A-37B Dragonfly 1/72

[Triet Cam]

Hello modelers. I'm posting an image for the 1st time here. Hope it works.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 17, 2020 by Triet Cam

[Triet Cam]

Took a few tries, but got it to work. Anyway, this is the Academy 1/72 kit. Quite nice but still needed some work. I had to chop about 1mm off the legs to get it to the correct stand, too much tail up. I corrected the intake. It's got sharp end edges, and should be round. I used round plastic rods around the intake opening and sand and blended in. Also used Eduard photo etch for the FOD wire door.

Decals are the insignia from the AOA Bird Dog sheet, and the numbers took from an old Decal Carpena sheet. Tamiya paint used

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SAT69]

Hard to imagine that's a 1/72 scale kit. Beautifully detailed, painted and decaled.

[Triet Cam]

Here is the ref aircraft. This belonged to the VNAF 546 Fighter Squadron from Binh Thuy, South Vietnam, during the final months of the Vietnam War.

 

Regards

Triet

 

[k5054nz]

I have long admired your models across the internet, thank you for sharing this lovely Dragonfly!

[Graeme H]

Outstanding job on that, and a rarely modelled aircraft as well always good to see

[Andy Dyck]

Hi,

one of my favorite plane, that I never built. I think you brought it to justice. Very nice! Your photography and presentation is also very nice. 
Cheers
Andy  

[feifeitim]

That is a lovely little model - well done!  You've captured the "sit" really well and as has been mentioned already, very difficult to believe you've got so much detail on such a small model!  Great work!

[Triet Cam]

Thanks for your comments guys, but don't hesitate to point out stuffs also. I think it should be also welcome. 

Anyway, here is the Tweety's buddy. Built in 2003.  I actually refurbished it when I built the recent one. I wanted to just replace the fuselage bands. But ended up stripped and repainted it. Just about every manufacturers got that red/white hashes wrong. I also added the Eduard photo etch wire FOD screen, along with the fuel tank caps on the wings, and fixed the intake opening like the new build.

 

After:

 

 

Before:

 

Edited July 18, 2020 by Triet Cam

[Mig88]

Spectacular builds both of them. Very nicely done!

 

Miguel

[Vultures1]

Wow, superb work on both models.  Your attention to detail really shows - well done!

[russ c]

Great looking Dragonfly`s there, really nice work, love those South Vietnamese schemes too

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Triet: this is first-rate work on a 1/72 scale kit that you've managed to make look like 1/48!  The colors are really impressive.  BTW: my only time at the controls of a jet was a 30-minute orientation flight on the T-37B back in '89, which has similar characteristics to the A-37.  Highly maneuverable and high-G onset, too!  What fun!  Anyway, the A-37 was an impressive performer, too--the bomb-load attests to it.

[stevehnz]

A lovely pair of builds, I've one of these kits in stock & will try to remember your fixes when the time comes.  They do look really good in those schemes, from such a turbulent time in history, schemes I'd be happy to try too.

Steve.

[Brigbeale]

I’ve never really paid this aircraft much attention, but WOW, what a pair of stunning beauties!!!

[Triet Cam]

Thank you for the comments guys. @stevehnz may I recommend the Pavla seats. They represent the Vietnam era. The kit's seats looked like post war. with different head rest and some sort of electrical box added behind the seat rails. Wished I knew about the Pavla seats before the builds. They looked truly amazing. Incredible how much he packed in that little model.

 

 

[Pete in a shed]

Lovely delicate work with a beautiful finish on both of them. A fine pair of tweets.

 

Cheers

Pete

[Booty003]

Nice couple of builds there.  The Academy kit is a little cracker - only let down by the awful decals.  The do look very eye catching in the VNAF scheme.  I am just putting the final touches to a USAF version of the same kit.

[Triet Cam]

39 minutes ago, Booty003 said:

Nice couple of builds there.  The Academy kit is a little cracker - only let down by the awful decals.  The do look very eye catching in the VNAF scheme.  I am just putting the final touches to a USAF version of the same kit.

I used the stencils from the kits. One thing I noticed, some of them don't stick too well, even under a glossy surface. I had a tough time with those ground stencils circles around the wings edges. The decals are on thick side, but with hot solution like Solvaset, they get sucked down completely. 

[Booty003]

I agree, a lot of the Academy own decals are pretty much unusable.  The kits that have Cartograph decals are fantastic.

[Greg Law]

Brilliant build on both of them. They must be very small. I had the 1/48 kit and that wasn't big.

[spaddad]

orsum

[kapam]

You did a lot of excellent work there!  They look beautiful!

[F-32]

Superb builds, both of them look really good

[72modeler]

@Triet Cam

 

Triet, are you positive that's not a pair of 1/48 Tweets you have built? Absolutely gorgeous work, on an airplane we seldom see finished but was a real asset in SEA. The only thing I could possible suggest to take these builds up another notch would be to thin the fins on all of the ordnance. Other than that, they are light years ahead of what I could  do- especially the paint work. You should be proud of them! Now you need to do an F-5C to go along with this pair, if you can get your hands on an Esci/Itaeri kit!

Mike