Academy USAF A-10C “75th Flying Tigers” 1:48

ADDING THE NOSE WEIGHT! This is essential or the model will be a tail-sitter and don’t be conservative with it as better to have too much than trying to add more later. I used weighted shot that was held in position with epoxy glue and I used quite a lot of it as a friend had used what the instructions said and he almost ended up with a tail-sitter, I used quite a bit more to offset the additional weight of the aftermarket engine parts.

The Quinta instrument panel was added to the coaming along with the kit HUD which actually turned out very nicely which surprised me as I thought it lacking in detail but with some careful painting it turned out quite presentable.

On initially looking in the box, you will immediately notice the slide moulded rear fuselage section and engine nacelles. These are quite well done but are let down but a fine seam line that unfortunately is noticeable and needs to be removed. Whilst removing it is not an issue, preserving the raised detail around it is and as much as I tried to not damage this detail I unfortunately failed. I did try to reinstate the riveting using rivet decals from HGW and eduard but they weren’t pronounced enough to replace the lost ones. In the end I removed all the raised rivets along the panel lines that had the seam as this actually looked a lot better than just having some there that were inconsistent in their appearance.

The horizontal tail fits very well with no need for any filler but I did drill out the APU inlet and use a bit of plastic tubing on the inside. The next major assembly stage was fitting the front fuselage section to the rear. The join is quite complex but if you take your time and do lots of dry-fitting the join will be gap and step free which again preserves all that raised surface detail.

Now for the engines and the one major perceived flaw in this kit. The fan blades are too far forward in the intakes on this kit. Is this that big an issue? My personal opinion is no as most people will not notice this but as I knew about it and could see it so I looked into how easy it would be to rectify. The remedy was actually quite simple as there are now quite a few aftermarket correction sets available that are easy to use and fit the kit parts very well. I opted to use the DEF Models set which was very straightforward to use both from a fit perspective and from the quality of the parts.

Wings…