1/72 Academy A-37B Dragonfly

by Triet Cam

--------------------

Indochina War -- 10,000Day War -- Vietnam War anniversary Jan 30 2007

 

This is the A-37B Dragonfly flown by the South Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF) during the Vietnam War. The model represented the VNAF 524th Fighter Squadron, 62nd Tactical Wing, 2nd Air Division in Nha Trang. They later moved to Phang Rang after the US pulled out. This was the first unit to receive the Dragonfly after the "Combat Dragon" evaluations were completed by the USAF Air Commando in 1968. Though it looked antiquated, the A-37B was the newest fighter introduced to the VNAF with the sole purpose of Counter Insurgency fighting in the jungle of Southeast Asia. 
 
The Academy A-37B kit is one of the two 1/72 kit available, with Hasegawa being the other. The advantage goes to the Academy kit.  Mainly, it offered lots of ordnance variety, nicely fine engraved panel lines, and overall good fit quality. It does have some drawbacks however.  The main gear legs stood too high; therefore, raising the rear end up when the plane is in the tricycle stand. I chopped about 1mm off the legs cutting at the oleo and re-attaching the two pieces later. Also, the exhaust cones were not included, only blank openings. Instead, I added styrene tubes on both sides to represent the cones, and some turbine blades made from sheet styrene in the front intake areas.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

  

The build went fairly easily. I added some features to improve the appearance of the model. The ventral holes above the engines were drilled out, along with louvers in the front. Fine copper wires were added to represent the hydraulic lines. I separated the elevators and posed them in the dropped position. The seat belts were added in using tapes and homemade buckles. The seat headrests were sanded down flat to represent the Vietnam era seats.

Painting was done with Model Master enamel with the Badger XF100 airbrush. Decals were from Super Scale sheet number 72-647. I lightened the tan FS30219 with white and insignia yellow, as I found this paint is grossly exaggerated straight from the bottle. The medium green FS34102 straight from the bottle is way too fluorescent. I added a little Testor olive green and light gray to bring it closer to the military green tone. The light gray underneath also was tone to a lighter shade. After painting, all the small antenna blades were added; take care not to drop them, because you'll never find them again on the floor. The last pieces added on were the whip antennae, using .05 inch brass wires. The FOD wire covered were made from brass mesh from K &S. That completed the whole construction and a 12 hour of fun building this kit. Thanks for checking out my model.

Regards
Triet
 

Photos and text © by Triet Cam