Subject: Re: Gallery Article Template
From: "Submissions for ARC" <[email-masked]>
To: "David Porter" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2014 02:01:13 -0800

Hi,
I just wanted to let you know your article went on ARC today.  Thanks again for sending it in.

Steve Bamford
ARC Air - Aircraft Resource Center
http://www.arcair.com

Live like there is no tomorrow;
Love like you've never been hurt.
Work like you don't need the money.
Dance like nobody's watching.
Sing like nobody's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: David Porter 
  To: [email-masked] 
  Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:32 PM
  Subject: Gallery Article Template

  Hi Steve,

  Here is another one for you if it is Ok. 

  Dave. 

  Gallery Article Template

  "1/32 Trumpeter A-10A Thunderbolt II" 

  by "David Porter"

  --------------------

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  The Warthog is one mean looking aeroplane. With little apparent attention to aesthetics it nevertheless has a certain menacing visual that screams a desire for destruction. Its sole dedication to the ground attack mission means that it is a great addition to a stable of sleek, sexy looking fighters, with its colossal load of air-to-ground ordnance and the grimace of its face formed around a massive cannon. The net result was; I had to have one!

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  The Trumpeter kit is quite old now, and was one of their first releases in the larger scale. Subsequently it requires a lot of work to get it up to scratch. All in all, this model took me four times longer to build than any plastic kit that I have worked on so far. It required a fair bit of rebuilding, lots of resin and aftermarket accessories and most importantly a lot of emotional energy. Building this thing was exhausting, and after completion I took a break from modelling for over a year. However, I am happy to add it to my collection. What I particularly wanted was a green one, built in the 'European One' camouflage scheme. I have seen some really nice ones done up in the grey schemes however the three colours of light/dark green and dark grey was the most appealing. Fortunately Mr Color (my preferred paint range) provides the exact colours.  

  To build a green one though means that the A-10A was in the pre-LASTE configuration. Like most combat aircraft the A-10 underwent a host of changes throughout its career, and when modelling you will need to match your references to the appropriate time frame. Making a pre-LASTE one means using an early cockpit (the Verlinden one works for this and is an excellent set) and also sanding off aerials, bumps and sensors on the tails and various areas.

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  There were many changes that I made to the kit, more than I have time to outline but some keys ones are as follows: The Trumpeter kit requires substantial weight (half a kilogram) to be added to the forward fuselage in order to keep the nose on the ground. This really is a lot of weight and makes the model very heavy so a fair bit of time was making sure that the fuselage and wing joints were reinforced enough to carry the weight. This required a lot of metal and plastic tubing with some epoxy to set it all in. Also the internal structure around the flaps needs to be constructed as when you drop the flaps there is no internal detail. This was also the first kit that I used a vac formed canopy which wasn't as difficult as I was anticipating however I needed to build up the internal framing with styrene to give the appropriate thickness. 

  Another big problem with the kit is the weapons which were very soft on detail and often resembled vegetables from the frozen food isle rather than missiles and bombs. So to rectify this I used a lot of bits out of the spares box. Most of the weapons came from the Academy Hornet kit which produced excellent Mavericks and bombs in particular. Also I borrowed the ECM jammer from the Super Tomcat kit and scratch built the launch rail using left over adapters from the F-15C kit in order to mount two resin Sidewinders from Zactomodels. The cluster bombs come from the Trumpeter Harrier kit. Thanks for reading.

  If you would like higher resolution pictures then feel free to visit my website at http://www.porterblemodels.com.

  Parts Used:

  1690 Verlinden Productions A10 Thunderbolt Cockpit Detail Set

  1691 Verlinden Productions A-10 Thunderbolt Detail Set (Trumpeter)

  32005 Black Box A-10 WARTHOG (single seat) cockpit set

  Cornett Brothers Resins 1/32 A-10A/A+ Thunderbolt II Airframe Update (Trumpeter)

  32-007 AeroMaster Warthog Warriors Decals

  Tiger Wings Decal Production U.S. Air Force A-10A Thunderbolt II Warthog

  9412 Squadron Crystal Clear Canopies A-10A Thunderbolt II

  JX033 Eduard Die-Cut Flexible Masks A-10 Thunderbolt II

  32062 Eduard A-10 Exterior

  Z32030a Zactomodels AIM-9L/M Sidewinder missiles.

  Bibliography

  Jenkins, D. R. (1998). Warbirdtech Series: A/0A-10 Warthog (Vol. 20). North Branch: Specialty Press.

  Logan, D. (1997). Republic's A-10 Thunderbolt II: A Pictorial History. Atglen: Schiffer Publishing Ltd.

  Logan, D. (2007). War Hawgs: A-10s of the USAF. Atglen: Schiffer Publishing Ltd. .

  Żmuda, T. (2005). Topshots: A-10 Thunderbolt II (Vol. 12). Lublin: Kagero.

  "David Porter"

        Steve Bamford will insert a click-able smaller version of photo 07.jpg here.  Clicking on that photo will bring up the full sized version of photo 07.jpg
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  Photos and text C by "David Porter"