SPA Modeler

KennyX wrote:YESSS! The gun so awesome they built an airplane around it! Looking good, buddy!

Actually they built two different airplanes around the GAU-8 gun, the A-10, and its competitor, the A-9,,,, along with other design specs like twin turbofans, armor, heavy payload, etc....

Man... the gun so awesome they built not one but TWO airplanes around it!

Stikpusher wrote:

KennyX wrote:YESSS! The gun so awesome they built an airplane around it! Looking good, buddy!

Actually they built two different airplanes around the GAU-8 gun, the A-10, and its competitor, the A-9,,,, along with other design specs like twin turbofans, armor, heavy payload, etc....

Didn't know that but I'm glad they went with the A-10 design, It's just so ugly its beautiful.

I think that the A-10 design is more survivable. The twin tails mask the exhausts from heat seeking missiles from certain angles, and the engine placement keeps damage more removed from the airframe in case they do hit. The A-9 engine placement in the wing root can lead to a catastrophic wing failure in case of the same hit. Also the main landing gear retraction in the A-10 with the wheels partially exposed allows for a safer belly landing in the case of system failure due to battle damage. Not that the A-9 was a bad design. The Su-25 looks to be heavily influenced and emerged many years after the A-9/A-10 fly off. I suspect that the Soviets and Sukhoi saw something that they liked in the layout. The Frogfoot was well blooded in Afghanistan and over places like Chechnya, South Ossetia, and elsewhere.

KennyX wrote:YESSS! The gun so awesome they built an airplane around it! Looking good, buddy!

Thanks, Kenny!

Floki, that one is new to me! Thanks for sharing.

Stik, good info on those.

Try thinning the mixture down a bit. Also, get the spray going into a waste area before directing it on the model. I'll spray a good amount through the brush into the trash can to make sure the right mixture is coming out. Only when the spray is nice and smooth will I put it on the model.

Good reminders. I tend to forget to thin things and just dump it in the cup and fire away.

Re-mixed the yellow (yaller as we say in Kentucky) to a yellow/orange. I like it much better. Brush skills still rusty, even on little pieces.




Happier with the wheels. sprayed some Life Color Vulcanized Rubber and then some Mr. Hobby Color Tire Black (thinned this time)

Trying to paint the fuselage. Key word is "trying"...wow, it has been a while and it shows. Colors are tough. One, doesn't seem to be available. I am using Tamiya acrylic, XF-19 Sky Grey and then adding some XF-54 to the mix for the darker grey. Tried straight up XF-54 and it looked like a cartoon. My masking attempts were pretty bad, too. So, I resprayed the Sky Grey and will reboot.

I ran into the Sky Gray, Ghost Gray, etc. issue with Tamiya paints last year when I started researching color mixes for an A10 project. They don’t make the actual colors like other manufacturers do, so yep, gotta mix them yourself. In terms of the color you’ve achieved here, that looks very nice and indeed much more realistic than the Tamiya straight Sky Gray looks. Incidentally, I have had interesting results when mixing the Sky Gray with Flat White and, believe it or not: Deck Tan for doing the belly of the Corsair. But I’m painting differently and that needs to be noted. Anyhow, this finish is looking nice so far, and your wheels look good too. I like how you combined the vulcanized rubber color and the thinned tire black to achieve that look.