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Dan Lee
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Matchbox SLUF or more politely known as the A-7D

December 17, 2021 · in Aviation · · 19 · 1.7K

I built this old OOB except for the decals because I was annoyed with working with uncooperative resin and PE pieces as well as stubborn paint jobs that weren't going anywhere. Also wanted to practice working on SEA camo.

It was a straight forward build. I had purchased a resin cockpit for this, but decided to leave it as is with a pilot in the seat instead of trying to jam in a stubborn resin pit into a kit it wasn't designed for (Fujimi.) The only mod I did with the cockpit was make the seat look a lot more like an Escapac Seat than the generic ejection seat Matchbox put in the plane. I painted the pilot the best I could.

I glued together parts mostly with CA along the visible seams and Tamiya Extra thin on the mounting points. I do this so I don't have surprise phantom seams that show up when I use Tamiya Extra, not because I own stock in CA glue companies. It's a small trick that removes headaches (and adds its own like working quick to slap everything together thanks to CA glue's quick setting time.)

The Matchbox seam trencher was in full display with the kit. I used Perfect Plastic Putty to fill in the gaps and some of the more blatant trenches on the airframe (especially where the folding wings meet the rest of the wing.)

I primed the model with Badger's Grey Stynylrez because of the multicolor plastic (cool as a kid, but a pain if you're trying to make it look good.) I had to polish all the glitches and glops in the primer using polishing cloths.

For the SEA camo, I used Vallejo Model Air greens for the top and Tamiya Dark Earth for the brown (lightened with desert tan.) The light grey coat was done with Model Master Acrylic FS36622.

The gloss coat was Vallejo Acrylic gloss (my go to gloss) and the Colorado ANG decals came from a AirDocs sheet of the SLUF.

Most of the small parts were glued without too much problem (landing gear was painted flat white). I did a little plastic surgery on the nose landing gear to get it in because I forgot to install it when sealing up the fuselage.

The MB SLUF looks naked without weapons (also the big holes for the barren pylons would need filling in) so I loaded it for bear (training bear.) I painted the incorrectly shaped weapons sky blue to emulate training bombs as ANG aircraft rarely have anything except a couple of pylons occupied (and as I mentioned the pylons don't look good without anything on them.) The weapons and pylons were glued on with CA glue.

I did a lot of work on the canopy. I tried to make my own masks for doing the base paint as well as practice masking/painting the prominent seals around the canopy/windscreen glass. Also I tried to emulate the center windscreen HUD color. I used a mix of 3 drops of Vallejo Gloss with 1 tiny drop of Vallejo clear green and sprayed it on in very light coats to get the "Coke Bottle Glass" look of the HUD.

So there it is. My 1/72 simple build. The paint job is a bit flawed (weapons) but I'm glad i had some practice working on the SEA camo pattern and other skills I'm going to need soon (the ZM 1/48 F-4E Phantom is calling me.)

For those who don't know, SLUF stands for Short Little Ugly F*er/Fellow aka the USAF's nickname for the .

Reader reactions:
7  Awesome

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19 responses

  1. Looks great ! Just like I remember them looking when I was in the COANG 40 years ago. You did a nice job on the paint, not easy to do in 1/72.

  2. Right fine paintwork sir I like this alot

  3. Now THAT model definitely brings a smile to my face! I built this kit as a younger teen, remembering those bombs and those Sparrow missiles and all those trench engraved panel lines and painting the SEA camo with paper stencils and my new Passche H1 Airbrush! Optional folded wings, right?
    Nice work with the colour selection and paint work Dan, and thanks for the memories!

  4. A great looking SLUF out of the old, simplistic Matchbox kit, Dan!
    Looks great in SEA camo!

  5. Beautiful results on this old Matchbox kit, Dan @dbdlee
    Camouflage looks great.

  6. Looks good to me Dan
    I noted your tip on CA glue for the seams.
    How do you apply that ? Those little bottles get clogged up if used directly from them. Maybe a brush works for that ?
    I always liked the Corsair 2 . Kind of like a squat version of the Crusader.

    • I usually apply CA glue with a pointed toothpick along the parts. It keeps me from applying too much and makes the sanding the seam easier.

      Thanks

  7. Super work on your SLUF! Exceptional job on the SEA paint scheme...looks fantastic.

  8. I like the way it came out; it looks great and I enjoy seeing the old Matchbox kits built in today's world. Great Job!

  9. Fine job on this old Matchbox kit, your paintwork came out just great.

  10. Nice build of "classic plastic!" Your SEA scheme came out really nice. Well done.

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