A-10 Group build

reluctant_wanderer wrote:

Hey Guys,       The one on the right is for when the unit was deployed in OEF.  They were based out of turkey, and the "A-10" is actually written in their language.  Of course, there is Horatio Hogbreath is desert uniform, over a silhoutte of Afganistan, and what I think is one of the mottos for the Alaskan A-10s:     Enjoy!

I believe the motto refers to the A-10 Thunderbolt II and the fact they used the Litening II pod.  

reluctant_wanderer;

Did you know that that base those A-10's flew out of is no longer in the AEF and the US cannot fly any combat missions from there either because just prior to OIF Turkey banned all combat sorties from any of their bases, when my unit was going to Iraq the collection point was to be Batman AB Turkey, then to Kirkuk Ab Iraq, but after Turkey killed that thought then we staged out of El Jaber AB Kuwait, but for many years Incirlik AB Turkey was to kicking off point for OEF, Northern Watch, Provide Comfort, Desert Storm

Also during the conflict stage of OIF there where only 2 of the 5 A-10 units that had LITENING II capabilitiy (the 104 FW from Mass Air Guard & 442 FW from Whiteman) and after 1 May 2003 the 104 FW returned home from their deployment of 90 days for OEF/Southern Watch/OIF, now all A-10 unit have their planes updated to carry LITENING II pods and now with the "C's" on their way it'll get better

Pretty interesting thread here so far! I'm learning lots of stuff I never knew about the A-10.

Reluctant Wanderer...I got an message from you awhile back about those pics. Sorry, I just grabbed them somewhere online, I have no clue about permissions to use them!

As for my build....its coming slowly. I managed to obtain one of the Shull update sets, and am waiting for it to arrive. I still haven't decided on a scheme though. With the exception of the Shull set, and the resin engine fronts, this one is going to be straight of out the box.

Did some minor cockpit painting last weekend, not quite finished though. I'm hoping this weekend to finish it, and close up the fuselage halves.

Charlie 

chasd25;

Have you tried the True Details A-10 Cockpit set? It'll go great with that Shull set you have coming in and for just under $10.00 you can't go wrong either with that set.

also Check this out http://www.mibatt.ang.af.mil/battlecreek/Wing/FW_Video.htm

Hey Guys!

       Hope the building is going well.  Sorry I haven't responded in a while.  I have been really busy this week.  Thanks Dice and Cuda for your info. 

       Dice, I so often call the A-10 the Warthog that I forget that it's official designation is the "Thunderbolt II".  I thought it was just a neat play on the litening pod.  Ends up its a really neat play on both the A-10 and the pod. Thanks.

       Cuda, Thanks for the background info on my patches. I didn't know all of that stuff. Thanks.

      What station is the Litening pod carried on?

      Chasd25,

      Don't worry about it.  The only reason that I bring up permission is that for the most part people are cool about using pics from their site, but there are a few who don't like the pics being used without permission.  I am just to cover our tail fins here.   I will ask them if we have permission to use it.  I will get back with everybody when I have an answer. 

      Also, where did you get the Shull24 set from? I ma looking for one myself. Thanks.

      So haven't had much time to model, but I will post real soon about what I have.  Other than that, happy building.

Thanks guys.

reluctant_wanderer wrote:

;What station is the Litening pod carried on?

reluctant_wanderer;

Well during the conflict of OIF we flew them on station #9 (Right wing just outboard of the right main gear sponsion) that was the only station we did the modifactions to, than after the conflict when the AF allowed the fleet to have the update for the LITENING II pods the they adapted station #3 but before and during the conflict (OIF) the modifaction was just an experiment to see if the plane could be adapted for the targeting pods, and like DICE wrote now on the "C's" stations 2, 3, 9 & 10 will have the video link

Also, where did you get the Shull24 set from? I ma looking for one myself. Thanks.

RW, I got the set from a seller over on Hyperscale. Also picked up the Peanut, and Flipper decal set, although I don't think I'll use them on this build.

Charlie

chasd25;

Also for those who are looking for the A-10 Update set from Shull24 here is his website

http://www.shull24.com/

and to make that A-10 look great try the True Details A-10 Cockpit resin set and now as of this month of March it's on sale for $7.96 at Squadron

Here's some pics of the progress I've made. I'm not real happy with the cockpit painting, but after three tries I finally gave up. The putty on the fuselage seams is due to a misalignment during glue-up. There was also a large gap at the back of the engine assembly and fuselage. I'll have some re-scribing to do, but hopefully it won't be too tough. Anyway, any critiques or suggestions would be welcomed.

Hey guys,

      Been really busy this week, but I am finishing up loose ends for the GB badge.  Sorry this has taken so long.  I will be posting picks soon of my A-10.  I have an interesting question to see if you guys can help me with, but I need to show a pic to adequately describe it.

      Cuda, Thanks for the info on the cockpit, looks like I will be heading over to Squadron after I get done here.  I checked Shull24.com, and they are temporarily closed, till late spring at the earliest, so I have to wait on that.  Of well, lets me work on my perfecting the plastic parts of my kit.

     Thanks again, Dice, for the info.  Thanks to Both you and Cuda for your help and generous information.  You guys are the best.

     thanks, Charlie for the info. I will have to check hyperscale out. 

     Well,happy modeling.  I will post the pics when I get a chance.

Thanks,

Anthony

reluctant_wanderer;

Did you get the pix I sent to you a couple of weeks ago?

Sorry Cuda,

         I'm sorry, I haven't gotten any pics from you.  My primary E-mail account is notorious for kicking large e-mail files back at the sender.  If you are getting error messages about Box too full, Please send them to my Yahoo account at atlee_2000@yahoo.com.  Thanks.

Hi Guys,

       After much Ado, I finally have the results for the GB Badge,  Thanks for all the for ChasD25 and Dice who submitted entries.  The winner is:

Now if I can figure out how to shrink the thing down, we are in business. Any ideas?

Incidentally, The pics that Dice submitted are his own.  He owns/runs one of the finest websites devoted to the A-10 Warthog, full of interesting facts and wonderful pics.  It is undergoing some work right now, but it is still a cool site.  Many thanks to him for having such a valuable resource available to us.

Anyway, how are the builds coming?

Hey Dice and Cuda,

      I found this pic at Dice's site,(www.warthogpen.com) is this an example of an CSAR A-10 load?

http://http://www.warthogpen.com/picture_files/pic40.jpg 

Thanks.

RW,

Sorry but no, that's the standard load we had during OEF at Bagram AB Afghanistan, when they where flying in OIF they just carried 2 MK 82's on pylons 5 & 7 (the LITENING birds had a GBU-12 on 7), AGM-64's on pylons 3 & 9 (LITENING Birds had the pod on 9), SUU-17 pod on 2 (8 IR Flare pod), SUU-21 on 10 (7 FF White Phosphouis rocket pod), the CSAR would most likely only have 2 MK 82's and 2 SUU-21's and maybe a ext tank, and the CAS would most likely have the 4 MK 82's and AGM's

Thanks Cuda,

         Thanks.  Boy, For being a simple aircraft, the A-10 is more like a luxury SUV, comes fully loaded with dozens of options, depending on what you want to do, rugged and more likely to survive a adverse conditions. I never knew that the ext fuel tank was used operationally.  Cool.  Forgive me if I have asked this question before but what are the WP used for?

        Thanks also for the pics.  They did come through just fine. Thanks Again.

~Reluctant Wanderer

reluctant_wanderer wrote:

...Now if I can figure out how to shrink the thing down, we are in business. Any ideas? Incidentally, The pics that Dice submitted are his own.  He owns/runs one of the finest websites devoted to the A-10 Warthog, full of interesting facts and wonderful pics.  It is undergoing some work right now, but it is still a cool site.  Many thanks to him for having such a valuable resource available to us.

Thanks RW for the kind words about my site..there is a lot more coming soon. I can make the image any size you want it but, you are going to lose detail in the small writing at the bottom and I think it will become unreadable. I could crop that out and only leave the image of the A-10 with the large wording at the top like this....or add anything you guys want (year of the pig) onto the image.

72cuda & Dice OR Dice & 72cuda(whichever you prefer)

In the A-10 Walk Around book there are a couple of symbols on the planes in several pictures that I am curious about. The first symbol is a solid black square with an inverted black "V" under it. The point of the "V" is touching the bottom of the black square. The second symbol, which is black also, is the top part of a question mark(without the dot at the bottom) with a horizontal line at the bottom of the vertical part of the question mark. Are these unit/squadron/? markings or symbols for something?

Chris

Bofuf (Chris), the inverted question marks are hosting points for that surface (or the entire aircraft) depending on which ones you use. Like the vertical tail, if you wanted to remove it you would remove the screws at those points and attach a host to lift the tail on and off.

The black square with an inverted V are jacking points, either where you attach jacking hardware (like the one under the cockpit on the left-hand side) or points where you place the jack pads and jacks to life the aircraft.

Both of these are standard markings and are found on all A-10s. BTW they are the same on all USAF aircraft so can be found on every airframe if you look close enough.

Dice wrote:

Bofuf (Chris), the inverted question marks are hosting points for that surface (or the entire aircraft) depending on which ones you use. Like the vertical tail, if you wanted to remove it you would remove the screws at those points and attach a host to lift the tail on and off. The black square with an inverted V are jacking points, either where you attach jacking hardware (like the one under the cockpit on the left-hand side) or points where you place the jack pads and jacks to life the aircraft. Both of these are standard markings and are found on all A-10s. BTW they are the same on all USAF aircraft so can be found on every airframe if you look close enough.

Thank you Dice. After further investigation later(looking at the pictures closer) I answered my own question. But thanks for the "official" explanation. 

Patience is a virtue dryhopper!! I should have looked around a little more before I posted the question!!

Nice picture showing the jacking points. I saw the symbols by the cockpit, right where your picture shows the jacks. It looks like the jacks holding the plane are going inside the fuselage by the cockpit, not supporting underneath the fuselage. Is that correct?

Chris 

Your are correct Chris they are bolted into the aircraft. Normaly an A-10 is jacked using three jacks, one under each wing and one under the tail but, there are times which require the nose of the aircraft to be supported. In the picture above the wing was being removed so the aircraft had to be jacked in the nose. All you do is remove three "screws" and attach the jack fitting with three bolts.

BTW the aircraft in the picture is "KC's" jet being taken apart so it could be shipped back to the states.   

Hey Everyone;

I just got word that I may have found away to get back into the mix with the A-10 folks again, and DICE you might want to think about this one too. Whiteman AFB has a few slots that are coming open as ART's position (ART= Air Reserve Technician) and they want A-10 Experenced folks, I'll keep you all posted on my out come of going back to the KC HAWG's

72cuda wrote:

Hey Everyone; I just got word that I may have found away to get back into the mix with the A-10 folks again, and DICE you might want to think about this one too. Whiteman AFB has a few slots that are coming open as ART's position (ART= Air Reserve Technician) and they want A-10 Experenced folks, I'll keep you all posted on my out come of going back to the KC HAWG's

No thank Kuda that just wouldn't be for me but, good luck to you getting back on the Hawg!!  

DICE;

I see retirement is getting good now that you can freelance!

Everyone;

Has anyone bought the new Hobby Boss A-10A? I hear it's the Cats Meow of the 1/48 scale A-10's, it has all the bumps, antenna's, and a better gun the the earlier releases, plus it has an optional position Decellerons, and a fairly detailed cockpit like the Revell-O-grams, Please keep me posted if anyone get's this kit before I do

Hey guys,

      Sorry I haven't been here for a while.  I have been busy, but I have been checking on this.  I do have  few thngs to tell you, so I will be breaking up the post into three sections, to cut down on length.

       Hey Dice, sorry I missed this before. 

Dice wrote:

Thanks RW for the kind words about my site..there is a lot more coming soon. I can make the image any size you want it but, you are going to lose detail in the small writing at the bottom and I think it will become unreadable. I could crop that out and only leave the image of the A-10 with the large wording at the top like this....or add anything you guys want (year of the pig) onto the image.

        Your quite welcome.  Thanks for having the great site.  I have been checking it out regularly. I think yours is the only one that actually has a reference guide for modelers, not to mention the other cool stuff, like the door art.  Thanks for bringing it back.  I look forward to things to come.

         If you could resize the pic, that would be great!  The only text that needs to be on there is the pic owner's website, but that would be cool to add "the year of the Hog" on the top, that would be great!  Looks like final dimension should about 100 wide, and the height proportional to that. Thanks! Anything else, feel free to e-mail me.

         Cuda,

          That's great to hear about your opportunity there! I hope it goes well for you, and you get it. 

          In general, I found a really cool video on the web. I have told everybody about the airshow where I got to see the A-10 in action.  Well, I found some footage posted on the web.  It mostly is about the F-22, which we are excited about here, because the Pair of Dice will be gracing the F-22 at the end of this year, to become the 2nd operational squadron of F-22s. But enough , the video has some footage of the A-10 from the 355th from Eielson in a heritage flight, with a nice view of the flyby.  here is the link to the video:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sypZU7LpBOY

enjoy.

~R.W.

Hey guys,

    Part II:

          it's a small world.  I talked to the guy that makes the resin engine and flap corrections, after winning a set on ebay.  Ends up he was a hog-fixer from Eielson, who painted the door art for one of the airplanes.  It'd be even cooler, becuase this aircraft is one of the ones included in the Twobobs set, except that he tells me that the door art was changed from what he originally painted.  It's a really small world.

         It's a really cool, reall well engineered set.

        Hey Cuda, I heard that the Hobby Boss kit is basically a scaled down version of the Trumpeter 1/32 A-10, so it will have all the right bumps and antennae, but will be plagued with all the inaccurate shapes.  I know that one of the guys here is building one.

       Here's a review on it:

        http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/hb/kit_hb_a-10a.shtml

      I'd like to get the N/AW kit, and build that.

~R.W.

RW;

If you go to Cybermodeler they have an article of a States site shop that'll be importing them in bulk shortly and they'll cost $38.00 + S&H,

Also I seen that Hobby Lobby has a 25% off sale on all Models this week too

Thanks Cuda,

          I will look at that article. From what I have seen on the prices of those kits, $38 is a very good price.  I know that Greatmodels.com had them for a very short time, but are not offering them now. 

          I wish that I had a Hobby Lobby here in Alaska.

----Good News!-----

            Twobobs has the 355th decals back on the rosters for future releases!  Looks like that they will be in the next batch of releases!

            I got my True Details Cockpit order!! Squadron was out for a while.

            Now all I need is the Shull24 set, and I am in business. 

           Probably for my project, I will build a flipper scheme.  I don't have the 1/48 Twobobs set, but I have a set of general markings, and the 1/32 set, so I wil use those to build my kit.

Happy modeling everybody!

I was wondering if I could join this group build. I started building a 1:48 A-10 about 3 weeks ago (early march). I am also in the F-14 Tomcat group build, but I am still a noob. Thats my excuse anyway for the innacuracies in my colours and markings, I hope that's OK. I hope to fix that in the future, I have started an F4 phantom and I am doing research on that one to get it right.

 Anyway, I can post a couple of pics of my progress on the A-10 and you can see how wrong I am getting it ;)