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1/72 Academy A-37B Dragonfly |
by Triet Cam |
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Indochina War -- 10,000Day War -- Vietnam War anniversary Jan 30 2007 |
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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
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Photos and text © by Triet Cam
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