Ok, I bought this because I wanted to do an A-10 and hey, it’s a Tamiya right? Well… yes, it IS a Tamiya kit, but it is a new boxing of the old, old kit. Which, has it’s known set of issues. Funky gaps, poor panel lines, (some raised, some recessed) and generally less than stellar fit of most parts and sub assemblies. I think the raised lines are there to depict rivets on the plane. Not sure about that one. On a good note, the wing roots were pretty good, but the wings have a nasty gap on the under side of the tips. There are some issues with the airframe with regard to overall accuracy, but all in all it’s not too bad. I’m doing this one with pilot seated and gear up. It’s getting hung from the ceiling, I’m running out of shelf space!! On to the pics…
Here are the upper and lower seams
This is a shot of one of the wing tips with the first go at the nasty seam
Here are shots of the lower front gear door section and the GREAT fit (not) of the panel on the fuselage
Note the gaps in the tail
Engine assembly with it’s masking
And with all that, it’s starting to look like and A-10
Things are moving along. It’s been a LONG time since I’ve had to do SO much body work on a kit. The surprise were the wing roots. Not at all bad. However, just about every seam and assembly junction needed significant work. I did most of the filling with super thick Cyano. It works nicely and tools just like plastic (mostly). I also had to redo all of the recessed lines as well as add quite a few to complete some of the rivet lines. In terms of the 'pit… I’m still waiting on some “stuff” for that. More later! Enjoy the pics!
some of the gap detail Getting things sealed up A little ugly Looking a little better. Note the total lack of any sort of line on the nacelle crossmember. odd Tamiya left this rivet detail off but put it on the front of the plane. Early stages of rescribing A bit more And… all primered up.
I am just wrapping up the Hobby Boss A-10. I had wanted this Tamiya kit since the first time I saw it on the shelf at my LHS years and years and years ago. I had always assumed it was Tamyia it must be god too. I almost bought one, but I found a WIP of if in a google search and found a lot of the same things you are talking about.
It can be made into a beautiful kit, and you’re doing an excellent job. I think you will be satisfied when finished, but sometimes it’s nice to have a kit that falls together. The Hobby Boss kit was a pleasure. Can’t wait to see this one!
I’ve got this kit on my bench too - it’s been sitting there for the best part of 2 years. The thing that is holding me up is the painting of all the weapons - i just lost interest trying to mask them all. I’ll have to get back into it, as the plane itself it largely complete.
I found the worst fit issues were the main landing gear bays to the wings. Really had to bulk it up with cyano.
It looks like that kit is going to fight you all the way to the finish line. I thought I was looking at a pair of small bino’s, but that was the engine nacelle assembly!
Thanks guys… Hopefully from here on out it will go smoothly. One thing I must say is we are certainly spoiled these days. For the most part, gone are the days of hours of seam and assembly work. Overall all of this has been pretty straight forward, but definitely a bit beyond the mega engineered kit…
In terms of the bombs etc… I’m with you Chris. One of the things I hate with modern jets vs WWII planes. In this case though, the 'Hog needs all this stuff. Makes it look bada$$! My wheel wells weren’t too bad, but definitely not good.
Geof - completely agree, an A-10 is not an A-10 unless is got a full load. I’m a big fan of just iron bombs on MERS and TERS - wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end.
Color time! First shot at a full wrap around camo scheme. Preshading took FOREVER!! This one is challenging due to all the various angles and other things to work with/around. I used Tamiya paints; Nato Green, Deep Green, and German Grey. I searched high and low to find the FS colors for a Euro 1 scheme… Didn’t come up with anything worthwhile. I picked German Gray as the nose color as it most represented what it seemed to be in pictures. I applied the nato grean first to give the other colors a green base. Then layered on the other colors in stages. I did the entire thing freehand, I’m just not very good at masking camo, and all the surface irregularity would make masking a PITA. Besides there is nothing to suggest in pictures the camo lines on these Euro 1 birds are hard lined. So far, so good! Clearcoat and decals up next.
Stage 2 still seeing pretty dark preshadingVarious views after all the layering.
Excellent progress Geoff.really making a fine purse from a pigs ear on this one! Cammo is looking really sharp,looking forward to the next update.cheers Trey
I used the 34102, 34092, and 36081…I am not sure if they are correct, but comparing to the limited photos of A-10s in the scheme I found they look close enough for me.
After weathering:
Yours looks very good, and like most paint jobs some clear coating and weathering will really tie it in nicely. You are dead on about painting around the odd shapes of this beast though.
Stupid me, you said you freehanded the camo…lol…you did a great job. Have you tried using blue tac as a mask? I used it for the first time on this build and it worked wonderfully. I love the stuff now.
It can take a while to cover up areas if you have overspray OCD but its pretty easy…just time consuming.
I just finished this kit a couple of days ago, so I’m stoked to see another A-10 getting some love…its an awesome airframe.
Looks nice professor! I’ll have to try the blue tack method. I’ve seen it before. Where do you get yours? I can’t seem to find the right stuff here. In a way, I like the “Masochistic Freehand Method” but a good masking material would for sure be nice for some of the modern paint schemes.
You’re obviously a smarter man than me - I painted mine with the vertical stabilizers already on, which just causes so many issues of worrying about overspray when doing free-hand camo.
Also, just a warning (incase you’re like me and don’t thoroughly read instructions) the refuelling decal is quite bizarre, in that you have to paint the middle grey colour, presumably after the decal has been put in place.
I think it’ll be easier if you measure the decal and paint that area grey first, then place the decal over the top. (It goes on the upper surface of the nose).
This was another issue i didn’t pick up on until too late.
