OOB Trumpert A-7E Corsair

[Vidar710]

Out of Box commission for our Local Hobby Shop owner. A retired Naval Aircrewman like myself who server a tour with the VA-87 Golden Warriors.
Cockpit.

Basic assembly
filling

prepped for painting

Weapons assembled. The aftermarket Zuni pods had not arrived at this point.

Painting begins. The aftermarket decal sheet was incomplete for the squadron, so I had to mix and match paint to match the squadrons red stripes then opted to paint them instead of hoping the paint match the decal on the model.

The bombs need thermal coating so I used rock textured paint. When it dried, I buffed it down to scale.

Close up results after removing the masked fin groups.

Fins were painted a Medium Green and the bomb shapes were painted Olive drab. They were then dry brushed with lighter shades of Green. To protect the Olive finish, I dipped the nose of the bombs in Future to create a barrier which prevents the yellow from mixing with the Olive.
Taking a dip...

Wicking off the excess...

Doesn't take long to cure...

Two Yellow stripes. 1 means High explosive, the second means Thermal Protective Coating. These stripes were in no way neatly painted on the bombs, but I still tried not to make them look too bad.

The landing gear is on. Just need to add all the hinges and bits to the wheele well doors, and actuators. The weapons are all ready to be mounted on there designated rack/rail.
More to come!
Tracy

[The Cat]

That looks great, and I really like your technique for doing the thermal coating.

The plane itself looks sharp too, what do you think about it accuracy-wise?

[Vidar710]

It's not very accurate in regards to the intake and the cockpit areas. For my project, I have Chris Wilson's aka Zactoman's canopy, and intake correction kits. You can see them on the Aircraft Resource Center's (ARC) website and forums.

The kit itself is a hand full to build. TONS of parts, and the fit in many areas is not very good.

Tracy

[Vidar710]

Some progress. After flying 3 days on, 4 off in July, I was able to make swifter progress. In August, I am 4 on and 3 off making time more restricted in the hobby room.

The jet is finally up on its gear...



All the weapons are fused, swayed, and mounted on there pylons.



Tracy

[HWR MKII]

check your outboard bombs on the station 2 MER...they look crooked compared to sta 8

[Vidar710]

Noted... And I did notice. Hey, my yellow stripes are way to neat as it is! However, before becoming a Naval Aircrewman, I served a tour in weapons assembly on the Nimitz. When we tightened those sway braces, I noticed those bombs hardly ever aligned. There was never that sort of attention to detail because it wasn't required to sway the weapons.

Tracy

[Vidar710]

Wrapping this thing up finally. Model show tomorrow.

Painting Nav lights to look like clear colored domes. Came up with this idea trying to re-create the powered down Bussard domes of the Enterprise-C studio model.

Paint the gloss red base



Using Black Artist Oils for their feathering qualities, randomly apply to edges and some across the both of the dome.



Next cover the whole dome with Tamiya Clear Red to give it a gloss smooth finish and give it some depth.



Decals applied





Some weathering on the belly and the weapons glued into place making sure all the pylons align.



After the weapons cure, flip it over, finish some subtle weathering, add the canopy and clear vertical stab pieces and its done!

Tracy

[The Cat]

That looks great!

I like what you've done with the weaponry, the different colors on the slicks add a lot of interest to them. I never noticed the variance of color before, just painted mine OD and left it at that, but won't any more!

Questions.. I'm doing three A-4s in 48th, and I need your input.

Zuni pods. Most of my references show them with some sort of streamlined fairing on the front that (I assume) is supposed to blow off when the rockets are fired. Yours has the rockets exposed - did the ord guys leave the fairing off sometimes? ( I hope so! )

Bombs - any idea when they started using the thermal coating? Two of my Scooters are Vietnam era, the OA-4M is mid '80s

Thanks a bunch!

[Vidar710]

Zunni's
Sometimes they flew with the front only, at times (as originally designed) with the front and back shells making the pod look like an elongated egg. Mostly there was no bother on either the 5" or the 2.5" pods.

I was in the weapons assembly division (G-2) on the Nimitz in '84-85 before getting my flight orders. I took note on a lot of things just for the sake of modeling. The shapes themselves were a dark olive. The fins - whether conical or snake-eye were a medium-green. In the early 90's, everything had gone gray so that they blended in with the aircraft. That way the enemy on the ground had a harder time determining the aircraft's aspect.

Thermal protection came after the Enterprise incident in '69 where a Zunni rocket launched across the deck from the heat exhaust of a huffer cart. The fire cooked off several general purpose bombs. Thermal Protective bombs were pretty standardized by 1972.

Hope that helps,

Tracy

[Vidar710]

All done. The client didn't want a base, so I'm using the base from an old 1/32 Hasagawa YF-18 conversion to a 'C' project (which is now awaiting an Academy Hornet to sit on it) to get some beauty shots with...












A have a 1/32 Tiger Meet '98 F-16 I want to finish, then its back to the Large Excelsior Project!

Tracy

[AdmiralBuck]

Wonderful job! Great idea on the use of the stone finish paint too. I would like to see how you made the base if you had any pics of that going together.

[Vidar710]

Took 1st place! record entries this year with 518 models on the tables.



Base is simple. Routered piece of plywood properly sanded, stained, and sealed. I used a 1/8" piece of clear acrylic cut to shape for the flight deck with is glued down with 3M spray fixative. Using my wife's hobby of scrap booking and matt cutting, I put things like patches and wings on thin sheet styrene as borders. Boarder color varies based on the subject, such as squadron colors, and aircraft paint scheme.

When I finally build the 1/32 scale Academy Hornet kit for this old base, I'm gonna re-work it a bit by drilling into the acrylic to make the pad eyes and adding brass details. Add some sting to create weld lines at deck butt plates, then adding a layer of spray stone paint to give the non-skid texture effect and repaint the whole thing over again as you see it there.

Tracy

[AdmiralBuck]

Congratulations! Well deserved.

[Blappy]

Well done Tracy!

[KenMcConnell]

As a former AMMO troop, love your bombs. IYAAYAS!