A-10 WIP

Ok so this is the first kit I've cut up and all I can say is thank God for dremel tools. Made quick work of the panels. Only 2 parts glued to the kit and I have already learned a few things about PE parts. They bend easily and can get glued to your fingers quickly too! Ouch. You will see some scratched paint, I had painted the forward part of the plane because I was painting something else and didn't want to waste the paint and couldn't put it back in the container. So it will all get taken off before the real painting occurs.

So my first lesson was be careful with the glue! Obvious I know but in my excited frenzy to work on it I got sloppy. Second lesson was that when I removed the kit plastic I should have left a lip for the PE to get glued to, it's fragile in its current state. The photo below has the panel door open, it won't be glued on till painting of the fuselage is done, and the actual resin part is just taped inside so I could test fit everything. 

Next two pictures are of the electronics bay on the other side of the plane. I took the lessons I learned so quickly and left a lip of plastic for it to sit on, and was careful with the glue. I actually taped off the section so any glue that did run over would hit tape and I could lift it up quickly before it started eating away at the plastic.

Let me know what you guys think! Any and all comments are welcome! Also, I'm not doing a super accurate model, I'm not too concerned if the ILS antenna or GPS is in the right spot. I will be painting it in a grey scheme though. 

Looks good so far.  Good to see you diving into the AM world.  Beware, though, because once you do it its hard to build without it.  Start saving $$$ now!

Keep this coming dude. Watch those dremels man....,it's only plastic. Lookin' good

Nice work Squatch - i still haven't taken the plunge into A/M or resin upgrades - but I do want too.

Good on you for jumping in - the effort is paying off. I guess i'll need to add a dremel to my list of "must have tools to sit in my drawer for 'one day'" :)

Looking forward to further updates.

cml

i still haven't taken the plunge into A/M or resin upgrades - but I do want too.

CML you can get a cheap dremel from Harbour Freight if you have any near you. If you want to get into the AM try just a resin kit that doesn't have a ton of pieces, that's what kept me away because I thought it was too far past my level. And as Mustang said it opens up an entirely new world!

I found a more detailed gun for the A-10! Should be here in 7-10 days. I'll do what I can till I get it but I don't think I'll be able to close up the halves before I get it.

Looks great so far! I too haven't tried AM yet, and I have this same kit so I'll probably end up getting the true details cockpit, at $9 I figure if I screw up I'll just use the kits cockpit. Anyways, keep up the good work! I'll be watching this one closely

SO glad to see someone on here doing an A-10.  LOVE these jets.  Good luck on your endeavor to chop the hell outta that thing.  I've been waiting to do the same thing.  HobbyBoss has a kit that comes with the GAU-8 to build up.  I've been drooling over that for about 3 years now.  I'll get around to it one day I keep telling myself.

It's lookin' good so far.  Don't sweat the PE stuff.  I had a hard time with it too at first.  The right tool for the job has saved me a lot of headache and frustration.  I might suggestion you pick up a couple of different tweezers and precision tips for the CA you'll use on them.  That's a good start for you if you haven't put them in your toolbox already.

=]

Nice start, good work on the cockpit. Which is the gun you were looking at.

Fly-n-hi

Looks good so far.  Good to see you diving into the AM world.  Beware, though, because once you do it its hard to build without it.  Start saving $$$ now!

 

I'll second that. Now when I get a kit that there is no AM for, I get the shakes, I have to start looking through the spares box. Its more addictive than GB's.

Well, almost.

Master Model A-10 Thunderbolt II GAU-8 Avenger Gun Tip & Pitot Tube is the gun I wanted, the site I was looking at it though had it out of stock, so I went elsewhere and found it for the same price. So it'll be here in about a week. Thanks for the comments guys!

I was wondering if that was the one you meant. I got the 72nd one a few weeks back, looks really nice. Glad to hear you got hold of it.

In looking at reference pictures (google) I have a few questions maybe someone can answer. Since I'm having panels open what color would the inside be? I've seen a few with white panels and a few with yellow. I'm partial to the white. Same with the spoilers, they are molded open and I've seen either red or white or gray. I know I have other questions but I cant remember them right now ha

Alright well I liked the white panels, so I think I'll go with it. I haven't painted them yet but I did get the electronics bay painted up. I searched for a while online and couldn't find any pictures of the open electronics bay, only other modelers works that they had completed. I like the first picture because it shows what gluing with paint does and how sloppy the first PE piece was put down haha

I think it turned out fairly well. I used a toothpick to get some random dials and I dry brushed some white as well. It will eventually get a pinwash when I weather the plane, but thats another day!

Can't see the pics :'(

There seems to be something wrong with the link to PB.

Ya I posted the pics here then tried to organize my PB account into different folders for different builds and such. Are the previous pictures still showing up?

Ye, the other ones are ok, just those last ones.

ok these are the last 3 pics I posted here before I messed up the photos. If anyone has any issues with photos not showing up let me know and I'll just repost  all the pictures I have put up so far! Sorry for the mess up! Stupid technology ha

Now that's better. That is some really nice detailing in there. Is all of that part of the AM set.

Yes thats the verlinden electronics bay. I think it looks great and am going to paint the panels white. I see the first 3 pictures in the original post are fine, but when I pull it up it has the "sorry this link is no longer working" for the rest of the pics...anyone else having issues?

I see the pictures and they look quite well, keep up the good work

Bish

Now when I get a kit that there is no AM for, I get the shakes, I have to start looking through the spares box. Its more addictive than GB's.

Details look really good dude. Really good!

Looking good. I can only see the last three pictures though. :( Bob

Looking good! I actually just picked up this kit and the verlinden set. I just finished an A-10 from tamiya and saw this at Michael's when I was getting some other things. Just thought, hmm what can make an A-10 kit nicer? Another one! Except it'll be in the USAF grey scheme.

ok guys, I think I fixed the picture issues that were at the beginning of the post, they should all be showing up now. Also my gun finally arrived and I have a few pics to upload! Slow progress since I had some extra shifts at work and then a bachelor party this weekend. So these pictures are the kit gun and the AM gun unassembled and on the putty getting painted

I put all the parts on a string of putty, painted them with vallejo dark grey and just a drop of blue since I've heard of a couple other guys doing it, and I must say it looks pretty good compared to just straight black. 

I can defiantly see why you wanted to replace that gun.

This is fun to watch. You're doing a great job.

Those brass gun parts look cool! That nose gun will look great!

Neat idea, a drop of blue in black to simulate gunmetal. Thanks for the tip.

The gun is painted and I test fit it on there. I couldn't get my camera to focus so only 2 pictures. I'm not very happy with the paint job on it, but it is what it is, and it's still miles ahead of the kit gun. It still needs a little more fidgeting to get the fitting right, and the tiny parts are a pain in my butt! I glued the gun to my fingers twice haha