Hi all, and thanks for the invite GTX!
Only one of these N/AW A-10B aircraft was ever actually built and it was an unfortunately unsuccessful sales tool for such a cool beast of a plane. However, it's perfect for a what-if based on the assumption that the US did buy it and use it, instead of the F-15E. The markings (mainly from Revell's F-15E) have this aircraft from US 335th Fighter Sq (Chiefs), based out of Seymour Johnson air base. In real life, they were the first sqn to use the F-15E so they would have been the first to use the N/AW A-10 (that and I had the decals to hand).
As time went on the A-10B would have gotten some of the single seater's upgrades but not all. Why add colour screens for the pilot when the guy in the back seat has a huge plasma TV screen of his own to watch the footy on and the FACES pod is a handy GPS if you get lost on the way to the pub!
The weapons load is modern with the Sniper and FACES pods and the high precision GBU-38s and 12s. While the kit has a really wide range of weapons the ones I've used come from a variety of boxes. The load is supposed to represent a close air support patrol type load in a target rich environment (think what Europe could have been if things went wrong but non-nuclear and all that Eastern Bloc armour came rolling through). The aircraft just circles around until it's needed. & when it's needed nothing does CAS better than an A-10 with a dedicated weapons operator in the backseat blowing stuff up!
Overall the kit builds up very nicely. There are some fit issues around the engine doors but it's good other than that. Extra scratchbuilt stuff detail was added for the main wheelwells which are empty, the rear engine face which doesn;t actually exist and the cockpits which always need extra detail. I also used Eduard zoom sets for the cockpit panels and kit seats. The biggest weakness however is that there's no canopy opening gear at all. The instructions just tell you to glue the canopies shut! The prototype airframe had side-opening canopies which I think look rubbish. The real life production design was to have a single clam shell canopy like the F-14 or -18D/F/G but my skills just aren;t up to making a new canopy from scratch. So I compromised and scratched the required bits and pieces to get it to open like an F-4. All in all there's a fair bit of plastic strip, wire etc in there but hopefully you can't really tell where.
This has been building for some months so rather than repost all the in-progress stuff into one huge post here's a link to a summary of the in-progress if you're interested.
http://www.zone-five.net/showthread.php?t=22198 Anyway, enough talking, here's some pics, all comments/ critiques welcome!
