1/48 Revell A-10 Thunderbolt II

Gallery Article by Michael Katz on Aug 21 2009

 

My name is Michael Katz I am from Isreal and I live for the time being in Mexico city.
This kit was started in 1987 finishing just the cockpit.  Continues in 2003 - made into a diorama, the diorama was re modified in April 2009.  The armament are from Hasagawa aircraft weapons A and B except the Aim 9 missiles which are taken from an Esci F-4 Phantom Kit the pilot from U.S. ground Crew Set A.  This model was inspired by a model made by Mark Engler showing a Huge helicopter flying low in a Vietnam landscape- the model appears in the "Verlinden Show case" number 4 the model under the name Charlie Gets Lucky.  The land scape was inspired by another model made by Andrew Meyers which can be seen in the "Verlinden show case " number 7, page 15 my model name is "The Rose Gardner" and if you want to know why I will email you the reason.

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The aircraft's is mounted on a clear perspex tube that is made into a palm tree.

For the land scape, the water was made using "Envirotex" the landscape newspaper patches lightly soaked into a very thin plaster mix placed on thin metal net the trees leaf from chicken features painted with airbrush, the rest landscape from basic plastics plant, a a dried Bonsai tree, painted with airbrush using mainly Humbrol 105,30 and 76.

For the ejection seat I added side ejection rails from H shape metal rods, all cockpits dials were drill out and filled from the back side with a "polyfilla" paste this so the depth illusion appears.

Map, and pilot notes were added on the side of the dashboard cover, fixed to place with a string that imitates the type of rubber string that A-10 pilots use to hold in place maps.

The the pilot hose was wired with a thin wired for the microphone connection and seat belts and buckles were added made from masking tape and copper wire.  The nice part are the explosive wires that were glued to the inside of the canopy see picture 9, those are simple thin copper wire.

For the weapons load, the AIM 9 and the Maverick launcher were all scratch built from extra let over plastics and styrene sheets.

All original fins were cut off and thinner ones were glued on.   The canon was remade using syringe needles to simulate the barrels gun, the barrels cover was made from styrene sheet.

Michael Katz

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Photos and text © by Michael Katz