Academy A-10C Thunderbolt II
This is my third attempt to add an A-10 to my collection. Yes, you read right third. I had a Tamiya A-10 that did not work well because all the exterior panels and rivets needed to be added. I wanted to add after-market mods to the Italeri A-10 in my second attempt, but that didn't go well when I had to cut parts off.
I was excited to see when Academy issued an A-10C kit. I successfully built the AH-1Z Viper, so I was ready to go. I will say I wanted to love this kit. It turned out to be a love-hate relationship.
If you want to pick this kit up, I wanted to share my experiences with the kit.
- The instructions have a lot to be desired. The tech writers went out, had a lot of Soju, and had a great time at karaoke night the day before the instructions were due. The next day, in their hungover state, they slapped something together. The large parts of the model went together reasonably well. I loved the one-piece fuselage because I'm terrible at seamline mitigation. The smaller parts were a challenge because the instructions were unclear on where things went. There was a lot of guessing.
- I recommend buying a new ejection seat. It was easier to get an after-market one and not try to guess how to put the chair together.
- The decals released fast from the paper. I don't think I had to wait more than 15 seconds before they were ready.
- If you want to leave the landing gears off for painting, there wasn't a problem with the front gear. The main gears had to be cut to fit into the outer gear well covers.
- The decal placement sheet was confusing, so you had to figure out which tail number went with what nameplate, thus determining which version to build.
Happy little decals it is. - Weight. The suggested weight to add to the nose was 25 grams. It wasn't enough as it flopped to the tail when I finally got it on the wheels. I took off the gun nacelle and was able to feed poster putty with shot pellets taken from a shotgun shell through the opening.
I found a female A10 pilot to stand on the ladder. I'm not a figure painter, but adding her to the model was fun.
This is a great kit overall but its not for beginners. It will test your patience but when it comes together you will be happy with the results.
Nice work, David. I take it the good result is another victory of talent and stubbornness over plastic.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. Like it
Thanks Tom! There are some minor things I might tweek, but I got across the finish line! 🙂
Ended up looking great!
Thanks Greg! I appreciate it!
This third one turned out wonderful, David @dvmozley
Well done.
Seems like all A-10 kits are the same difficult (in their own ways) builds. Yours turned out pretty nice.
Funny enough, I'm at your 2nd stage. When I started adding all that resin, the wings snapped off and I haven't touched the Italeri A-10 since.
I'm hoping GWH does an A-10A.
Thanks Dan! You are right A-10 kits are difficult for some reason. My Italeri A-10 is still sitting by my desk like a hangar queen with all the resin sitting in the box. I hope GWH does an A-10A as well.
Beautiful job, way to press on and get an A-10 in your collection, David. You'd never guess you had any difficulties at all. Big thumbs up.👍
Thanks Clint! One of the things I found was that I was jumping all over the place in the instructions, especially towards the end. You think you are making headway, then there's something else you have to do. I needed to plan things a little better to prevent all the madness. But it's all about the learning process. 🙂
Third time’s a charm David. Looks great to me. The figure sets it off nicely too. Well done 👍🏻
Thanks Ben! You are right there, as my second model is sitting by my desk like a hangar queen. While looking for something else, I found the figure and thought it was unique because females are commonly not featured. I have a long way to go in painting figures, though.
Third time lucky, David, turned out great, like the pilot, too.
Thanks George! I've never seen a female pilot, so I wanted to give it a try. Figure painting is an art by itself and there's a lot I still don't understand. It was fun adding her to the build.
Nice work, David!
Thanks John! I appreciate it! 🙂
A testament to determination to be sure. Great result after all your efforts.
Very nice job, David! Great info regarding the Academy kit, as well!
Thanks Spiros. I really appreciate it! I'm not a model kit reviewer, but if I can share some of the things I found, I hope it will help prevent someone from having the frustrations I ran into.
I love your Tornado build! That is the next build I'm working on!
Well done mate, both ladies look the part, both suitably high maintenance.
It still amazes me that there isn't a replacement for the Warthog. They were "the" CAS aircraft when I was serving 80s-90s😎❤️
Thanks Chris! You are right about the ladies :D.
As hard as the Air Force tried to get rid of the A-10, the Air Force realized the A-10 is a critical part of the combined arms picture. F-16s, as an amazing aircraft in their own right, just falls short of the capabilities as a CAS aircraft.
If I was a betting person, I think the A-10 will take the same path as the B-52 program getting relevant updates to push the life-span of the airframe beyond 50+ years.