A10 Thunderbolt Tamiya 1:48 . Grey Ghosts Haunting me!

[Col Walter E Kurtz]

A bit of a departure from my normal subject.. a More modern 'jet' though this is strictly speaking a Turbofan engined bird! It was the kit that got me back in to modelling which I started nearly 2 years ago.. on the ordnance load. I got side tracked in to my real love and interest WW2 planes... 

 

its a very well thought out kit in my opinion. The engines and the wings marry up nicely with the fuselage.i decided I'd like to depart from the serving suggestion of a cammo model pattern and go for a Grey scheme. I've not decided which decal set to use yet but I'm not that bothered about historical accuracy for this project. I just wanted to enjoy the build and experiment with something new.. that doesn't have a propellor! 

 

I got some AK Real Colours US Modern Aircraft Greys paint set and so far I've sprayed Grey Vallejo Primer and then the Dark Ghost Grey sections. I did think I could just use Primer and maybe mix my own Dark Ghost Grey but a little research encouraged me to splash out on the rather excellent AK set. 

The model is surprisingly large for 1:48 scale. I think this is my perception as I've been engaged doing smaller WW2 planes so much ! I've enjoyed the kit so far .

 

I made some mistakes on the painting of the ordnance load I know.. apologies in advance .. but I'm finding the masking tasks a bit too much so I'll make it look mean and ready for a fight rather than accurate..

 

Any advice on weathering , especially the turbo fan exhaust patterns/ colours would be gratefully received! Also I'm guessing that the overall General weathering would be very restrained for this type of aircraft? I'm thinking non combat situations allow more time for cleaning aircraft and maintaining them ? 

 

I've always liked the Warthog. It looks like it means business! Here's a shot of the progress so far...Regards, Andy

 

 

Edited March 20, 2022 by Col Walter E Kurtz

[billn53]

Looking good!

I'm curious, how was the fit on the Tamiya kit? I recently built the 1/72 Revell (ex Italeri) A-10 and had a heck of an effort to get the wings, tail surfaces, and engine pods lined up and square with the fuselage.

[Col Walter E Kurtz]

2 minutes ago, billn53 said:

Looking good!

I'm curious, how was the fit on the Tamiya kit? I recently built the 1/72 Revell (ex Italeri) A-10 and had a heck of an effort to get the wings, tail surfaces, and engine pods lined up and square with the fuselage.

Thanks Bill. I found the fit to be generally excellent.. especially the wings and the tail assembly. The wings are engineered to glue together internally forward of the trailing wing edge , along a deep panel lin...so with a little care the welds become totally invisible. It's not like having to sand a WW2 wing ... well thought out in my humble opinion.

 

 The fuselage at the nose end requires a little care especially the cannon bay cover. I did a fair bit of dry fitting on this with the fuselage. It was a compromise in the end. The cannon bay is a bit too big when the end of the nose is closed up. I elected to leave a small step rather than sanding and filling which would remove the rather excellent nose surface detail..you can't really see it as it's at the bottom of the fuselage side.. on the port side. I elected to have the starboard side better fitting in my compromise..it has raised panel lines tooo very difficult to re instate them after sanding etc..

[Dana Bell]

Looks like you're off to a great start.  Before you get too far, I'd recommend filing off the trailing edge flap guides.  They were on only the six preproduction aircraft and the first four production aircraft - none of which wore the camouflage you want to use.   You may also want to replace the ECM pods.  If you want to know more about other details, ask here when you've chosen a scheme - there are plenty of folks here who will be better versed than I on the more modern A-10s.

 

Cheers,

 

 

 

Dana

Edited March 23, 2022 by Dana Bell

[Steve McArthur]

@Col Walter E Kurtz How interested are you in accuracy?  The Tamiya kit represents a very early A-10.  By the time it was wearing the current grey camouflage scheme there were numerous updates to the airframe.  You could look into JAWS paint schemes for this kit. Or there is a very early two tone grey camouflage that's different than the modern one and appropriate for the configuration of the Tamiya kit.

 

The weapons are also very dated.  The LGB and Hobos are Vietnam era weapons and never carried by an A-10 operationally.  I don't think MERs were ever cleared for use and the Maverick triple rail was rarely used as it adds a lot of drag.  Single rail Maverick mounts are more common.  It's all fine for an airshow load, but the plane would probably never be cleared to leave the ground that way.

[paulsbrown]

You could easily do one of the six preproduction birds with that kit, I'm currently finishing the same kit with one of the spotted desert JAWS schemes which I'll be posting soon, here's an early experimental gray scheme which is an option for you. 

The first squadron at Myrtle Beach is another gray option, the scheme is similar to today's gray.

 

[Col Walter E Kurtz]

 

On 21/03/2022 at 02:45, Dana Bell said:

Looks like you're off to a great start.  Before you get too far, I'd recommend filing off the trailing edge flap guides.  They were on only the six preproduction aircraft and the first four production aircraft - none of which wore the camouflage you want to use.   You may also want to replace the ECM pods.  If you want to know more about other details, ask here when you've chosed a scheme - there are plenty of folks here who will be better versed than I on the more modern A-10s.

 

Cheers,

 

 

 

Dana

Thanks for these rather interesting facts Dana. Makes a lot of sense when I look at some of the reference pics I've seen. I did kind  of imagine that the weapons load suggested was a bit too much. I think I'll reduce the number of bombsvin lol ghtbof your comments. Thank You 

kind Regards, Andy

[Col Walter E Kurtz]

On 21/03/2022 at 03:50, Steve McArthur said:

How interested are you in accuracy?

For this kit I'll go with a host of inaccuracies. I do have a duplicate kit in my stash so when I do this one I think I'll do some proper research and  take on board your comments. Interesting point about Vietnam era weapons being placed on this kit by Tamiya. Thanks for that! I noticed the model has two outlets on the port side near the cockpit yet the pic posted in the thread doesn't have them? Is this because it's a pre prod example? 

Kind Regards, Andy 

Edited March 22, 2022 by Col Walter E Kurtz

[paulsbrown]

19 minutes ago, Col Walter E Kurtz said:

noticed the model has two outlets on the port side near the cockpit yet the pic posted in the thread doesn't have them? Is this because it's a pre prod example? 

Yes it is. I 'm using the first production which is like the one in the photo. I reckon you have the Tamiya reissue with the dark green Euro 1 camo on the box.  It has revised moldings for the fuselage and chaff dispensers on the wingtips and gear sponsons, still a good choice for Desert Storm aircraft.

[bigbadbadge]

Hi Andy 

I do love the look of these beasties, used to enjoy watching them flying around on family holidays to Suffolk back in the 80s.  

I know nothing of the type myself but looks good do far.

Chris

[Col Walter E Kurtz]

10 hours ago, paulsbrown said:

Yes it is. I 'm using the first production which is like the one in the photo. I reckon you have the Tamiya reissue with the dark green Euro 1 camo on the box.  It has revised moldings for the fuselage and chaff dispensers on the wingtips and gear sponsons, still a good choice for Desert Storm aircraft.

Yes hats the kit it is..both of them! 

Think I definitely would like to do so research for the second one!

i do like the cammo pattern your pic shows.. I have the Master gun brass item for the second example.. thanks for the tips!

[Col Walter E Kurtz]

9 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Hi Andy 

I do love the look of these beasties, used to enjoy watching them flying around on family holidays to Suffolk back in the 80s.  

I know nothing of the type myself but looks good do far.

Chris

Thanks Chris.. I do like them as well! 

I got buzzed at low level by 4 of them once when visiting a electronics factory in Retford, Notts back when I was a lorry driver. Think the were using the factory as a practice aiming point.. or more likely my lorry! I just hit the deck and watched as they flew directly overhead at im sure less that 200 feet! Lol they then wheeled about the sky! It was quite frightening .. but also very impressive!

[bigbadbadge]

14 minutes ago, Col Walter E Kurtz said:

Thanks Chris.. I do like them as well! 

I got buzzed at low level by 4 of them once when visiting a electronics factory in Retford, Notts back when I was a lorry driver. Think the were using the factory as a practice aiming point.. or more likely my lorry! I just hit the deck and watched as they flew directly overhead at im sure less that 200 feet! Lol they then wheeled about the sky! It was quite frightening .. but also very impressive!

That's awesome,  what an experience,  they probably had a laugh too. 

 

Chris

[Col Walter E Kurtz]

LOL I.Bet they did!  Can imaginecthem saying Hey did you see that dude hit the deck! Lol

[paulsbrown]

14 hours ago, Col Walter E Kurtz said:

I have the Master gun brass item for the second example

You won't regret it, that gun nozzle is the business, I'd put it first on the A-10 aftermarket list.

[RMP2]

I built this a few years back and painted it to represent an early model based in the UK. There was some talk about the scheme/s in the build thread I believe. It's here should it be of any help -

 

[amos brierley]

Hi Walter.    I’m hoping to help out here.

 

Firstly Hannants have a set of decals in ‘future releases’ :

 

Description: 

A-10 Thunderbolt II - The Early Years Multiple marking options for prototype and test A-10 Warthogs. 

Manufacturer:

Caracal Models

Code Number:

CD48198

Scale:

1:48.  (Sorry not cleaver enough to copy a link).

 

Secondly hope these photos help out : 

These two photos are from The Aviation Photo company.

This negative needs a photo printed off, this looks like it’s got very few stencils.

 

This A/C is looking sum what scruffy.

Shame the Caracal decals don’t have the colour schemes available, and am hoping that the above A/C will be on the forthcoming decal sheet. Of note is that the stencils and squadron data appears to be in black.

Hope these help. Thanks for looking. 😉

 

 

[Pappy]

On 3/23/2022 at 3:27 AM, Col Walter E Kurtz said:

Yes hats the kit it is..both of them! 

Think I definitely would like to do so research for the second one!

i do like the cammo pattern your pic shows.. I have the Master gun brass item for the second example.. thanks for the tips!

 

The A-10 has undergone many modifiactions during its life but one of thee early changes was the doption of the ACES II seat  for production aircraft in lieu of the ESCAPAC seat that is provided by Tamiya.  If you plan to do research, look at areas like the chaff/flare dispensers, cockpit and fuselage modifications pre/post LASTE and the mods between LASTE and A-10C as these were the three main developemnt phases. You should be able to do a cold war/Gulf war jet relatively easily with the Tamiya kit but the jump to a post LASTE jet and beyond will require significant additions.  

 

As SM already stated, the weapons provided are not those that were typically employed so you may also have to robs the spares box or buy extra weapons. One thing that was commonly seen was the DRA (Dual Rail Adapter) that allowed carriage of two AIM-9 missiles for self defence. It was also common to see  a single AGM-65 on each wing, on TV one IR guided. . A-10 drivers used the IR seeker at night as an additional sensor before the NVG mod was incorporated

cheers,

 

Pappy 

Edited March 23, 2022 by Pappy

[Col Walter E Kurtz]

17 hours ago, amos brierley said:

Hope these help

Indeed they do help! Thank you so much for sharing them. There's something quite quaint about transparency pics.. seems quite a variation in the grey schemes were tried out. Interesting to note that one of your pics shows quite a filthy aircraft too! 

Regards, Andy

[Col Walter E Kurtz]

16 hours ago, Pappy said:

You should be able to do a cold war/Gulf war jet relatively

I think this is probably the easiest option. I'm thinking about the weapons load carefully too. Single Mavericks ... might go for defensive missed fits too..have some sidewinders from a 1:48 Harrier kit I could use..

 

thanks for your excellent information!

Regards, Andy

[Col Walter E Kurtz]

On 23/03/2022 at 08:11, RMP2 said:

It's here should it be of any help

Thanks RMP2, that was a great thread to look through. Yours turned out very nicely indeed! Cheers

Andy

[RMP2]

1 hour ago, Col Walter E Kurtz said:

Thanks RMP2, that was a great thread to look through. Yours turned out very nicely indeed! Cheers

Andy

 

No worries. It went together well but is a bit basic detail wise.

You might want to check colour scheme year against when Sidewinders were cleared for use as I don't think they were fitted in the early years

[Col Walter E Kurtz]

damn it.. this build has stalled. Had some problems with a frozen shoulder last few weeks.. hope to get some proper physio to sort it out then back to model making! can't wait!

[Col Walter E Kurtz]

Lets hope i can restart this build this year! it's just sitting on the shelf at the moment!

[Col Walter E Kurtz]

This one is just sitting there on the shelf.. i must try and finish it sometime! lol