A-10A "Warthog" of the Wisconsin Air National Guard

[billn53]

10 minutes ago, Cookenbacher said:

It doesn't look dusty to me, it looks like you've really captured the effects of saltwater and sun!

Which kit is it by the way?

It's Special Hobby's 1/72 Barracuda Mk. II

 

Here's the RFI:

 

[Serkan Sen]

Very impressive build as always Bill. I had started to build this kit many years ago but due to several reasons I put it aside somewhere in the Hall Of Shame...

Maybe I can try to find it again and continue to build after seeing your build. 🤔

Serkan

[billn53]

10 minutes ago, Serkan Sen said:

Very impressive build as always Bill. I had started to build this kit many years ago but due to several reasons I put it aside somewhere in the Hall Of Shame...

Maybe I can try to find it again and continue to build after seeing your build. 🤔

Serkan

 

It's not done yet, plenty of opportunity to muck it up!

[opus999]

Coming into this late since I've been away for a while.  This A-10 is looking splendid.  I really like the Euro I scheme on the A-10,  To me it's the only paint scheme for it.  The gray scheme never did it for me.

 

I have a 1/72 hasegawa in the stash that my dad bought me in college.  I made the Monogram A-10 and it was my best paint job to date at the time, but the fit was terrible (because of the feature to show the engines open for maintenance, and I made them closed) and was beyond my skill at the time to make look nice.  Additionally, Monogram decals were unforgiving on a flat surface (didn't know I had to gloss coat it first), so the end result was a terrible disappointment.  My dad felt so bad that he got me the Hasegawa when he was in Portland.  You're build is really starting to inspire me -- it might be working its way up in the stash!

[billn53]

Now that the resin replacements for the engine inlets have arrived, I've been working on getting the engine nacelles squared away.

 

First, a comparison of the stock (left) and replacement (right) inlets. Note the replacement fan blades are more distinct (also the correct number) and center hub is more accurate:

 

 

Like most resin aftermarket, the casting block had to be cut away. For the first inlet, I used a razor saw to completely remove the block, like so:

 

 

Then discovered I had come perilously close to cutting into the fan blades:

 

 

So, for the second one, I left the casting block in place and simply nibbled it around the edges to fit into the nacelle:

 

 

I painted the interior of the nacelles white, with dark gray sections at the rear. 

These are the parts that comprise the rear of the engines:

 

 

Here are the nacelles glued together (except for the inlets, which I'll CA in place after painting fan blades). Fit wasn't perfect, but better than I had feared.

 

 

The long longitudinal seam also has a slight step, which I filled and blended in with sprue gloop'

 

Back end shot. I painted the nozzles dark gray, followed by a soft rub of gunmetal pigment to give it a bit of a metallic sheen.

 

⬆️ I thought I had filled the seams on the inside of the nozzle, but when I applied soot-colored pigment, they stood out like a sore thumb. More Mr. Surfacer and painting was needed to fix this.

 

I sprayed the fan blades with AK Interactive's XTreme Metal "gun metal", with a bit of bronze added to create a hint of brown seen in photos:

 

 

I used a Silhouette Cameo and Oramask 810 vinyl film to cut masks for the fan blades. This was my first time using the Silhouette and was a bit of a learning experience for me. (My gf gave it to me last Christmas, but I had never had an occasion to use it and it's been sitting in the box unopened for the past nine months. At least now she'll get off my back about it!)

 

 

 

If anyone should need it, the mask dimensions are 0.59-in outer diameter with a 0.23-in diameter cutout for the hub.

 

Finally, to close out this progress report, I did some fettling so the nacelles would fit better on the fuselage. I added a thin shim to the forward right-side join, and did a light sanding at the rear, to mitigate the steps at the front and back where the nacelles join the fuselage.

 

 

Next steps are to add the inlets to the nacelles, then prime, mask, & paint the camo.

 

[giemme]

Great job with the nacelles and resin fan blades, Bill 

 

I remember from my build that the whole engines assembly was a gap'n'step festival....  

 

Ciao 

[billn53]

Just now, giemme said:

Great job with the nacelles and resin fan blades, Bill 

 

I remember from my build that the whole engines assembly was a gap'n'step festival....  

 

Ciao 

 

Mostly due to the alignment pins not aligning with their opposite holes. I did some work on those and was mostly able to minimize the gaps & steps. Like with the fuselage, I glued the nacelles a bit at a time, using Bondene, and finger pressure to maintain alignment between the parts.

[billn53]

I glued in the resin inlets. They were designed for the Hobbyboss A-10 and were a bit loose in the Revell/Italeri nacelles. Following Giorgio's lead, I used Tamiya tape as a shim to get a tighter fit. Next step: filling seams and sanding to shape!

 

Before starting that, I needed to protect the fan blades and engine exhausts. Some sponge and foam, strategically placed, did the job:

    

 

A spray of Mr Surfacer 1200, thinned with leveling thinner, shows the extent of work still ahead of me to get the nacelles in shape:

 

 

While perusing photos online, I ran across this one and can't resist sharing! This would make a great model!

 

The “Blacksnakes” of the Indiana Air National Guard. 
 

Enjoy!

[opus999]

Those intakes look great!  That mask for the blades was perfect.  Makes me wonder if a silhouette would be worth it...  The resin parts look way better than the stock ones, that's for sure.  I'll have to see what the Hasegawa parts look like--probably not as nice as the resin.  You sure lucked out cutting that first one off the stub.... yikes!

 

Yeah, that Indiana Air Guard A-10 looks really cool... Hmmm....

 

[billn53]

1 hour ago, opus999 said:

Those intakes look great!  That mask for the blades was perfect.  Makes me wonder if a silhouette would be worth it...  The resin parts look way better than the stock ones, that's for sure.  I'll have to see what the Hasegawa parts look like--probably not as nice as the resin.  You sure lucked out cutting that first one off the stub.... yikes!

 

Yeah, that Indiana Air Guard A-10 looks really cool... Hmmm....

 

The resin intakes are better than Hasegawa’s, if I get a chance I’ll post photos. As for the Indiana ANG A-10, do a Google search on “black A-10 Warthog” and you’ll find a bunch of photos. 

[VT Red Sox Fan]

Bill, just catching up--amazing.  Not to get side tracked, but that P-61 looks phenomenal--best, Erwin

[billn53]

15 minutes ago, VT Red Sox Fan said:

Bill, just catching up--amazing.  Not to get side tracked, but that P-61 looks phenomenal--best, Erwin

The P-61 is totally OOB and I built it in 10 days. More pics in my RFI:

 

 

[Serkan Sen]

23 hours ago, billn53 said:

I used a Silhouette Cameo and Oramask 810 vinyl film to cut masks for the fan blades. This was my first time using the Silhouette and was a bit of a learning experience for me.

I am using Silhouette Cameo and Oramask 810 vinyl film very often (almost in all my builds). If you haven't found your own settings I can recommend the following values:

 

Create a new material (e.g. called as "Oramask Vinly") and save the following setting :

Set Ratchet Blade to depth "2"

Speed : 8cm/s

Thickness : 6

Preferably use the Silhouette Cutting Mat.

Use advanced mode to be able to select/assign the material/settings for different colored lines.

Please don't forget to select correct material before sending the drawing to cutter/plotter!.. I did it twice and costed me both material and deep scratches on printer plate.

 

Serkan

[billn53]

3 minutes ago, Serkan Sen said:

I am using Silhouette Cameo and Oramask 810 vinyl film very often (almost in all my builds). If you haven't found your own settings I can recommend the following values:

 

Create a new material (e.g. called as "Oramask Vinly") and save the following setting :

…..

Thanks!!! That was one of the things I was trying to work out. 

[billn53]

I finished cleaning up the engine nacelles and did some re-scribing where detail had been lost. I then gave the nacelles and fuselage a black mottle in preparation for painting the camo. To be honest, I'm not sure the pre-shade mottling is doing much with this bird, the greens and gray are dark enough that the undercoat isn't showing through very much, if at all.

 

 

 

And, for @opus999 , here's a photo of the Hasegawa engine inlet. The resin aftermarket would definitely be an improvement.

 

 

 

[billn53]

I'm now back to painting the camo pattern. I hadn't anticipated how much work would be involved, it almost makes me want to do an easy natural metal finish for my next build.

 

Not!

 

The camo for the engine pods is on, and I have the base green on the fuselage. This is looking more and more like the Warthog we all know and love!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I haven't yet glued any of the major assemblies together (fuselage, wings, engines, empennage), and once I've done that I will have to do some painting to blend the camo pattern across the different components. Even after that's done, I there's plenty of more to do!

[ColinChipmunkfan]

Another superb job of work Bill.  I look forward to seeing all of the NG models lined up together.

[giemme]

This is looking so good already, Bill!   

 

Ciao 

[billn53]

5 hours ago, giemme said:

This is looking so good already, Bill!   

 

Ciao 

High praise, from you, Giorgio. I just realized I’ve just been working on this for a couple weeks! It seems much longer 😜  
Of course, I’ve avoided doing a lot of detailing that I could have done (landing gear & bays, better job on the air brakes, etc). I’ll save that for a future Warthog build. 

[opus999]

Oh, yeah! That's the stuff!  That looks terrific.

 

I like the preshade mottling.  I think I can see it in the light green, but it's subtle, which is how it should be.   The darker colors... well... It's probably hard to see paint variation easily in those colors in real life,

 

[billn53]

All the major components now have their camo on. Time to start gluing things together!

 

First, the wings. I took special care to try and remove the slight droop of the right wing when gluing them in place. Tape and a good clamp did the trick, as far as I can tell. Here's my Warthog with wings glued on, and other items (engines, tail feathers) stuck on temporarily:

 

 

 

Of course, there are some seams at the joins that require putty, and later, a paint touch-up:

 

 

I also glued the vertical fins to the horizontal stab. These will need some putty work & touch-up as well:

   

 

With the main camo painting finished, I thought this would be a good time to give my trusty Iwata a thorough cleaning. It's amazing how much gunk can build up inside an airbrush, even though I ran thinner through it every time I used it:

 

 

I probably need to tidy up my workbench as well. It's eight feet long, but it seems I only about two square feet free for my work!

 

 

This will probably be my last progress report for a while. Tomorrow, I'm off on a trip and won't be back until next weekend.

 

[Hoops]

On 8/20/2021 at 2:38 AM, billn53 said:

I used a Silhouette Cameo and Oramask 810 vinyl film to cut masks for the fan blades. This was my first time using the Silhouette and was a bit of a learning experience for me. (My gf gave it to me last Christmas, but I had never had an occasion to use it and it's been sitting in the box unopened for the past nine months. At least now she'll get off my back about it!)

 

 

Hi Bill,

 

Serkan gave some good info on using the Oramask. Personally I don't have the vinyl, but the Tamiya Masking sheets are easy to get and cheap here in Japan, and I've had very good success using them.

 

Silhouette studio already has a built in setting for "Washi Sheets" which is really what that masking sheets are.

 

I use Inkscape, which is a freeware vector based drawing program, to do the artwork, save it as a plain .svg and then imported into Silhouette Studio. Put the tamiya masking sheet on the cutting mat, select cut edges, select "washi sheet" and send.

 

A few minutes later, I have the masks.

 

Cheers!

 

Hoops

[billn53]

Many thanks, Hoops. I’ll have to get some of the Tamiya masking sheets, and I’ll look into Inkscape. 
- Bill

[opus999]

I'm not getting my email updates and so I missed this latest installment.  At any rate, this looks terrific!  I can commiserate about the vertical fin/horizontal stabilizer seam -- my current Fw-190 had a bit of glue get out of place and ruin the paint around the seam, so I too have cleanup and touch up for my next trick task.

 

This does look spectacular though Bill, and is really inspiring me to get mine out of the stash soon.

 

I'm not sure how you clean your airbrush, but I have the same make and model and I picked up an Iwata "airbrush cleaning kit" at hobby lobby.  It has some extremely useful brushes that fit in the bore and a very strong magnifying lens with a light.  I can strip that airbrush down and give it a thorough cleaning in about 5 minutes these days.

 

Hope the trip is a good one. 

[billn53]

1 hour ago, opus999 said:

I'm not getting my email updates and so I missed this latest installment.  At any rate, this looks terrific!  I can commiserate about the vertical fin/horizontal stabilizer seam -- my current Fw-190 had a bit of glue get out of place and ruin the paint around the seam, so I too have cleanup and touch up for my next trick task.

 

This does look spectacular though Bill, and is really inspiring me to get mine out of the stash soon.

 

I'm not sure how you clean your airbrush, but I have the same make and model and I picked up an Iwata "airbrush cleaning kit" at hobby lobby.  It has some extremely useful brushes that fit in the bore and a very strong magnifying lens with a light.  I can strip that airbrush down and give it a thorough cleaning in about 5 minutes these days.

 

Hope the trip is a good one. 

i found Yahoo has started sending my email updates to the junk folder, so you might check there. 
 

I also have the Iwata cleaning kit, and you are right that a thorough cleaning can be done pretty quickly. I usually do mine anytime the airbrush starts acting iffy, and whenever I finish a big painting project. 
 

I only wish I had an extra set of brushes, mine are getting a bit ragged.