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

The wings were next on the agenda…

These are pretty standard in their construction and have some nice detail in the wheel bays. The flaps are separate but only fit in one position. The ailerons also act as airbrakes by splitting when required. This is replicated in the kit which is a great option but unfortunately is let down by the multiple ejection pin marks on the inner surfaces. I did try to fill and sand these as I really wanted to use this option but the pin marks are in such positions that when I tried to sand I lost a lot of the detail. This is a real shame as they would have looked great but the work involved in making them useable was just too time consuming for me so the closed option was used.

The A-10 has non slip walkways on the wings, the tail and between the engine nacelles. The kit has decals for these but to get a better surface effect I used Mig’s Anti Slip Paste to replicate the walkways. The decals were cut out and used as templates for the masking of the walkway locations.

The wings were next to be fitted to the fuselage. Fit these first and then fit the trailing edge fillets. These will clip into place with a little pressure and can then be secured using liquid cement. The engine nacelle assembly had been fitted prior to the wings and be careful when fitting this. I dry fitted it multiple times, scraping away plastic each time from both the nacelle and the fuselage in order to get a gap and step-free joint both at the front and at the rear.

It was then time start the masking process in preparation for the painting. I mention this as the kit has parts that are not mentioned in the instructions that are for having the undercarriage in the retracted position. The particular parts are one-piece undercarriage doors for both the front and rear wheel bays. These are actually really useful for masking off the bays as can be seen in the pictures.

Painting…