A-7E Corsair II

[Mike]

A-7E Corsair II

1:48 Hobbyboss

Based on the Successful A-8 Crusader, but "shrunk down" to fulfil the light attack function instead of the then ageing Sykhawk, the Corsair enjoyed a long career with the US armed forces that spanned Vietnam to the first Gulf War, with the final units being drawn down in 1991 shortly after their return from that conflict.

During its period of service, the Corsair went through a number of versions, with the current kit a Navalised development of the A-7D built for the USAF. It therefore shared its single M61 Vulcan cannon and advanced terrain following radar with the air force version.

The kit arrives in HobbyBoss' usual top-loader box, with quite a selection of sprues, although not rammed to the gunwales. There are 4 sprues of grey styrene for the airframe itself and a further 5 for the wide range of ordnance that the SLUF could carry. The clear parts are on three small sprues, presumably to allow for the two-seater canopy to utilise the windscreen parts. There is a seam down the middle of the canopy that will need removing, and at first you wonder why, as the sides of the canopy seem fairly straight. On closer inspection however, there is a small amount of bulge at the top of the front of the canopy, necessitating a multi-part mould.

The intake lip is separate from the fuselage, and doesn't have quite the correct profile, instead being a little flattened at the bottom, and consequentially either too wide, or appearing too wide due to the changed proportions. A certain amount of adjustment could be made by judicious sanding, but it would be best fixed by a replacement intake lip. The two gun trough lip is also included in the box to confuse matters, due to the modular breakdown of the kit.

Each fuselage half is a one-piece moulding (ignoring the intake lip), which has two open avionics bays on the sides, which are sometimes seen open during periods of inactivity. The cockpit tub is well detailed for all but the most demanding, although the ejector seat is a little simple due to its one-piece design - another slightly different seat is supplied, so be careful which one you choose. Decals are provided for the instrument panel and side consoles should you wish to apply them over the raised detail already provided.

The nosegear bay is built as part of the intake trunking, which it should be noted does not provide full depth. It simply finishes at the front of the main wheel bays. It may be sensible to blank this off, as although it's unlikely anyone will see the lack of turbine face, there could be a little light to illuminate the interior if you've not closed every join 100%. At the rear is an inch long section of exhaust trunking, which is blanked off with a part engraved with a simulation of the afterburner ring - again, only the nosey would venture there.

Before closing up the fuselage, the interior around the exhaust will need a lick of interior green paint, as there's quite a gap around the exhaust.

The wings are provided without the possibility of folding them from the box, which is an odd choice, given the aircraft's use. The wing underside parts only extend as far as the hinge-line, and it will be necessary to punch through 6 flashed off location holes if you intend to add the nicely detailed pylons and their separate sway braces. Flaps are separate, so could be dropped, but the stabilators are moulded in place on the single thickness outer panel, so would have to be mobilised if you wish to portray the aircraft with flying surfaces deployed.

The landing gear provided is functional, but would benefit from the addition of some brake-lines to busy them up. The tyres are moulded without weighed flats, and be careful to choose the rather bumpy looking nose-gear tyres, as you have a choice of smooth or - from the looks of it, cross-country!

It's rare that a kit's armament sprues outnumber the airframe sprues, but as usual HobbyBoss provide plenty.

2x Fuel Tanks

1 x FLIR pod

12 x Mk.82 Bombs

12 x Mk.20 Cluster Bombs

6 x AGM-65 Mavericks (single or triple mounting)

2 x AIM-9L Sidewinders

2 x GBU-10 Paveway II Bombs

Do however check your references to decide whether the weapons were used, and if so, typically on which pylons.

A full color A4 painting guide is included, with additional instructions for painting and decaling the ordnance.

The two schemes you can model from the kit decals are colourful, as follows:

• 159308/403 of VA-86 Sidewinders on USS Nimitz 1975 in grey over white with orange accents.
  
• 157523/402 VA-195 Dambusters 1982 in a fetching dusky blue over dark ghost grey and lo-viz markings.
  

The decals are provided on three sheets, with national markings and stencilling separate to the rather bright orange stripes and chequers of the hi-viz scheme. The third decal sheet is provided purely to add stencils and striping to the ordnance. All of the decals are crisply printed and in perfect register on my copy, and color rendition is especially vibrant for the hi-viz markings. I do rather like HB's current habit of taping one side of the protective waxy paper to each sheet, as it stops you from losing them, but still allows you full access to the decals for planning and ogling purposes.

Conclusion

This kit should provide an easy build for the average modeller, and the shape issue with the intake lip shouldn't put you off unduly. The inclusion of a couple of rather colourful schemes and a host of weaponry should result in an impressive addition to your display cabinet.

Review sample courtesy of

[Shar2]

Looks pretty good. May have get some of these.

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Thanks for the review, Mike.

Does this kit have the same forward fuselage shape issues that the 1/72 HB kit has? The forward fuselage on the 1/72 kit is so wide as to make the whole thing a caricature of the real aircraft. The canopy looks like it should be on a F-111. I actually put a canopy from a Fujimi A-7 inside the HB canopy and it rattled around a bit!

Looking at the photos of the parts, it seems to me that the radome is far too small and pointed, similar to the 1/72 kit. The radome should be broad and blunty.

[Matt Roberts]

The two seats are not for the two seaters, the air force 'D' (which most of the bits are there in the refueling recepticle on the fuselage sprue) and the 'E' had a differant seat than did the early Navy versions. The one on the left is an Escapac seat that the early SLUFs had.

Also if you are wanting accurate tanks for the SLUF, take a look at your Hobbycraft and Hasegawa A-4 kits, those are Aero 300 gal tanks, the same as those used on the SLUF - except that the A-7 ones had a third fin that was on the bottom of the tank's tail end. Since the kit does have that part you can add it to the Scooter tanks. I figure those looking at the A-7s will probably have A-4s in thier stash or spares in thier weapons locker somewhere. I think I have 12 tanks I have accumulated over the years.

But something else to remember about early A-7s (Vietnam era) was that Navy birds often did not use the tanks, except during use as a tanker asset with a buddy pack under the outer left wing. It was as a result of even the early A-7s having a very good radius of action compared to many carrier based aircraft. A-7Ds during this period did often carry them as it was a longer flight from the bases in Thailand than from carriers in the Tonkin Gulf. In the 80's and later the tanks were more common.

[Hit Or Miss]

Pretty sure the LEF/TEF came down together or not at all (mechanically interlinked).

The weapons are a poor fit for the type as the A-7E was a dedicated SEAD platform in the airwing but only had the AGM-62 as a standard smart round and would need the AWW-9/13 datalink container to support that mission as the Walleye needed altitude to glide and that required significant standoff to be safe. GBU-10 was rare and GBU-8 was a USAF only weapon which was retired from service by the late 70s.

AGM-65F would be possible but unlikely. AGM-84 was given initial carry trials at the Lake but never operationally deployed with the Corsair community to my knowledge. Rockets left the deck in the mid-70s (HERO) and so one is left with AGM-88 and AGM-45 being principle guided round (SEAD) options, often used together. About half the force instead got the AAR-49 pod which made them night but not smart weapon capable.

The FLIR wasn't as capable a fit as the later USAF 'LANA' system which integrated radar altimeter data to provide a true terrain following capability without using the APQ-126. Without an LDP or even TISL, the use of laser guided weapons would be problematic at best and so the night attack A-7E would have largely used CBU-49/59 (the Mk.20 shell is fairly close) and Mk.82 weapons off TERs on the midwing and occasionally the outboard stations. Kit 82's look a bit too narrow to me. Though nominally a 600 knot airframe, the SLUF was always drag and thrust limited to much lower values and hence it was not uncommon to switch to parent station loadings and even removal of the midwing stations to improve tunnel drag effects between weapons.

A-7E HARM + AAR-49 nav FLIR

http://www.aircraftinformation.info/Images/A-7_09.jpg

A-7E Shrike + FLIR

http://www.aircraftinformation.info/Images/A-7_18.jpg

A-7E ADM-141 TALD

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/A-7E_Corsair_II.JPEG

A-7E Walleye + D/L Pod

http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/agm-62-4.jpg

A-7E Walleye Color

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Walleye_on_A-7.jpg

A-7E Parent Mk.82

http://theaviationist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/National-Naval-Aviation-Museum-FB-page.jpg-2.jpg

A-7E Mk.82 Split

http://www.aircraftinformation.info/Images/A-7_06.jpg

A-7E Mixed

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/A-7E_VA-72_on_USS_America_(CV-66)_Apr_1986.JPEG

A-7E Buddy Pod

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/A-7E_VA-12_in_flight_with_extended_speed_brake_1978.JPEG

A-7E Interesting Camouflage

http://www.seaforces.org/usnair/VA/Attack-Squadron-22-Dateien/image017.jpg

The A-7E did not use the LAU-88 Maverick Trirail and had internal ALQ-100/126 DECM instead of using USAF ALQ-119/131 jammer pods. No D-704 pod and anemic, straight-sided, way too long, Aero-300s means the model really isn't set up for long range missions as with say the 1991 raids undertaken from the Red Sea into Western Iraq. However; a pair of Eduard Brassin AGM-88s/AGM-45s could easily be done up for the Libyan Prarie Fire/Eldorado Canyon missions. The giant HARM under the A-7E's fairly small wing really looks /fierce/.

As the other poster suggested, the aircraft was used as a buddy tanker with as many as 3 EFTs and the D-704 pod and was also one of the few jets ondeck which could launch with cold/inop cats and so was also occasionally (theater dependent) kept cocked and locked as a DLI with AIM-9s when in-port or transiting constricted waterways where low carrier maneuvering speed meant WOD was a factor.

[ancient mariner]

A 2010 review? Give me a minute to vacuum the dust from this one