Italeri A-10C - Build

Christian Borchmann-Backhaus
Nice start... Eduard detail set?

Holger Kranich
Hi! Pit looks already nice!

Stephan Ryll
Very nice pit indeed 🙂

Chris Greathouse
details looking great... I'm amazing at the quality of skills you airplane people have. Awesome cockpit.

Schnemat
thanks for your comments, it's actually only my fourth kit i'm building, so there's still room for improvement. and yes, this is the eduard interior photo etched set, i really love their products!

Christian Borchmann-Backhaus
I have the kit in my stash, but not much time at the moment...

Bryn Crandell
Looking good so far. The Eduard cockpit stuff really is worth it in my opinion.

Chris Greathouse
That plane looks beefy.

Nathan Dempsey
I have this kit, so I'm definitely watching this one.

Schnemat
Hmm, painted the underside after scratching my head for weeks figuring out the correct color. But i'm not really happy, it's too greyish, shoukd have more a blueish tone. Any recommendations? I'm using vallejo model air.

Schnemat
repainted the underside, also tried out some pre-shading. used this time fs36375, which vallejo only offers as a primer...

Augusto
Whatching!

Michael Phillips
Watching too, cockpit looks fantastic!

Stephan Ryll
Very nice work so far 👍
Here the original colors
FS 36375 light gray
FS 36320 Dark Gray
FS36118 Dark gray for the underside canopy scheme
Please keep in mind that the original colors look much darker on a smaller scale
Keep up the good work

Schnemat
thanks Stephan, looking also at cybermodeler.com i figured out the corresponding vallejo model air color. they recommend 71.120 for FS36320 without scale fade and 71.046 with up to 10% scale fade. will test what looks better

Nathan Dempsey
Looking great so far. Now to the fun part, when the paint is applied.

Schnemat
painted a few parts, i like the subtle difference between the light and dark grey areas. now working on the masks to complete the paint job.

Jos Jansen
Following

Schnemat
one wing done, i like it. the post shading did disappear a bit, probably because there is already a bit of light grey below

Schnemat
a bit of painting progress after the vacation break

Stephan Ryll
Comming along nicely 👍

Schnemat
paint job is done and covered with a gloss coat to do the decaling. unfortunately, as with the previous build i ended with a rough texture on the bottom side of the fuselage, rop aide is ok. i'm still not sure what's causing it...

Schnemat
decalling has started, unfortunately the "yellowish things" decals did not fit well with the PE parts, so i decided to mask and airbrush it. i clearly hit the boundaries of my airbrush & masking skills, so it ended in a mess... maybe some clever weathering might cover it a bit. btw: does some one know what these yellowish things are for?

Stephan Ryll
These yellowish things are formation lights 🙂
You will find some some nice pictures in the web showing the funktion

Formation lights are used so that aircraft can fly close formation at night. They are typically luminescent strips positioned so that an aircraft can be in the desired position (i.e. fingertip formation) and have references fore-aft, up-down, and near-far similar to references as used for daytime formation flying. Something along the lines of, "keep the position light just below the formation light (strip) under the cockpit and the aft fuselage light (strip) just touching the wing hardpoint, and you're in the right position. If the position light goes farther below the strip, you're getting high; if the hardpoint is sliding back into the aft light you're getting close, etc."

Obviously these references are very specific to each individual aircraft. 🤔

Schnemat
thanks, i thought that they are smth like this. my robin dr-400 i used to fly did not have those😉

Schnemat
I have some troubles over here... when i varnished some weapons with the vallejo varnishes it remained a white tint and it also clogged up my airbrush quite heavily. So i looked for alternatives and decided to try out the lucky varnishes by ammo. While testing them on some plastic spoons painted with vallejo air i was quite happy with the result and it was also much easier to use with the airbrush. So i decided to go ahead and varnished the a-10 with a mix of matt and satin varnish (which i tested before). So far so good... now i tested the florymodels clay wash on the bottom of the stabilizer (the varnish had dried for more than 72hrs). When i started to remove with water dampened q tips or kitchen towel it also started to remove the varnish! You can see that easily on the latest pictures. I then also rubbed a bit on the spoon and the varnish also peeled off. Did you guys experience sth similar? Any ideas how to proceed? Should i go back to the vallejo varnish and put a layer on top? Might it be that the ammo varnish reacted badly with vallejo thinner or flow improver (which iˋm not 100% sure if i used some...). Thanks for any advice.

Schnemat
I think i figured it out, it looks like that the ammo lucky varnish is not water resistant after drying (the vallejo varnish is). I tried with enamel thinner and and do not have a problem with the varnish. So i probably go with tamiya plw for the rest of the plane

Slavo Hazucha
The cockpit looks great inside, very nice progress overall 👍 - My attempts to force anything Vallejo through the airbrush in a meaningful manner were mostly failures, too thick, too thin, inconsistent... I went for lacquer based MRP´s, but it must be possible with Vallejo colors to achieve decent performance too...

Schnemat
went on with a different plan, i recovered the model with the vallejo satin varnish and put the florymodel dirt wash on top. started then to remove the wash on the wings and was super happy, it looks great. unfortunately in some areas, where i probably didn't cover the previous varnish enough it still removes it... let's see, maybe i can cover it up with some additional weathering.

Schnemat
thank you Slavo, i feel honored that you comment on my build, my skills are nothing compared to yours (followed your f-111 build😉😢 i think i start to get better results with the vallejo paint (need to post some pictures on my rafale build, there i do not have any rough textures so far). for paint i use now 3 drops of flow improver, to drops of thinner every 10 drops of paint. with roughly 18-20 psi i get now good results (with an evo 0.4 or 0.2 needle). for varnish i use 10 drops thinner and 2 drops flow improver every 10 drops of varnish. maybe that helps somebody, but as usual everybody has its own preferences and working style. as i do my hobby in a "living room" where sometimes also the children play i do not want to use sth too smelly😉 but yes, i've read good things about the mrp's

Schnemat
allright, weathering cleanup done. with all the troubles i think i achieved a good result... i will probably skip certain parts on the bottom from further weathering, i do not want to spoil it. will put the weapons on over the weekend and hopefully complete it!

Slavo Hazucha
Thanks Schneemat, no need to talk humbly about your skills - doing a great job here & on other project - I am happy to follow another talented 4-th gen fan!😉

As for colors, I really struck my heavenly match with MRP´s (I am no sales agent, they just work that well for me...) - pre-thinned, lo-pressure absolutely controllable goodness, thinnest ever layer on the model, but somehow great coverage even in light tones and completely solid vs oils & oil solvents, which are my favorite weathering & post-process media... The smell is there during work, but if you can open windows for 5min it´s all gone and nowhere as persistent as in Humbrol times. The model is smell-free after 5mins too. Got 2 kids and my bench is in an open corridor where the family moves a lot & they have not once even discovered I was airbrushing after said 5mins 🙂

I tried Vallejo, Gunze, Tamyia, Revell(!) and MiG... MRP came out best for me, with exception of Alclads on larger metal areas (tests only, no NMF build done yet...).

Not saying you cannot get to your comfort zone with Vallejos! Just my personal preferences...

Schnemat
exactly, it's all about what works best for each individual. and thanks for sharing your experience with mrp's, i'll probably give it a go. i started with revell aquas (what a mess) as they have been in the starter kit of the gripen 1:72 (which was my 1st model returning to the hobby) and then switched to vallejo, because my local hobby store has them in stock. let me see if i can someone distributing mrp's in switzerland...

Schnemat
almost done! nav lights to be painted, a few touch ups and the agm-65's missing (i screwed up with the decals, grrr.)

Stephan Ryll
Very nice work Schnemat 👍