1/72 scale Hasegawa A-10C Thunderbolt II Review Build
Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 6:44 pm
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:
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:
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:
You can see that the construction is fairly straightforward, given there are only three pages for assembly:
On the back, there are the color callout and decal diagrams for two versions of this aircraft:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
Here's a close up of the worst part. Try as I might, I could not get these ends to lay down properly:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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.
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:
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:
You can see that the construction is fairly straightforward, given there are only three pages for assembly:
On the back, there are the color callout and decal diagrams for two versions of this aircraft:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
Here's a close up of the worst part. Try as I might, I could not get these ends to lay down properly:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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.