OK gang, I have some progress to share. Not much, but some.
The biggest hurdle with my Skyhawk was getting that slat strut fixed. I spent a little time working on it, and I'm happy with the way it turned out.
I think once the slat's installed, it will look fine. I can still see that it's not a perfect fix, but of course I think it's because the picture is zoomed and blown up. From normal viewing distances, things look OK.
I started doing some decal work on both airframes. The A-7 is pretty much done except for some tiny stencils.
I noticed that one of the decals moved while it was drying. It's the plane number on the right side of the nose. It's not super-obvious, but I did see it. If you're not looking for it, you should (hopefully) overlook it.
My Skyhawk has most of the decals on. I'm waiting on the few remaining because I still need to paint the anti-glare panel on the nose. I figured it'd be easier to mask without having to worry about decals.
I'm not super happy with the way the national insignia settled over the vortex generators on the left wing's top, so I may need to sand some wrinkles out and touch-up with paint.
While the decals are drying and settling, I'm working on the ordnance. First, I drilled out all the sway braces for the Skyhawk. While dry-fitting, I noticed that the little "nubs" wouldn't be enough to hold the assemblies together. So, I'll use wire that runs up through the sway braces into the pylon(s).
I'm also using wire run through the A-7's Sidewinder rails to hold everything together.
Nice and strong!
I also added some wire to the A-7's struts to make it more robust. The "trailing" strut that makes up the main gear's "triangle" was just a butt-joint assembly. I wanted to make sure it would stand the test of time.
So, I'm going to spend some time with the fiddly-bits in preparation for the turn towards home.
As usual, comments, questions, and criticisms welcome.
Cheers!
-O