1/72 scale Hasegawa A-10C Thunderbolt II Review Build

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Duke Maddog
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1/72 scale Hasegawa A-10C Thunderbolt II Review Build

Post by Duke Maddog »

I now I'm very late for this so I finally got started on this review. I'm reviewing the Hasegawa A-10C Thunderbolt II in 1/72 scale:

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Upon opening the box, one is greeted with a number of clear plastic bags holding sprues of plastic, a decal sheet and an instruction sheet. The instruction sheet is a very nicely printed, very clear instruction sheet with a nice history and specifications of the aircraft in the kit:

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Inside are a number of exploded views showing the parts placement for assembly of the model. They also include a parts breakdown above their safety instructions. Some of the diagrams are not very clear in the positioning of certain parts so careful reading is needed to insure that parts are not cemented in the wrong place or position:

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You can see that the construction is fairly straightforward, given there are only three pages for assembly:

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On the back, there are the color callout and decal diagrams for two versions of this aircraft:

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The decal sheet is very clearly printed and in excellent register. I do feel they could be spaced out a bit more; making it easier to cut these out, but overall they are very well placed on the sheet. The Canopy is molded in two parts so there's an option to position the canopy open. On my model it will be closed. There are also parts for position lights and the HUD included on the clear parts sprue:

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I removed the grey sprues from the bags for better photographic effects here. The parts are nicely detailed and well molded. However, like the F-14's these parts also sported a bit of flash here and there. Cleanup is fairly easy though, so this isn't a major issue:

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After this, I moved on to assembly.


As usual, I started to assembled the cockpit. It was a very easy and quick assembly. The parts fit very well and I was later able to paint them after assembly. Here in this pic, the seat are only dry-fit in place. The instructions have you add the seat after closing the cockpit tub inside the fuselage halves. I don't know why since there didn't appear to be any obstructions, but I decided to follow the instructions for the purposes of this review. Everything is shown here:

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The decals for the instrument panels went in well. I always trim along the edge of each decal anyway to insure a good fit. The main instrument panel was glued under the cowl and then the decal was added after it dried:

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I used Solvaset to help draw the decal into the detailed engraving on the IP. It hadn't quite finished yet when I took this pic.

The instructions then have you assemble the nose gear bay which will later be cemented up under the fuselage assembly:

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Once again, check the positioning of the parts over and over as the instruction diagram became confusing a few times as I read it.

They also give you a schematic showing where to add the nose weights to keep this model from being a tail sitter. So, I added my nose weights to the gear bay assembly:

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Yes, it is probably too much, but I just wanted to be sure. Once this is closed up, it won't be opened again!

Moving on, they have you assemble the engines. The parts for these engines don't quite fit very well with lots of little 'steps' and misaligned parts. It's very slight, but if you try to adjust one side, you pull another section out of alignment. I did the best I could with these:

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It's just going to take a bit of extra sanding on these.

After that, I assembled the main wings. These were a fairly good fit for the most part:

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The roughness around the edges was me adding a slight amount of extra glue to squeeze out of the joint to seal it up better. The bottom however is where you find some of the fit issues that need to be dealt with:

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Here's a close up of the worst part. Try as I might, I could not get these ends to lay down properly:

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I'm not even sure how I'll sand that given the rectangular detail near that seam; I'll have to experiment.

Finally, the empennage went together exceptionally well. The vertical stabilizers went on at a perfect 90-degree angle on this:

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NOTE: Be sure you cement the two vertical stabilizers in the proper direction! It's easy to cement them on upside down if you forget the opening for attaching this assembly to the fuselage is on top, not the bottom of the horizontal part.

After all of that, I closed up the cockpit assembly inside the fuselage; added the forward gear bay, and the engine and empennage assemblies:

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Everything fit well here. The only issues I really had were the forward gear bay assembly did not match up too well with the fuselage assembly. It took some judicious manipulating to get everything lined up. I'm happy enough with the results; I think my issues might have been caused by the nose weights inside. The other issue is the step on the engine assembly. I'm still debating whether I'll sand that down or not; it is in a difficult position with a difficult curvature to match.

Finally, I dry-fit the wings to see how this will look:

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It is a nice looking aircraft!

After this I did a bit of sanding all over to smooth things out. This won't be perfectly done, but I did try to make this at least table-worthy. I also decided not to sand the step out of the engine brackets; it would take too much time and effort to try and smooth that out. I just want to finish this review.

Later I even added the canopy to the A-10 and masked it off:

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I had tried before this to add the HUD piece but it fell down and disappeared so this was not installed on this model. I was not going to spend a fortune in time searching for that piece so I just left it off and moved on. That being said, the canopy fit very well and required no positioning before being glued in place. It was an excellent fit.


That's all I have on this aircraft so far. Stay tuned, more to come.
The Duke
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Thomas_M
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Re: 1/72 scale Hasegawa A-10C Thunderbolt II Review Build

Post by Thomas_M »

What a tiny tank buster! :wub:

Great pics and explanations, Duke! On the lower end of the wing: I would go and fill the upper lower part of the mismatch with Epoxy putty or the like. Should be much easier to sand this area in shape. And in this scale, I doubt anyone would notice.
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Re: 1/72 scale Hasegawa A-10C Thunderbolt II Review Build

Post by Duke Maddog »

Thanks Thomas! I thought about doing that, but since this is a review model, I'm not going to take an excessive amount of time trying to fix something that will extend the build time. I just want to move ahead and get these done. I am already far too far behind on the two Tomcats and I haven't even started the Izumo yet, even though I've had it for several months. It is something to consider for the future should I build one for myself that is more contest worthy.
The Duke
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Re: 1/72 scale Hasegawa A-10C Thunderbolt II Review Build

Post by Thomas_M »

I fully understand, Duke. Keep the fun!
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Re: 1/72 scale Hasegawa A-10C Thunderbolt II Review Build

Post by Duke Maddog »

Thanks Thomas!

Stay tuned, more to come.
The Duke
Virtuoso of Miniatures

"Do you know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I get and beat you with 'till you understand who's in ruttin' command!"
-Jayne Cobb, Firefly Episode 2 "The Train Job"

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Re: 1/72 scale Hasegawa A-10C Thunderbolt II Review Build

Post by Duke Maddog »

Okay, after some time, I finally made some progress here, enough to actually show. A-10 got assembled with all the wings, engines and tail surfaces attached:

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I decided to ignore the step between the wings as this is a review kit and I wanted people to see this so they would know what to expect. There is also a slight step between the wings and the fuselage, but with the engines on it would have been very difficult to get that sanded smooth. When building this, leave the engines off and pay attention to the wing join to make it sit right. Again, I left it to show what to expect.

However, under the wing tips there was a definite step that looked wrong and called out to me to fix. With a rounded file and sanding stick, I managed to reduce it well enough. Here you can see the the results of my efforts on one of the wings after I attempted to sand down the stepped edge found underneath both wings. It's not perfect but that's as far as I wanted to go on this.

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After that, I added the main gun barrel:

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This was a difficult addition. One end of the barrel was cut at an angle that made lining this up most difficult. No matter what way I turned it this gun barrel was either too high, too low or too far to one side. I had to sand this down carefully so I didn't lose too much of it. Finally, I got it in place at a sufficiently proper angle.

After that, I added all the mounts for the underwing stores:

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The kit does well with these, providing an indent at the proper angle under the wings so they line up well. You can see these indents on the second pic posted above.

A few additional detail parts on top and this one was ready for paint:

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Later on, I primed, painted and added the second grey color to this; then clearcoated it for decals:

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The pattern called for in this is a dark ghost grey splotch pattern over a light ghost grey base color. After shooting on the dark ghost grey, I could barely tell the difference. This is partially why I didn't shoot any pics of the painting of this before the gloss coat. So, I just moved on; shooting a gloss coat on this to prepare for decals.


That's as far as I got here. There's a few blemishes I need to attend to then I can apply the decals.

Stay tuned, more to come.... hopefully far sooner than this update!
The Duke
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Re: 1/72 scale Hasegawa A-10C Thunderbolt II Review Build

Post by Thomas_M »

What a gloss! XtraColour paint?
I think I would have given up to further work on such a kit. Too many defects and an aweful looking Gatling... Congratulations to your perseverance!
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Re: 1/72 scale Hasegawa A-10C Thunderbolt II Review Build

Post by Stikpusher »

I like how you’re building this to show the warts (no pun intended) on this kit. That is a true and proper review. Exactly what is in the box, “as is”.
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Re: 1/72 scale Hasegawa A-10C Thunderbolt II Review Build

Post by speedgraflex »

I remember reading this a little while back, thinking about how the parts did not fit—and I felt what Thomas wrote about the gun tooling, which looks like a Fantasia on a Theme of What Makes A Warthog A Warthog! After reading what Carlos wrote I was course corrected and wanted to thank you for the integrity of your build review. I have often wondered if a model reviewer has ever faced a kit so bad it was basically impossible to build. Does this kit qualify?
Bruce / SPEEDGRAFLEX
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Duke Maddog
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Re: 1/72 scale Hasegawa A-10C Thunderbolt II Review Build

Post by Duke Maddog »

Thomas_M wrote:What a gloss! XtraColour paint?
I think I would have given up to further work on such a kit. Too many defects and an awful looking Gatling... Congratulations to your perseverance!
Thanks Thomas! The gloss is actually a spray can of Krylon clear. I'll have to get a shot of the can and show it here.

I wouldn't give up on it myself, even with all the 'warts' as Carlos mentioned; but I would have done a lot more to fix some of the issues. I just want to get this done right now.
Stikpusher wrote:I like how you’re building this to show the warts (no pun intended) on this kit. That is a true and proper review. Exactly what is in the box, “as is”.
Thanks Carlos! I figure that is what modelers want to see in a review. After all, if I'm looking to build something, I like being forewarned of issues that may crop up so I can take steps to mitigate them. Seeing something like this is most helpful I think. Anyone considering this kit can see what the issues are and get an idea of what to do to address them.
speedgraflex wrote:I remember reading this a little while back, thinking about how the parts did not fit—and I felt what Thomas wrote about the gun tooling, which looks like a Fantasia on a Theme of What Makes A Warthog A Warthog! After reading what Carlos wrote I was course corrected and wanted to thank you for the integrity of your build review. I have often wondered if a model reviewer has ever faced a kit so bad it was basically impossible to build. Does this kit qualify?

Thank you Bruce, you honor me with that praise. I will do my best to try and make that gun look well enough like a gun. We'll see how successful I am. As for a tough review; I think I have read only a couple reviews where the builder/reviewer said flat out: 'don't get this kit!' As for me, this isn't the worst kit I've ever built. I've built models from Maquette and Armageddon that make this kit look like a shake-n-bake Tamiya kit by comparison! One model (C-75) had such thick and prominent flash along the fuselage halves that; when out together, the flash looked like the Himalayas stretched across the top! I thought I was going to have to pull out my belt sander to remove it all. Another helicopter kit I did could only be described as: "assembling all the parts and then carving the model out of the resulting block of misshapen plastic". I succeeded at least enough that it looks like a helicopter. No, this kit is not unbuildable by comparison. It does need a bit more tender loving care, but for the review; I'm forgoing that in order to show other prospective builders what tender loving care would be needed to fix this.

Okay, with the clear coat on, I should be able to get to decals soon. Thanks again for all the great comments. Stay tuned, more to come.
The Duke
Virtuoso of Miniatures

"Do you know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I get and beat you with 'till you understand who's in ruttin' command!"
-Jayne Cobb, Firefly Episode 2 "The Train Job"

We are modelers - the same in spirit, in hunger to insanely buy newly released kits, hustlers in hiding our stash from our better halves and experts in using garbage as replacements for after-market parts.
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