1/72 Hasegawa A-10C Thunderbolt II Mil Killer

Gallery Article by Jean-Charles Goddet on Feb 4 2010

 

1/72 Hasegawa Fairchild A-10C Thunderbolt II Mil Killer

This model is an Hasegawa 1/72 A-10A from a special box named Mil killer. I decided to show this bird in an accurate and optimized version A-10C "Charly". This special scheme represents the present plane of USAF 23rd Fighter Group 74th Fighter squadron "Flying Tigers". This group is the direct descendant of the American Volunteer Group in China before 1941 and the entrance of USA in World War II. This specific plane 81-0964 (so this plane has 29 years old) is the demo A-10 plane of Pope AFB for airshows, it was converted in A-10C from A-10A in 2008. In 1991 during Desert Storm it shot down an Iraqi helo Mil Mi-8 with its 30mm gun GAU 8. Now this plane wears a two-grey paint scheme, the upper camouflage is FS33620 Gunze acrylic H307 and lower is FS36375 Gunze acrylic H308. A false canopy to decoy a pursuit plane is painted underside FS36118 Gunze acrylic H305. Decals are from the box plus some coming from my surplus Microscale decals for data marks. I used Reid Air publication The Modern Hog Guide and the internet to find good pictures of the plane and to avoid a mistake regarding the difference between Alpha and Charly version and weapons type on pylons. I added weathering on the paint scheme because this kind of plane suffered a lot of dust conditions in overseas missions.

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I tried to do an operational loading for example CAS mission from Bagram airbase in Astan. Please find the details of weapons below :

Station 1 : AN/ALQ-184 ECM pod (from Hasegawa aicraft weapons set VII)

Station 2 : Free

Station 3 : AGM-65B TV Maverick (daylight use)

Station 4 : MXU-648 baggage pod (not very operational but I like the sharkteeth)

Station 5 : GBU-38 JDAM (only on A10C and coming from Modern Hobbies resin parts)

Station 6 : Laser guided bomb GBU-12 (from Hasegam aircraft weapons set VI)

Station 7 : GBU-38 JDAM (only on A10C and coming from Modern Hobbies resin parts)

Station 8 : MXU-648 baggage pod (not very operational but I like the sharkteeth)

Station 9 : AGM-65D IR Maverick (night or bad weather use)

Station 10 : Sniper XR targeting pod (only on A10C and coming from Modern Hobbies resin parts)

Station 11 : Two scratch built launchers for Sidewinder air-air missiles and one AIM-9M

To do an accurate A-10C I added some new antennas secure voice radio underside, new SATCOM antenna on the top near the canopy. I also added formation lights decal and scratchbuilt radar altimeters under the tail and on horizontal stabilizers this kind of equipments was retrofitted on the entire fleet of A-10 in 1992. So I hope that you will like this plane with a great history like its squadron. The spirit of sharkteeth reminds us of the glorious past of General Chenault volunteers, but the story continues in the skies for freedom to protect ISAF troops in a long war.

Jean-Charles Goddet

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Photos and text © by Jean-Charles Goddet