Testing SLUF, finished!

[modelling minion]

As I have been slowly building up a collection of aircraft used for testing at Edwards AFB over the past few years this GB just seemed to good an opportunity to miss, the only problem being narrowing down the field of potential builds and actually choosing what to build. After much consideration I finally settled on one of Vought's finest, an A-7D Corsair. This has been on my "to do" list after I saw some of Sven's ( @Old Viper Tester) superb pics that he took of A-7's at various points of their careers in testing at Edwards AFB. I am particularly drawn to the very early YA-7D's which still carried the US Navy style of refuelling probe which were also painted in a grey and white scheme, but not Light Gull Grey as per the Navy but Air Defence Grey. For a discussion on this colour and for some pics of what I am trying to recreate have a look at this thread;

The kit I shall be using is Hasegawa's venerable 1/48 A-7 (still the best in any scale) which I have in a joint D/E boxing which gives me all the bits I need plastic wise for my project;

 

As you can see below all is still safely sealed in it's plastic bag;

 

For detail references I shall be using this excellent book;

 

Whilst focusing solely on the A-7's service in Greece it has some superb detail shots which are applicable to the A-7 in general such as this one of one of the avionics bays which I plan to use by having open on the model;

 

I think I have a resin seat somewhere that I shall add to the kit if I can find it but other than that she will be built OOTB, the decals will be coming from the spares box.

 

The start date can't come soon enough as I am really looking forward to getting started on this one, all I need to do now is decide on which airframe to build!

 

Thanks for looking in and as always all comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

 

Craig.

 

Edited December 19, 2022 by modelling minion

[Col.]

Nice one Craig, that's a good scheme to make for something subtly different, now if you'll excuse me I'm off to look for A-7 kits...

[modelling minion]

Thanks mate, its nice to do subjects in schemes that are a bit different than usual, I think it will help having a dirty great red and white striped pole sticking out of the nose!

 

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[Col.]

2 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

..I think it will help having a dirty great red and white striped pole sticking out of the nose!

 

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Some aeroplanes will do anything to draw attention to themselves

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Another good choice Craig, and Im sure this will have a good amount of Day-Glo ? Or will it be an earlier camouflaged/white example ? 

[modelling minion]

20 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Another good choice Craig, and Im sure this will have a good amount of Day-Glo ? Or will it be an earlier camouflaged/white example ? 

Cheers Dennis, no dayglo on this one unfortunately but plenty of International Orange on the grey and white scheme.

 

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[arfa1983]

😅

 

Very similar boxing for my build (read, identical) but a very different scheme planned! 

[modelling minion]

28 minutes ago, arfa1983 said:

😅

 

Very similar boxing for my build (read, identical) but a very different scheme planned! 

Great minds obviously think alike Arthur.😉

What scheme do you have planned for yours?

 

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[Hockeyboy76]

Oooo looks good. Any pink primer needed?

Dirty great big red and white pole. Have you mislaid your blue pills again?🤣

[arfa1983]

4 hours ago, modelling minion said:

Great minds obviously think alike Arthur.😉

What scheme do you have planned for yours?

 

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Will open my thread shortly... 

[modelling minion]

3 hours ago, Hockeyboy76 said:

Oooo looks good. Any pink primer needed?

Dirty great big red and white pole. Have you mislaid your blue pills again?🤣

Cheers H, I think!

The pink primer may be useful for the International Orange areas.

I don't know what blue pills you have been using but if they give a certain something red and white stripes you might want to get that checked out!😁

 

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[Dansk]

You'll do a lovely job on this craig.

I love Slufs and with international orange, open panels, and the hase kit what's not to love?

good luck mate.

[modelling minion]

9 minutes ago, Dansk said:

You'll do a lovely job on this craig.

I love Slufs and with international orange, open panels, and the hase kit what's not to love?

good luck mate.

Thanks mate, hopefully I won't disappoint.

I have to say I have mixed feelings on the kit, the surface detail is excellent but the quality of the moulding is less than perfect with blobs of plastic in places and on some joining faces and the inside faces of the undercarriage doors have big sink marks that will be impossible to sort without destroying details.

 

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[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

57 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

Thanks mate, hopefully I won't disappoint.

I have to say I have mixed feelings on the kit, the surface detail is excellent but the quality of the moulding is less than perfect with blobs of plastic in places and on some joining faces and the inside faces of the undercarriage doors have big sink marks that will be impossible to sort without destroying details.

 

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Sounds like the molds haven't held up well ? I only built it once and even then only partisl as a friend had convinced me I did the interior colors incorrectly. Sadly found out years late that I’d had it right all along and now these are nigh on impossible to find in the U.S.. 

[modelling minion]

1 hour ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Sounds like the molds haven't held up well ? I only built it once and even then only partisl as a friend had convinced me I did the interior colors incorrectly. Sadly found out years late that I’d had it right all along and now these are nigh on impossible to find in the U.S.. 

They're not easy to find over here either mate and they aren't cheap when you do find them.

 

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[Pappy]

1 hour ago, modelling minion said:

They're not easy to find over here either mate and they aren't cheap when you do find them.

 

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G'day Craig, I also have a soft spot for the SLUF. I have two of these in the stash, an oroginal Has and a Revell re-box. The plastic in the Revell is a little flashier but also on both the panel detail tends to thin and even dissappear near the fuselage centreline. I am looking forward to your build,

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

[modelling minion]

19 minutes ago, Pappy said:

 

G'day Craig, I also have a soft spot for the SLUF. I have two of these in the stash, an oroginal Has and a Revell re-box. The plastic in the Revell is a little flashier but also on both the panel detail tends to thin and even dissappear near the fuselage centreline. I am looking forward to your build,

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

Always great to have your attention and input mate, and yes there is something about the SLUF isn't there, a great looking plane in an ugly kind of way.

I am lucky that the panel lines are consistent on this one, although the way the fit is going so far (I have built up the wings) I can see a lot of it being lost to filling and sanding.

 

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[Pappy]

1 hour ago, modelling minion said:

Always great to have your attention and input mate, and yes there is something about the SLUF isn't there, a great looking plane in an ugly kind of way.

I am lucky that the panel lines are consistent on this one, although the way the fit is going so far (I have built up the wings) I can see a lot of it being lost to filling and sanding.

 

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Happy to be along for the ride. One thing I noticed was that the forward wing centre section profile did not match the fuselage cross section. The other thing was that I deviated from the instruction assembly sequence for the speedbrake . Rather than assemble the speed brake as an assembly and offer this to the assembled fuselage, I thought it wiser to add the relevant parts to each fuselage half. 

 

Otherwise I think that the kit is failry straight forward.

 

Pappy

[Col.]

Hopefully this one doesn't test you too much Craig.

[modelling minion]

24 minutes ago, Col. said:

Hopefully this one doesn't test you too much Craig.

Fear not my friend I shall complete her.

 

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[modelling minion]

A couple of pics for you to see some of the issues with this kit so far, starting with the large amount of plastic "blobs" that are in a lot of places, this is one side of half of the intake;

 

Yes I will be making an intake blank, to be fair most of the pics of A-7's at Edwards that aren't in use have the blanks fitted.

And onto the wings, the top of the wings is okay and I was able to get a good fit;

 

But the undersides are a different matter entirely;

 

Sorry about the quality of the pics but you get the idea, and I have no idea how to improve the fit at the lower wings. I am sure you can tell even though the pic isn't brilliant that there is a nasty step as well as a gap, I know that there is a pylon that fits in this position so all I can hope is that it hides the majority of the gap.

 

Thanks for looking in and as always any comments and criticisms are gratefully received.

 

Craig.

 

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[Col.]

Yikes. Those wing parts don't look like Hasegawa's typical quality of fit  Can you shim them up a bit with some plasticard to reduce the step and gaps?

[modelling minion]

58 minutes ago, Col. said:

Yikes. Those wing parts don't look like Hasegawa's typical quality of fit  Can you shim them up a bit with some plasticard to reduce the step and gaps?

Unfortunately not mate, the way the outer wings are designed means that there is an insert to fit for either folded or straight wings. If I do another (there's at two more from Edwards that I want to do) I would try joining the two outer wing parts to their respective inner wing bits before joining them together. I have reduced the step at the rear of the wing by scraping some plastic away and am hoping that the weapons pylon will help cover the rest. I have a Hobby Boss TA-7C in the stash (yes I know the intake shape is way off) so it will be interesting to see how theres goes together.

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[Col.]

I did have a read of some reviews covering the HobbyBoss kit and decided against it. The intake was mentioned and I see there's a resin correction set available for it but think the same review noted the wings are smaller than they should be?

[helios16v]

Was a bit surprised when I saw an A-7E kit (1/48 Hase) pop up at the LHS.  Surprisingly it hung around for a while (couple months or so) before it found a home.