1/48 Hasegawa A-7D Corsair II

Gallery Article by Darren Roberts on Sept 30 2003

 

A friend of mine helped me out with a project I was working on, so I thought I’d repay him with a model of an A-7D from the Ohio Air Guard, where he had worked on them so many years ago. I had completed the A-7E a few years back, so I knew I was in for a pleasant build. 

 

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Some of the problem areas that I knew I would encounter were the avionics bay doors and the intake. I took care of the intake problem by simply adding a FOD cover made from thin, self-adhesive vinyl. With some careful sanding and test fitting, I was happy to find that the bay doors actually fit quite nicely. Some Mr. Surfacer 500 brushed onto the seams filled any gaps that may have still been there.

The cockpit detail is very nice. However, I used the kit seat and it really could stand a resin seat replacement. But everything else is very acceptable out of the box. The kit really does go together quite nicely, and I found that I was ready to paint in no time. I used MM Acryl Neutral Gray and Gunship Gray for the pattern and used kneaded eraser “snakes” to get a distinct “soft” edge with very little overspray. 

The decals were an old Repliscale sheet that my friend had in his decal box. They went down with no problems. After the decals were on and the flat coat sprayed, I lightly misted on a coat of Pollyscale Dust to blend and lighten the finish. When that was dry I ran a .005 Micron pen through the panel lines and wiped off the excess with a damp Q-Tip. I also used the Micron pen to get the small grimy streaks. If you’re looking to build an A-7, this is a wonderful kit that won’t present too many problems, and it looks great in the end.

Darren Roberts

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Photos and text © by Darren Roberts