Modern Hog-Blacksnake Build

1
July 12, 2023
All the kit sprues...
2
July 12, 2023
...and the myriad of aftermarket to make this beauty really shine (one or two are not even on the pic and are set to arrive later).
3
July 12, 2023
Planned armament of the bird. A lone AIM-9M on the LAU-105 rail launcher on the rightmost station, followed by a LITENING targeting pod, a Maverick, two small and one big JDAM, one Paveway, then a LAU-131 with illumination rockets, a flare dispenser, and finally another Paveway.
4
July 16, 2023
Basically finished with the modification of the first wing. Replaced the landing gear bay with the Aires resin and the wingtips with the PHR set, which also has the AN/AAR-47 missile warning system for the A-10C.
Only things left (except for minor clean-up) are the ailerons and airbrakes, as well as some PE parts.
5
July 20, 2023
Both wings finished in terms of replacement. Still some minor clean-up necessary which I'll deal with later.
6
July 20, 2023
Basically done with modifying the front fuselage bottom part:
Deepened panel lines and rivets, and removed plastic parts required to fit the Aires resin replacement for the front landing gear bay.
Also replaced the mesh with a much better AMUR PE.
Finally adjusted the antennas to the current state; two antennas part of the PHR update set I will add at the end of the build.
7
July 23, 2023
The newer version has slightly different panels with vents for letting the gun gasses escape. To fit the A.M.U.R. PE I first tried to sand the respective areas with some thick tape as a guide. However, this proved ineffective and so I used a sharp knife to carefully scrape it away. After making some holes I glued the large panels first and afterwards the meshes. It fits quite well and requires only minimum clean-up.
I also finished the PE for the retractable ladder.
8
July 31, 2023
I basically had to scratch-built the entire gun bay. Eduard provides some PE, but apart from the hinges for the doors they are pretty useless (as they don't go deep enough into the gun bay) and are also wrong.
I still ended up using the portside piece and adapting the detailing around it. For most of the detailing I focused on the front and aft ends as the middle will be mostly obscured by the big ammo drum.
I also left holes for the gun vents, as they are technically visible from the inside, and you can see one of them on the left.
9
July 31, 2023
Not much detailing on the starboard side. I did not use the Eduard PE here at all except for the hinges which I cut from the wall area to add them separately.
10
July 31, 2023
A bit of detailing on the front fuselage just in case, although it will be barely visible due to the gun occupying the space.
11
July 31, 2023
The gun itself. Eduard does not provide enough parts to cover the whole ammo belt system, but this is fine given it will be barely visible anyway.
Also not shown here is the muzzle, where I am still contemplating on whether to use the PHR resin or Master metal one.
12
July 31, 2023
Gun bay doors. Some minor scratch building on the inside (the aluminum sheets). The antennas are missing and will be added later.
13
July 31, 2023
The canopy is very bare bones in the kit and neither Aires nor Eduard touch up on this sufficiently - not even Phase Hangar Resin, as their canopy is wrong in some areas.
So I opted to add the missing detail, utilizing brass tubes as a frame with aluminum sheet for surface detailing and adding other stuff such as handles or map lights.
I highlighted the parts provided by Aires and Eduard.
14
July 31, 2023
The front canopy part does not need that much improvement, but still, there is always something to add.
I scratch-built the inner reinforcement structure from brass pipes and made them "square" via folded aluminum sheets.
I already added the Digital Video Audio Data Recorder (DVADR, the small thing on the frame visible on the right picture) from Eduard's PE sheet. What is still missing are the accelerometer and the compass, which I will add later.
15
July 31, 2023
The A-10C has several slight differences in the cockpit beside the addition of another MFCD. For one, that addition caused the front panel to become wider, such that the panel shroud had to be partially removed on the sides (which I did here as well via cutting, puttying and sanding). Furthermore, in the back behind the seat a DTU (Data Transfer Unit) was installed.
16
July 31, 2023
No modification on the ejection seat except for the addition of the sheepskin cover. I tried to replicate the texture by using primer and touching it with an old brush while it was still drying. We'll see how successful I was when I apply some paint.
17
August 3, 2023
Completed detailing/modification of the landing gear. Replaced some of the parts like the dampeners by Eduard's PE, while some other details such as cables were made by myself.
On this picture you can see the main landing gear (left: portside, right: starboard).
18
August 3, 2023
19
August 3, 2023
Nose landing gear. It was very fiddly gluing the parts for the lights together, as well as getting the cables secured.
20
August 3, 2023
21
August 3, 2023
Aires's landing gear looks amazingly detailed, and captures practically every detail there is, and correct as well.
I only added some cables that were presumably lost during sanding away the casting block residue with some lead wire and Eduards's PE in the front area.
The main landing gear wells didn't need any modification.
22
August 3, 2023
Some detail added for the mechanical links to the strut in the back nose landing gear door. In the front door, I replaced the actuators with the more correct PE parts.
23
August 5, 2023
The A-10 uses a variant of the TF34 turbofan engine. While the general shape of HB's rendition is roughly correct in some way, the middle part is wrong in that it is too big to resemble the actual compressor size - beside lacking any detail whatsoever...
24
August 5, 2023
Since I wanted to let one of the engine casings be open to be in tune with other panels being opened as well, I opted again for my approach of scratch building it.
First step was cutting out the compressor shroud just behind the fan which has the correct shape.
25
August 5, 2023
To build the compressor I checked my inventory and decided to cut out pieces of left over parts. On the top is an external fuel tank of Revell's Rafale C and below a nozzle from the Hobby Boss Su-30MKK kit.
26
August 5, 2023
I adapted the parts accordingly:
- The compressor shroud has a grid that I am going to replicate, so I cut out and sanded an appropriate hole.
- Due to mistakes in making clean cuts, the compressor piece from the fuel tank received a thin plastic sheet as a cover
- I also used a piece from Revell's Eurofighter, specifically the exhaust pipe
- I also made two circles out of thin plastic sheet; the bigger one covers the back of the compressor shroud, the smaller one will be placed behind the HB-SU-30 and Revell-EF pieces
27
August 5, 2023
Further surface detailing of the compressor shroud.
28
August 5, 2023
Putting all pieces together. I also made some holes in the smaller circle shown previously.
29
August 5, 2023
Major surface details. I don't know exactly what all those pieces are responsible for. They are also oversized here.
30
August 5, 2023
Begun with some wiring.
31
August 5, 2023
Detailing finished. I only made ca. 2/3 of the surface as the right side (the one you are not seeing now) will not be visible once the engine is inside the casing.
What is missing here but also belongs to the engine are the fans and the exhaust. Those are covered by excellent resin pieces from Metallic Details.
32
August 12, 2023
ALC-119 Airframe Aluminum as base color.
33
August 12, 2023
X-24 Clear Yellow + X-25 Clear Green.
34
August 12, 2023
Mixed AK Real Colors.
35
August 12, 2023
The fully detail-painted and weathered engine. It’s not terribly dirty so I didn’t cover it all with oil paints, just used some semi-subtle weathering in the respective areas.
36
August 12, 2023
37
August 12, 2023
The finished cockpit tub, ejection seat, CPU + front display and rear canopy frame. The individual parts are not glued together yet, but they fit quite well already. The angle of the rear canopy is also not exactly as it looks in this picture, but this will be dealt with later. Some small detail is missing, such as the HUD which I’ll add at the end of the build.
38
August 12, 2023
The grey cockpit color of Eduard’s colored PE (on the front display panel) is not exactly the same as the one I ended up using, but it’s close enough. You can also see several yellow-black striped areas I hand painted using a very thin brush.
39
August 12, 2023
The grey cockpit color of Eduard’s colored PE (on the front display panel) is not exactly the same as the one I ended up using, but it’s close enough. You can also see several yellow-black striped areas I hand painted using a very thin brush.
40
August 12, 2023
The altimeter and compass are now glued to the front canopy frame as well.

Commenti

61 12 July 2023, 21:12

Alexander
Alright, lovers of the battle-hardened and definitely not ugly flying gun with some plane around it
- welcome to my next detail build where I will try to do this plane justice with a ton of aftermarket.
I'm going to depict an active-duty A-10C during Operation Inherent Resolve (fight against ISIS terrorists in Syria), specifically 78-658 of the 122nd Fighter Squadron stationed in Incirlik Air Base (Turkey). Since the kit from Hobby Boss is an A version, some of the aftermarket is dedicate to update the A-10 such as new antennas or sensors. I will also depict the gun bay open thanks to the Eduard set, as well as an electronic bay from Aires. I'm still thinking if I will also depict one of the engines open. The armament will consist of weaponry commonly used during OIR and is shown in pic #3.

So all in all, a lot of removal and modification of the kit parts with at least some scratch building. Hope you enjoy the build progress. First real in-progress pics coming soon!

12 July 2023, 21:26

Juskifo
Many additions for the big and beautiful project👌
i will follow this build

15 July 2023, 16:51

Rui S
A gun with an airplane around it 🤔 ? Oh yhea I'm also interested 😄 😄😄

15 July 2023, 17:12

Alexander
Thank you guys for tuning in!
So far not that much progress on the first glance, but I need to do some significant modification of the kit parts for detail-up and/or accuracy adjustment.
However, with the wings the most difficult part is behind me and I am on a good path with the main fuselage parts now.

20 July 2023, 21:48

inkilas32
Wow, whats the sum of all aftermarket parts?

29 July 2023, 07:53

Alexander
A lot probably 😄, though I get the kit and several of them for a very cheap price on eBay.

29 July 2023, 11:08

Alexander
So, mostly done with detailing of the kit. Basically had to scratch-build the entire gun bay, as well as the rear canopy framing. Only things left are some surface details in the aft area, the landing gear, and one of the engines, and I am ready to apply some paint.

31 July 2023, 19:48

Pepe
Estoy ansioso de ver el final

31 July 2023, 19:58

Michael Kohl
Oh, I like what you are doing there.

31 July 2023, 22:31

Alexander
Thanks Pepe and Michael!

1 August 2023, 09:18

Hans-Jürgen Haag
Woho extensive Detail work, great!👍👍👍👍

3 August 2023, 19:23

Alexander
Thanks Hans!
Working on the engine now, 'only' surface detail/wiring left.

4 August 2023, 21:58

Pepe
Se ve mejor por momentos.... Gran trabajo

5 August 2023, 18:05

Spanjaard
Wow, lovely scratched details in the engine

5 August 2023, 18:25

Alexander
Thanks Pepe and Spanjaard!

I really enjoyed doing the engine. In the beginning I was contemplating whether to even attempt to do this in fear that it would take too much time. But since I extended my build time anyway I am glad that I decided to this part of the plane as well. The most fun part of the detailing phase of this build.

5 August 2023, 21:59

Tommy Agne
Great work so far 👍. Watching.

9 August 2023, 15:38

Alexander
Thanks Tommy!

Currently doing detail painting in several areas, work-in-progress pictures coming soon.

9 August 2023, 21:24

Shar Dipree
WOW, awesome detailing! Following. I Love the engine.

12 August 2023, 17:27

Mark Broughton
Oh this is a special model, watching

12 August 2023, 18:30

Alexander
Thanks Shar and Mark, much appreciated!

12 August 2023, 18:43

Juskifo
great progress Alexander👍

12 August 2023, 21:14

Alexander
Thank you Juskifo!

12 August 2023, 23:34

Michael Kohl
Some cool detailing going on here.

13 August 2023, 18:55

Alexander
Thanks Michael!

13 August 2023, 20:28

Rui S
Can't imagine this kind of details at 1/48. Serious work 👍

13 August 2023, 22:34

Alexander
Thanks Rui!

14 August 2023, 05:50

Guy Rump
I agree with all of the above comments, following! 👍

14 August 2023, 06:40

Kyle DeHart
Stunning. Also cool as the Blacksnakes fly over my house from time to time. Sadly they are set to phase the A-10 out of the FW group and switch back to F-16s. 😟

14 August 2023, 10:57

Lex Jassies
Top notch model building 👍

14 August 2023, 11:19

Alexander
Thank you guys!
Although it will take a long while for the next updates, as I will be unavailable to model for the next few months.

@Kyle That must be nice to be able to see these planes in real life, but also sad that it will be over soon. Hope you took some nice pictures/videos to remember!

14 August 2023, 21:49