage.

And yes it is a bit dark. The aplication of oil paint for the panel lines darked the finish. Looking at reference pics there is a wide spectrum of shades from very light to very dark. It'll do!