1/48 A-7B VA-93

[BlackSheep214]

[speedgraflex]

Hi Carlos! Great job! Looks like you have the seams done! I thought that was going to take a little time to figure out but you have already done a great job with the centerline seam. How did you do it?

[Stikpusher]

Lyle, Tom, and Bruce, thanks for looking in and commenting.

Bruce, the seam was first sanded. After that I used Tamiya Gray putty or Mr Surfacer where needed, depending upon how much filling needed to be done. Except for the intake duct gap, that I tackled with gel CA and accelerator to make sure that the duct was fixed in place and would not move and crack any putty. That gap was pretty significant.

[Stuart]

That does indeed look very Sluf like - Great work Carlos!

[Stikpusher]

Thanks Stuart, it’s progressing quickly now!

Yesterday, I did seam clean up on the wing to fuselage join, rescribe of lost panel lines, and began seam clean up on the ordnance. I’m gonna go with a mixed load of “slant four” Mk.82 500 lb LDGP bombs from the kit, plus a pair of Mk.20 Rockeye CBUs and AGM-45 Shrikes from a couple 1/48 Hasegawa US Aircraft Weapons sets



all based off of this photo, so I know that the load out is real.



However I will not mount the Sidewinders, as I have yet to come across photos of VA-93 A-7s carrying them at that time

[Stuart]

That'll be an interesting load out Carlos - it should look good. Personally I'd fit the winders just for visual interest - It's not often you see them bolted to the fuselage. It'd be like building a Jaguar and not fitting them above the wings!

[Stikpusher]

I hear ya Stuart. But from all the photos I’ve come across of the squadron that I’m modeling at that time period, no AIM-9s. That’s ok though, I still have two more USN A-7s to build and I’ll have both of those with Sidewinders.

[Stuart]

Ah well - if you have two more then go for it!

BTW, I've no idea my the headbang smiley was in my previous post - blooming Kindle!

[Stikpusher]

I didn’t even notice it... you must have edited it out before I saw it... but my IPad does the same thing...

Today’s work done update:
First up, I added the landing gear struts. Since the under surfaces, wheel wells, and gear struts are all the same color, gloss white, why not? Mold seam line clean up took a good while with needle files... I also added the refueling probe





now I have the Detail & Scale book on the Corsair II and it points out two shortcomings of the kit: 1, the nose gear support strut ends before reaching the wheel well wall; 2, the Sidewinder rails are too close to the fuselage and need a spacer. I know that I said I was not going to do any superdetailing or whatnot. But these shortcomings bothered me, so I fashioned up the required corrections from some Evergreen Strip Styrene.

missile rail spacer



Nose Support strut extension



different angle of both



That’s all for today...

[Stuart]

Two simple yet effective improvements Carlos - nice work. I have to say I'm liking the detail on that kit - it looks good!

Adding the U/C before paint - that's a bit out of the standard building process - any reason why (I've started to do that myself)?