Italeri OA-10A

Uhhhh, an OA-10A is the USAF version of the PBY-5A Catalina. So, I think an A-10 would blow it away......Literally.

Doug,
I haven't built the Italeri or Hasagawa kit (do own the Hasagawa kit) so can only pass on some info. There are several builds in the Gallery section at www.aircraftresourcecenter.com and they range from exceptional detail but poor fit, needs some clean up and poor fit to it was a good build OOB.
My Hasagawa kit is several years old and lacks much of the updates done for Desert Storm up through today. Haven't seen their latest version so not sure if these have been addressed. The Italeri kit appears to be of a pretty current version.
Soo.... cheaper kit, good detail, and will need some work to put together to more expensive, not as up to date and fit who knows. I actually will be making the Monogram snap together kit in flying mode (just need to add cockpit, pilot and better weapons). I may buy the Italeri kit for an OIF version but probably won't buy the Hasagawa kit again, even if it is updated, cost just too much for me. IMHO.

Oh, Gary, you are correct that the Catalina's used by the USAAF in WWII were numbered OA-10 but I think Doug is talking of the current FAC version of the Warthog.

Phil,

Thanks for the link. I was leaning towards Hasegawa but It looks like the Italeri kit has some definite advantages. I think I just might have to give it a try.

I just built the Hasegawa and I have another one. the two that I have are from different periods as one tooling is updated in several areas. It's got fine raised panel lines. The fit is very good for the time (and for today for that matter). The Academy kit looks to me to be reverse engineering of the Hasegawa kit but updated with engraved detail, so it would be an improvement, i would expect. I don't know about the fit of the academy kit yet but I would hope it's as good as the Hasegawa. I do not have the Italeri kit as Italeri scares me for 1/72 aircraft. That said, I plan to get one as a review on modelingmadness.com says that the Italeri kit is the best 1/72. One thing I'd like to gripe about the Hasegawa kit is that the vertical tails aren't straight, they tilt forward and look a bit silly.

Sorry. I didn't know there was an observation version of the A-10. When did the USAF start using them?

As far as I can tell, the observation designation is a mission designation, not an aircraft designation. There was another topic on the forum regarding this. It's said that an A-10 could fly another mission on the same day and be designated an OA-10.

QUOTE: Originally posted by plum1030 As far as I can tell, the observation designation is a mission designation, not an aircraft designation. There was another topic on the forum regarding this. It's said that an A-10 could fly another mission on the same day and be designated an OA-10.

plum1030 is right there is no differance in the aircraft itself just this pilot qualifications and the mission flown (also the weapons load will reflect the O mission). The A-10 has had the O desingnation from the beginning when it took-over the roll from the O/A-37 and the OV-10.

I don't get it - you're saying that the plane's designation can change from one mission to the next, even though no equipment changes have been made? That doesn't make sense. I always thought that an aircraft's equipment or systems had to change before you could change it's official designation.

QUOTE: Originally posted by garydmason I don't get it - you're saying that the plane's designation can change from one mission to the next, even though no equipment changes have been made? That doesn't make sense. I always thought that an aircraft's equipment or systems had to change before you could change it's official designation.

Let me try to explain, there are a number of A-10s which carry the desgination OA and others which carry the A. These numbers are used in war and pilot (tranning) planning to insure there are enough of each for each specfic MISSION during war time.

There are specific airframes which are coded OA's but this is only used for funding/planning (as stated above)..basicly a bean counter tool. Yes an A-10 CAN be flown as an A in the morning and a OA in the afternoon but normaly the ones which carry the OA code are used in that roll whenever possable but, nothing stops and an A-10 being used as an OA-10 during war time if the mission demands.

There is no differance in the airframe itself or the equipment installed. One last point, there are A-10s with differant equipment installed like LARS (Lightweight Airborn Recovery System) or CMS (Common Missile warning Syatem) but this is because of funding issues and not mission issues.

I may have only confused you more but that's the way it is in the A-10 world.

Hey Dice ;
unless we are speaking about the WWII types them we start to talk about an Army version of the PBY
but for the current OA's like we said before an A-10 is a A-10 is a A10

I picked up the Italeri OA-10 kit yesterday and you were right. It's got nice engraved panels and the newer fittings. I hope the fit compares well with the Hasegawa kit, too. I might need to fit a resin cockpit, though.

Anyway, thanks for the tip.