Any Hawg fans in here?
I’m building Tamiya’s old 1/48 A-10 kit. On the vertical tail surfaces, outboard, there seems to be a light mounted on the actuator housing for the rudder, mounted low. Is this actually a light? I looked at reference pics and I can’t really tell if it’s a colored lens, or something different. If they are lights, are they red and green nav lights as on the wingtips? Or are they clear strobes? Or…?
Thanks for any help!
Chris
If these are what you are talking about, then no, they aren’t lights. When I was in the desert, I saw a bunch of A-10s, and they all had this bump, and they were all painted over gray like in the photo. If I had to take an educated guess from my years in the industry, and given how long the A-10 has been around, it might be just a cover for a removed sensor/antenna from a system no longer installed on the a/c. The strobe lights are on the wingtips, and the aft nav light is in the center of very back end of the bird.
Chris, I don’t know what system they may be part of, but I am pretty sure they are antennas, which are stuck all over the A-10, maybe ECM components or RHAW. The tail light on the A-10 is is the center of the tail cone and the left and right nav lights are on the outside of the wing tips.
I agree with you that they are antennas. From the A-10s that I’ve been around, those covers look like they’ve been painted with the same paint the rest of the aircraft is painted with, something that shouldn’t be done with an operable antenna/sensor. Antennas have their own special paint, and weather just a little differently to the point if you are around them enough, and you have your modelers eyes open like how we modelers are known to, you can discern the difference.
That has to be Bagram AFB in Afghanistan. I recognize the mountains in the background.
Oh, good then. One less thing to paint. Base coat it, weather a bit, and done. 
Thanks guys!
I 'll give my two cents worth on this although I doubt it will be worth anything. You guys know more about planes than I do. But judging by the location, it sits right over the area where the vertical stabilizer joins with the wing tip or horizontal stabilizer or whatever the name for it is and it also is located on the fairing/cover for the rudder actuator. My guess is it has nothing to do with antennas or sensors but with the aforementioned actuator. Just a guess, though. I’m probably dead wrong.
I was thinking that might be a possibility too. I don’t think you’re too far off. In any case, I know what color to paint it now.
I can ask at work tomorrow. I have two former A-10 mechanics that I work with. I built the Tamiya A-10 a few years ago. My first aircraft in about 20 years!
