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Vought A-7E Corsair II USN


paul-muc

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Cdr. Hunt Hardistp, VA-195 Dambusters, USS Kitty Hawk (Print Scale (No. 72-160)

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This is the same kit as for the A-7D USAF Vietnam that I have shown in another thread, But while that model was about fourty years old, I have built this one - the kit bought at the same time as the other one -  during the last weeks and finished it only some days ago. With the possibilities of the internet I had looked for references and other builds and so I have spent some time in tweaking the model. This was: The canopy with bulkhead, floor, instrument panel, side consoles, control column, pedals, seat belts and emergency handle. The nose wheel well with walls and roof and some struts on it. Correcting the front holes for the rails of the Sidewinders. They must have a light angle downwards. Reshaping the canon bulge with a hole drilled for the canon. Sanding the nose to reshape it from a rectangle to an oval/round profile.


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I didn't prime the model (never done it). The colours are Revell SM 301 silk matt white and Humbrol 129 satin grey. I had seen the Hu 129 in another thread for the same model and it looked like seagull grey. But it turned out to have a touch of beige (perhaps another seagull). And: Revell is nearer to matt, whereas Humbrol is nearer to gloss. I tried the first time a coat with floor polish before decalling and white became satin and grey became gloss. Nonetheless I was impressed by the smooth result. I had applied it with brush. And, also for the first time, I used aftermarket decals. The decals of Print Scale are very precise, extremely thin and the carrier film is invisible. Normally I cut out the decals to get rid of the film around them. This wasn't necessary with these decals, I could use them direct from the sheet. The decal sheet provides decals for four different aircrafts and comes with numerous stencils, but I didn't use them. Most of them are only a short, thin line as if from an ink pen and the model would be overloaded with them. And you don't see them so clear on photos of the real aircraft. The yellow stripes on canopy and bombs are cut out of old decals.


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The final coat should be Humbrol 135 satin varnish. This was also for the first time, I've never sealed models before. But I didn't get the result, I had expected. The finish was extremely matt, really dull. Perhaps the varnish wasn't okay, in the tin it had a brown colour, not as tranparent as Revell's matt or gloss (I should have mixed semi gloss from them) and the white lost its brilliance and went off-white. So I gave her another coat with floor polish, this time with airbrush, hoping to get some light gloss back. I polished it a bit with a soft piece of cloth and that's what I got.

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