Fairchild Republic A-10
Merry Xmas! Well it's nearly Xmas anyway so I'll get it out the way...
This is my last build for the year, the Hobby Boss 1/48 A-10 Thunderbolt II. Or at least that's what it says on the box, the aeroplane goes by a few different nicknames I believe such as the Tankbuster or the Warthog. Aside from the many nicknames, the aeroplane is basically just a big flying gun with bombs on it.
It is quite literally a plane built round a 30mm cannon. That cannon is the GAU-8 Avenger and if I'm not mistaken it's the most powerful cannon ever to be mounted on a fighter jet. There's some great footage on youtube of the gun in action. The gun can only be fired in short bursts when airborne as the recoil is enough to stall the jet.
It's quite a good kit overall. The build is pretty much straight out of the box, aside from the stand for the cannon which I scratch built from the spares box. The remove before flight tags were aftermarket as well but that's it. I painted it with Mr Hobby acrylics and just made the camo scheme up as I went along. There was a shark mouth included on the decal sheet for the nose art, but I preferred it without.
I built it with the cannon displayed externally, but the instructions call for it to be installed inside the aircraft. There is no option to open up the bay without an Eduard photo etch set and some major surgery, which I found quite odd considering the cannon is provided as standard.
Just a word of warning though if you attempt this kit, it is a tail sitter! I added a 2 oz fishing weight to the nose and it still wheelied. It was only once I added the final few bits of ordinance did it finally sit on its front wheel. That's without the gun installed internally, but the gun doesn't weigh 2 oz so I'd say a ballast is a must.
Aside from that it was a good kit and went together without any issues.
Thanks for looking, and have a good new year as well!
I have seen these things fire at targets on several occasions. Watching the tracers come out of the cannon in the plane looks almost like someone has a gigantic garden hose that is spraying out a solid red phosphorous stream. You can't see a space in between the tracers like you can with a normal MG. In between each tracer is normally 4 more rounds. It sounds like a huge chain saw running at wide open when it fires.
I also had one of these fly so low over our tank, that it clipped the upper section of our radio antennae ! The upper half of the mast was missing after the A-10 "Hog" driver flew that low over our tank... If I would have reached up I could have lost a hand (or worse) since I was in the turret at the time. I saw it coming and ducked inside !
The plane hit the antennae and snapped it off.
I'm glad they were on our side...
I like your build. It looks great !
"liked"
Now that sounds similar to a low fly by, just a bit lower! It must be amazing to see these in action.
Cheers for the comments mate, much appreciated!
Very nice Richard. Really like the camouflage and weathering. Seeing the cannon outside on a stand is a nice touch. "liked"
Cheers Kevin, thanks very much!
Outstanding, Richard...top-notch stuff right there, sir!
Thanks mate, glad you like it!
I love the paint and weathering.
I just have a suggestion. I think you can bring out the lovely details of your builds by increasing the exposure of your images. If you used a digital camera, there is an adjustment called EV compensation. You should set it to +1 or +1 2/3 to compensate for the camera wanting to make the white background 18% gray. It will brighten up the image and will bring out the detail in the shadows.
Thanks very much George!
I just use my iphone for the photos, I've had a look and I can't see that function. There are other similar settings to enhance the colours though, I'll have a play around with them sometime. Cheers for the tips!
If you're using PhotoShop, click "Auto Color" and then "Auto Contrast" under "Image"
Real nice! Great idea to display the gun. An aircraft designed around the gun, the nose gear is off center to make room for it
Thanks Robert, cheers.
You are right there, I thought I'd just glued it together wrong at first!
Very nice paint work
Cheers George, thanks!
My thoughts exactly
Cheers Bryan!
Excellent work, Richard.
Cheers Rob, thanks mate!
Magnificent looking Warthog. Your camo looks great and the subtle weathering makes it stand out. Well done and thanks for sharing.
Thanks very much Morne, much appreciated!
Brilliant work great idea to build it with the GAU-8A exposed!
I have this kit in my stash, thanks for the heads-up with the tailsitting 🙂
Keep up the good BRRRT 😉
Thanks very much!
I'd say it'll need a 3 oz weight just to be sure!
Beauty of a Warthog! I love the A-10. Once while deer hunting in Louisiana, my dad and I accidentally stumbled into a practice range used by A-10's out of England AFB. Looking up through the treetops we saw two A-10's doing practice runs, then a few moments later stumbled upon a practice bomb, and realized we were somewhere we shouldn't be! Needless to say we scared off any deer as we high-tailed it out of there making about as much racket as the A-10's!
Yeah, I’d have ran as well! Cheers mate.
Blinding job richard. Love the camouflage, Makes me want to do one now.
Thanks Glenn, cheers!
BEAUTIFULLY done, Richard! Like Louis, I've seen a LOT of A-10s, though none clipped off the antenna of my tank! I've never seen them shoot more than a 2-second burst of fire. When "on the attack," they are relentless. During one REFORGER exercise (in Germany) I watched as 2 A-10s made run after run after run and "decimated" (in simulation) an entire battalion trying to retreat from our unit's attack! They got at LEAST 50% of the vehicles; light-skinned AND armored; maybe more than 60%. It was VERY eye-opening!
As Louis said, I'm sure glad they're on our side !
Aye, they say they are irreplaceable!
Thanks very much mate.
Wow - all that in 1/72! Beautiful work!
It’s 1/48 Tom but cheers all the same! I don’t use photoshop, it’s just the standard iPhone software. I’ll have a look into that one, cheers.
Nice Hog, Richard! That gun is amazing.
Cheers John, thanks very much.