A-7, Royal Maces Squadron, (1/48)

[John Everett]

With the Republic Gunship completed I can get started on a model I've wanted to build for a friend. He flew the A-7 Corsair-II from the USS Enterprise during the Vietnam conflict and I wanted to build his actual aircraft as it would have appeared in 1973 when he was active in the Corsair.

Very fortunately, VA27, The Royal Maces, have their own website with lots of good pictures.

The kit:




Aftermarket resin from Wolfpack.



The drop in fit is excellent.





Gettin the scoop glued together in preparation for, "the treatment". More on that later.



This is the scheme. The only thing to change will be the aircraft number.




The parts count is pretty low. So I may be able to finish this in just a week or two.

[Leon]

Off to a good start John!

[wing_nut]

Damn, Leon got the front row. Better keep your head down so I can see or I'll be bouncing Raisinets off your coconut.

[Leon]

I'll be sure to set up my early warning system! LOL

[John Everett]

Apr 25, 2017 6:12:36 GMT -5 wing_nut said:

Damn, Leon got the front row. Better keep your head down so I can see or I'll be bouncing Raisinets off your coconut.

Uuuhh....My Internet doesn't work like that. It's sort of the same view for everybody. Are you still using dial-up or something?



So! "The Treatment"

I saw this trick on a popular Facebook group and it's just too neat not to share elsewhere. (If you're not already a member of The Scale Modelers Critique Group over on Facebook, give it a look. There's a little bit of silly, but there's also a lot of really, really good.)

The "treatment" fixes the problem faced by any modeler who has ever had to deal with jet engine intake ducting.

The intake needs to be sealed along the edges. But there must be an opening at the back. In this case a step drill was used to achieve a large diameter hole without putting a lot of stress on the plastic.



Tape the hole at the rear. Regular latex house paint is the key. You can buy a reject sample from the home center for almost free. You may also have an old can of white latex just sitting in the garage. 





Find a container suitable for control of the thick, gooey paint and fill up the intake.




Remove the tape and let the goop gradually run out the bottom. The secret to all of this is in the thick nature of house paint. It covers and sticks to all surfaces and self-levels into an even, uniform surface.







The whole process was only 10 minutes. Now I just need to be careful not to touch it for a day or two.

[dupes]

Cool project!

House-paint intake question - is that to help fill seams and stuff? Or just to aid in a difficult-to-reach paint area?

[joelsmith]

Both Dupes. It is good on filling the seams, and gives a smooth, even coat of paint.

[John Everett]

The latex paint is dry and I happened to have this old CFM56 engine left over from a 1/144 airliner kit. I was close enough for my needs and fits without trouble inside the roomy fuselage.






The fuselage halves have been glued together and I need to clean up a couple of small items before I set the wings and seal up all the seam lines.

[John Everett]

There's been a lot of work but very little to report. The model is at that stage where it's just a collection of subassemblies ready for primer and paint. But we'll need to wait a couple of days before that happens. I need to fill and sand all the fuselage seams first.

[Rick]

This is s very nice kit for its age John. Built it a long time ago. Saw this technique on another site too and been itching to give it a try. Got an A6 and an A7 waiting their turn. This is looking great so far. I'm dialed in!
Rick!

[joelsmith]

Great progress John! What are you going to hang on the wings?

[John Everett]

Apr 28, 2017 18:45:55 GMT -5 joelsmith said:

What are you going to hang on the wings?

Thanks, gents.

I'm not planning to add many stores, just the external fuel tanks and the two missiles included with the kit. I've got some spares from other kits I might include but I'm planning to keep this one simple.

I've posted this trick here before. But if you've not yet discovered this combination for your primer coat, give it a try. The black paint is just to darken the base. You don't need it. I just used it here to increase the ease of application of the grey I'm planning as the main scheme.






First layer of white. The dark primer creates a shadow at any spot where the coverage isn't 100%. This is an easy way to add variable tones to the surface.

[Leon]

Primer looks good John!

[John Everett]

Painty, painty.

[TRM]

There you go....paint paint paint! Looking great John!!

[John Everett]

White on bottom, grey on top.



Here's where a cost of a cutting machine really begins to pay for itself. The white thing is a sheet of sticky vinyl mounted to the Silhouette's cutting mat.



Drew this on the silhouette software in about 30 minutes. (I usually cut more than I need.)


Put it where you need it.



Paint is always better than decals.





Not perfect, but close.

[Leon]

John that looks fantastic!

[TRM]

Some awesome masking John!

[joelsmith]

It just keeps getting better & betterer John!

[dupes]

Those masks are excellent. Did you scan something to get the design into the software? Or is that freehand?

[John Everett]

May 18, 2017 6:19:22 GMT -5 dupes said:

Those masks are excellent. Did you scan something to get the design into the software? Or is that freehand?

Yes and yes.

It's not exactly freehand. I used the calipers against the actual model to get very accurate measurements. I did some basic math and let some of the automated features in the software handle the angles. The whole layout from sitting down at the computer to final cutting of the vinyl was about 1 hour. I've become pretty proficient at using the draw software. It's really just a super smart version of Microsoft Paint installed in every laptop for the last thousand years.

[dupes]

Very cool. How bad is the learning curve on the software?

[John Everett]

May 19, 2017 17:01:34 GMT -5 dupes said:

Very cool. How bad is the learning curve on the software?

It's not. I was churning out parts for the Star Wars gunship within about 2 hours.

The download is free. Do a search for Silhouette Cameo. There's a youtube channel called SilhouetteSchool or something like that. The lady there knows way too much about these systems. But she does some neat stuff. For basic model masking you and I will only use about 20% of the software's capability.

[John Everett]

I've finally completed all the painted markings and am ready for decals.

[Leon]

Nice work on the markings John

[John Everett]

And decal:

[Leon]

Decals look really good John!

[Rick]

John, your SLUF is looking really sweet. I've always been partial to the hi VI's paint and markings.

Rick

[John Everett]

May 28, 2017 21:06:14 GMT -5 Rick said:

John, your SLUF is looking really sweet. I've always been partial to the hi VI's paint and markings.

Rick

Thanks, Rick. I would agree. The high viz schemes are just a lot more interesting.

Getting the final wash and dullcoat applied. Subassemblies and gear yet to go.










Mounting plaque underway as well.

[Tojo72]

Really looking good,I enjoyed that kit many moons ago.