Academy 1/48 A-10C Finished 1/13

[reserve]

Since it seem I'm incapable of having just one project at a time going these days I decided to start this




Academy has gotten so much better in the past ten years or so it's unreal. Here's the nose gear and well in primer...the bulkheads are a tab and slot type assembly. Here I found the tabs were too big to fit the slots well, they'd deform the assembly when I tried to stick them together. A few passes with the file on the tabs fixed that problem



Cockpit components in primer. The ejection seat is eight parts.



Complex with lots of parts and some rather radical approaches in molding, sharp and crisp with so far good to great fit

[tcoat]

Dec 15, 2023 9:50:01 GMT -5 reserve said:

Since it seem I'm incapable of having just one project at a time going these days I decided to start this


Academy has gotten so much better in the past ten years or so it's unreal. Here's the nose gear and well in primer...the bulkheads are a tab and slot type assembly. Here I found the tabs were too big to fit the slots well, they'd deform the assembly when I tried to stick them together. A few passes with the file on the tabs fixed that problem


Cockpit components in primer. The ejection seat is eight parts.

Complex with lots of parts and some rather radical approaches in molding, sharp and crisp with so far good to great fit

Ohhh this is one of my stash kits so I will be watching very closely!  

[eaglecash867]

Looking great so far! I was wanting to build a Charlie Hog one of these days. Looks like this one might fit the bill from what I see on your build.

[handiabled]

Bookmarked! Love the A-10

[kyledehart5]

Every time I see this kit it makes me consider selling my Hobby boss version to buy this one. Sure looks like a nice one. I’m stopping by to watch!

[thug626]

Bookmarked! I’ll be following this with great interest as this is one of my favorite birds, and it’s on my build list.

[thug626]

Bookmarked! I’ll be following this with great interest as this is one of my favorite birds, and it’s on my build list.

[reserve]

Thanks gents

I have my first complaint, and it's really a minor nit-pick


The cockpit decals are a bit on the weak side I think so and Eduard cockpit set's on the way from Sprue Brothers



In the meantime there's plenty to do while waiting



So far fit, long's you pay attention, has rivaled Tammy. Here's the centerline tank seam after glue and pre cleanup



I'm scared to brag too much about this kit in case it decides to get evil down the road. Unlikely I think but I been around too long not to know it ain't over 'till it's over.

[nathant]

Nice. Started this kit myself about a month ago, decided to use the Quinta cockpit and it’s a huge improvement. Will be watching this one!

[stikpusher]

Are those standard decals or 3D printed cockpit decals?

[Medicman71]

Nice!! I really want this kit.

[deafpanzer]

Heck yeah!!! I have same kit in my stash. A member at local club built one last summer and he swore its one of best kits he has built so I had to get one too.

Good move on getting better set for the cockpit!!! I was planning to use Qunita for mine.

[reserve]

Thanks gents

S they're regular decals. What bothers me about them is the analouge dials are just spots with no gauge detail...and they're slightly offset too. Ha forty years ago I'd have been delighted to have even this available haven't I gotten snooty

Big delay, obviously, waiting on the cockpit set. Sprue Brothers now provides tracking on orders and I've been keeping tabs on this one. Now, I live in Montana and the items were in Liberty, MO on the 16th. Three days later they were reported to be in Denver, CO, two days ago Memphis, TN, and this morning in Jersy City, NJ. Think I should call them and tell them it's headed in the wrong direction?

[nathant]

Dang! Sounds like a postal issue, nothing Sprue bros can do about it. I once had a package coming from Georgia headed to me in North Dakota, but it ended up in Hawaii! It did get to me after a small detour! Hopefully the post will see their mistake?

[eaglecash867]

I've been finding USPS tracking to definitely be a little wonky this time of year. My last Sprue Brothers order about a week ago appeared to have a label created for it, with the post office in Liberty, MO saying they were still waiting for the package for almost a week...only to suddenly switch to "Out For Delivery-Byers, Colorado" and show up on my front porch that evening. Happened with my order from Burbank's House of Hobbies a couple of weeks ago too...exactly the same thing. Heh...sometimes I think I would be better off not being able to track my shipments.

[reserve]

Myself I've just been following tracking for amusement. The USPS might have two hands but the right does not know what the left's doing at best and given the time of year it can only get funnier. The latest skinny is it made it from Athens, GA to LA to Billings, MT in the last 24 hours and this sez to me that they ain't got a clue 'cause I sure did not pay for air delivery.

Ya gotta laugh were ya can in this brave new world

[kyledehart5]

I had a package I sent to Arkansas. It made it to Arkansas...and then turned around and came right back to me all the way to my house. Showed up in my mailbox in perfect condition. I took it back to my post office to try again and lo and behold the second time it made it all the way to the address. That was a strange deal.

[406 Silverado]

Everything that I've heard about this kit is good. I don't think I've read one complaint as of yet as it is very well engineered from everything that I've read and heard about it. I'll be watching this one with great interest Mark.

[406 Silverado]

Dec 23, 2023 3:19:15 GMT -5 kyledehart5 said:

I had a package I sent to Arkansas. It made it to Arkansas...and then turned around and came right back to me all the way to my house. Showed up in my mailbox in perfect condition. I took it back to my post office to try again and lo and behold the second time it made it all the way to the address. That was a strange deal.

I don't know if it's more amusing than it is irritating sometimes with the USPS. I've had weird stuff like that happen more than once.

[eaglecash867]

Dec 23, 2023 3:19:15 GMT -5 kyledehart5 said:

I had a package I sent to Arkansas. It made it to Arkansas...and then turned around and came right back to me all the way to my house. Showed up in my mailbox in perfect condition. I took it back to my post office to try again and lo and behold the second time it made it all the way to the address. That was a strange deal.

I've had packages come all the way from Ukraine to Denver in about 10 days...only to take an additional 4 days to make the 50 mile trip from there to my house.

[Leon]

I've had bad issues with the USPS! Had them say packages where delivered and never got them.

[kyledehart5]

Dec 23, 2023 8:09:19 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

Dec 23, 2023 3:19:15 GMT -5 kyledehart5 said:

I had a package I sent to Arkansas. It made it to Arkansas...and then turned around and came right back to me all the way to my house. Showed up in my mailbox in perfect condition. I took it back to my post office to try again and lo and behold the second time it made it all the way to the address. That was a strange deal.

I don't know if it's more amusing than it is irritating sometimes with the USPS. I've had weird stuff like that happen more than once.

I just had to laugh. Honestly I was just glad the package wasn’t destroyed.

[406 Silverado]

Dec 23, 2023 13:42:46 GMT -5 kyledehart5 said:

Dec 23, 2023 8:09:19 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

I don't know if it's more amusing than it is irritating sometimes with the USPS. I've had weird stuff like that happen more than once.

I just had to laugh. Honestly I was just glad the package wasn’t destroyed.

Right?!

[reserve]

Right then

The errant package showed up. Upon opening all I found was a seatbelt set and no cockpit set. I'd love to blame SB for this but in reality it was most likely me that bollixed the order. Being as I'd like to finish this (tired of waiting) I forged on and used the kit supplied decals...took me about five minutes to decide this course.

Almost ready for primer here. There are some small seams and minor steps to blend in but overall the fit is phenominal given the rather complex assembly of the nose. The one piece rear fuselage and one piece engine nacelles (sp?) reduce problems and cleanup is minimal here also.


















Loadout. I decided to not use the centerline tank; I'll replace it with a GBU-24. I don't know if A-10's carried these or not but since they seem to have hung everything short of a nuke on this airframe I'll go with it



So far this has been a very sweet build and the only thing I'm really not fond of (other than the cockpit decals, which turned out to look better than I expected) is the fact you have to fix the nose gear while building up the front end, a feature endemic to all A-10 kits I have heard

[406 Silverado]

I've heard that about these builds and some of the newer kit offerings out there going with one piece fuselages and engine nacelles which does indeed speed things up in building. Ahhh the gear being built into the nose debacle. ..... ...I went through that on my Hasegawa Arado 234 build up and lemme tell ya.....THAT was NOT fun. It built up nicely but it sure made the construction of the kit a pain. 

Looking great so far Mark. 

[nathant]

Nice clean work! She sure looks like a beast. Can’t wait to see it with all the ordinance under the wings. I like the idea of one piece slide molded fuselage and engine nacelles, but there still are faint mold lines to carefully scrape away without damaging all that nice raised detail.

[kyledehart5]

Great progress. That’s all looking really excellent. Every time I’ve seen this kit built it seems that people like it

[Steve Zuleski]

That Hog is looking great, Mark!

[handiabled]

Great looking office! This is really coming together great

[reserve]

Thanks gents I can't sing enough praise of this kit. If I manage to bungle it it's all on me.

N yeah there's a dorsal mold line on the one piece fuselage but it came off with a #11 blade in about five minutes. If I'd had to join, fill, and sand it'd have taken 24 hours and alot more detail would have been lost in the process. Still less work and time, what's not to like?