Yet another big bird from Trumpeter arrived on my review desk and was
opened with great expectation after making the Me 262 kit, my first impressions
were that this was another well detailed model kit and while it isn't up to the
standard set by the 262 it isn't far short of it but when made up it looks like
an A-7 or SLUF.
The Plastic comes
in the usual grey colour very close to the Navy light gull grey, there are 10
frames to make the plane with and 13 frames full of weapons. A large fret of
etched brass, alternative metal undercarriage legs, Rubber tyres and a film
sheet for the instrument panel make up the rest of the contents. The clear parts
are separate with a nicely detailed wind shield and the glazed part of the
canopy, which seems awfully thick to me, has to be glued into a narrow frame
work which in my opinion is not a good move as it is most difficult to use
liquid cement without marring the clear part. On the whole the fit of the parts
is good but there are some areas where you need to use filler, just small
amounts.
The
Instruction sheet is pretty comprehensive but could be more explicit about the
decals on some of the parts during construction. The decal sheet is huge with
two sets of markings one for VA-82 the Marauders on the Nimitz in 1978 and the
other for VA-192 the Golden Dragons on
Kitty Hawk
in 1972. A large colour sheet gives painting and decal
placement instructions with four view drawings for VA-82 but only one side view
for VA-192, the weapons markings are provided on the other side of this sheet
but some decals are not shown while others are shown that don’t exist, all in
all very slip shod art work.
My
Construction Notes
The first thing
I did was to scan through the instructions to see what needed to be or
could be built up before painting any parts, this meant a number of
items could be made and cleaned up such as wheel bays, missiles and bombs,
the cockpit and the six barrelled mini gun ready for a big spraying
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Step 1…
the seat has a join to clean up on the top of head box so I trimmed a
small sheet of 10thou plasticard to size and cemented it there to give a
nice flat surface. When the seat was fully painted I added the etched
brass seat belts
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Step 2… the seat rails parts D26/27 were placed
in position and cemented but before they hardened off, I placed but
didn’t cement, the seat in between them to ensure I could mount it later
after painting. The gas bottle part D21 if fitted as shown will interfere
with the canopy fit later so I cemented mine on the edge of the side rail not
behind. I painted the throttle levers part D23 white and part D11 as a
background for the film instrument panel, all the raised details on the
consoles an panel were lightly dry brushed white to pull out the details and
coloured accordingly with red and yellow etc. etc. where needed and put aside to
dry.
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Step 3-4…
after the wheel bays were constructed I added some more
piping from fine flower arranging wire, there are some excellent Photos in
Detail and Scale book showing extra details you can add. They were then painted
white and given a light brown wash just to highlight some areas, not too much as
they like to keep these areas clean to show up any oil leaks.
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Step
5/6 …I used Humbrol 81 for the zinc chromate interiors of the avionics
bays before detailing the boxes, this colour is also used at the rear end of the
fuselage, the ribbed area.
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The VHF/Loran
aerial on the tail fin is depicted as a raised feature but it should be flat and
invisible unless you see it on an A-7D where it shows up Black so I sanded this
area flat before assembling the fuselage halves.
Step
7…the intake gives a small problem, you
need to sand the interior seams but you can only reach the front half, you
could cut the rear wall away and sand the seam with ease this also allows
you to spray the white without troubles, a new piece of plasticard can be
cemented over the end after. At this stage I found the tabs on the left
side of the intake a tight fit into the fuselage slots so I trimmed them
down to a loose fit, this helps to line up the front of the intake with
the Lip, part A4, when it is added. The fit of the lip is almost
perfect, I have only lightly sanded the join.
Step 8/9…All the pre
assembled sections should be placed into the fuselage but needless
to say don’t cement the intake just locate it then when all is aligned
the nose wheel bay can be cemented to hold it all fast. |
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Step
12/13... involves using the etched brass
strips along the side of the fuselage this needs attaching with superglue,
I think this is unnecessary it could have been moulded on; I used the
brass to cut out the shape in 10 thou plasticard and used ordinary cement.
The
refuelling probe hinge plate is a loose fit and will sink below the outer
surface, I solved the problem by cutting a length of
sprue frame just over the width of the fuselage and cemented it to the
inside surface of the hinge plate then left it
overnight to harden. I placed the probe in position and adjusted the fit
by sanding away the end of the sprue until the plate was level with the
surface, you will still need a slice of 15 thou card to fill the gap on
the top edge.
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The
instrument coaming is nicely done, I bent the etched brass HUD frames
using the “hold & fold” tool and I replaced the rather
thick glass part L8 with a piece of 10thou clear plasticard. As soon as
this was added I masked and glued the wind shield in position with Testors
“clear parts cement” to protect it.
Step 14… I deviated
from the instructions here a bit, I didn’t put the Pylons on until the
wing parts are joined and added to the fuselage you will also find that
the flaps and ailerons will pop in after all is assembled making it easier
to paint these parts without masking, the same applies
to the rudder. |
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Step
15... the wing fuselage join will need a
little filler to clean up the area. If you want folded wings higes are
provided but I used flower wire in place of the curved
"pipes" provided but if you want the wings out in the flying
position then you will find a good fit on the joins but assemble the
outer wing panels at the same time as you make up the main section, this
will give you a chance to adjust the “thickness” of each part to match
it’s mating section, I arrived at this stage and found the outer wings
were too thick for the inner sections and as the cement was hard it was
too late to adjust, be warned!
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Step
16/17…I used the metal legs for my model
but the tiny pin, part F30, which holds two of the three legs together is
so fragile that I replaced it with some fine Slater’s plastic rod which
I heat treated to form a rivet head on both sides to stop it falling out.
I left all the wheels off until all the spraying was finished in fact the
U/C legs were not added until after the airbrake was fitted.
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Step
20…the airbrake can
be assembled open or closed but unless you want the model in a flying
configuration the brake will only be open a small fraction of it’s travel
consequently I chose to close it all up. It is unfortunate that the fit of the
parts here is not so good; I had to use small amounts of filler here and some
15thou card to fill the gap between Part A17 & A16. When the area was tidied
up I added the undercarriage legs but not the doors.
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Step
23…the canopy frame parts D4/D10 can be cemented
and left to harden before cutting the etched brass interior from the sheet, I
rolled this over a large piece of tube to get the beginnings of a shape I then
placed it in the frame and adjusted accordingly. Once the shape was
established to my satisfaction I used superglue to attach it, there is a central
locator on the brass to guide you while fitting.
The
frame was sprayed inside and out before adding the clear part which was
fixed using Tamiya Extra Thin cement CAREFULLY; if you don’t trust
yourself with this method then you can use Testors clear Parts cement
which will not harm the clear plastic.
That was about all before I began the preparation
for spraying. |
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Painting
and decaling.
I
painted the Matte black framework on the wind shield and the antiglare
panel before masking this and the cockpit (minus the seat). To mask the
avionics bays, the doors were held in the closed position with blobs of
Blue Tac, then the flaps, ailerons, tailplanes and rudder were mounted on
cocktail sticks as were all the tanks, missiles and launch rails to be
painted white. One whole tin of Humbrol satin white Hu 130 was used
to cover all these items and the under side of the model, I used very thin
paint and put on two coats. |
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Next day I
used Humbrol Hu 129 FS36440 light gull grey to spray just one coat on the upper
surfaces with a freehand lower line. While the main colours were drying all the
other tiny bits were painted such as the sway braces, crew ladder and the many
assorted bombs etc. etc.
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Of the two
choices on the decal sheet I preferred VA-82 markings and these were applied
with care and a good soft brush, there are a couple of points to watch out
for.
The
Marauders name band on the fin should be higher than shown and the front
edge of it should meet on the leading edge of the fin but a gap will be
there, I found a matching paint Revell # 51 gloss blue and covered the
space, a perfect match. The pilots name below the wind shield is all
wrong; instead of “Col Springer” it should be
CDR JUDD SPRINGER CAG in US Navy font, they
don’t have colonels in the Navy. I made up some artwork on the computer
and printed a new name strip on Experts Choice white decal paper. All the
decals lay down nicely and I close trimmed the large letters of NAVY to
avoid any problems with silvering later. A final coat of Klear was sprayed
to seal them all in and then some dirtying up around a few panels with
very thin Tamiya Smoke just to give a lived in effect. The final finish
coat is a mix of four parts Klear and one part Tamiya Flat Base to bring
back the matte finish, then the masking was removed. |
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Final
assembly
Avionics bay
and gear doors were all added, the wheels cemented on and tailplanes glued in a
slightly deflected position. The flaps ailerons and rudder were pushed into
place and can be set at the desired angle, you don’t have to cement them but I
did.
Things like the anti collision
beacons were painted first with a coat of Humbrol # 11 silver then a coat of
Tamiya clear red was added over that, this gives a little sparkle to the light.
All
the steadies, launchers and pylons were made up and a choice of weapons
had to be made. I chose A FLIR pod plus one fuel tank and the bombs, the
load out is too much for a take off but I wanted to
show what is in the box, there is a loadout plan on the back page of the
instruction for your guidance. I wanted an open canopy so it left loose
but it does foul the seat rails when lifted or lowered. |
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Summary,
definitely not in the class of the Me262 kit but not bad on the whole, I
found the intake lip a little flat at the bottom and the canopy similar at the
top but for all that it still looks like a very big A-7E.
The
price is £69.95 in the UK
Ted
Drop
by Ted's Website to see more of his models. Ted
Taylor's Modelworks
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