A-7 Delta

Scotaidh · January 06, 2019, 10:36:37 AM

Well, not a great deal of progress today. It was mostly fiddly stuff - undercarriage legs, lumps 'n' bumps, plus a little more putty.

A-7 Delta 009
Intake lips, refueling receptacle, cannon fairing, and all the other wee olive drab bits that haven't been painted yet, with the exception of the lower beacon light. I had the red paint out to do the tail hook anyway, so ...

A-7 Delta 010
There were a couple on the tail, too. The directions are rather unclear about the small wedge bit under the rudder. The rear edge is at a slant, but whether the slant meets the rudder trailing edge line or is opposite is not shown - and of course it fits either way ...

Paper Kosmonaut · January 07, 2019, 12:10:42 PM

An impressive change in appearance, this whif. The SLUF suddenly looks like a FLUF. And not even that "U" in the acrtonym any more. Great to see it come to life!

Scotaidh · January 09, 2019, 02:01:04 AM

I started attaching the undercarriage doors - model glue dried enough to hold, gel super glue applied to make it all 'unbreakable' - and I realized the doors I'd put on the bottom were in fact supposed to be on top ...

No damage was incurred, but I've slowed right down so's I don't do that kind of mistake again. <grrrr>

Scotaidh · January 13, 2019, 12:11:36 PM

A-7 Delta 011
I wanted a paint scheme that was close to an actual, official scheme, but yet different to mark that this is not just another A-7 Alpahabet. So I'm going with Light OD Green top-sides and ordnance, and matte black for all undersurfaces & pylons. My first idea was to go with the Hellenic Air force, but by that time I'd already used the darker colours - and anyone who's tried to put a light colour over a dark one knows how tough that is to pull off. So, here we are with a quasi-Rolling Thunder scheme.

A-7 Delta 012
The view from the top. The black will be visible only alongside the cockpit, and since that tends to be a dark spot anyway ... meh.

A-7 Delta 013
I had the thing together and sitting on its undercarriage legs - and it sat on its tail. i'd forgotten to put in the nose weights. Fortunately, there is no forward undercarriage bay, just an open hole, so I used that hole and a lot of superglue to put in the cousin of this chap. Normally, I'd use split shot fishing weights, or bird shot - but that's all steel now, so it takes a lot more for the same weight. I had the chain sitting around - it worked, so we're good. BTW, the hole is plugged with black foam (sponge rubber) so if t need to add more weight once the ordnance is added, I can try.

A-7 Delta 014
I'm sure you spotted that the inboard pylons are not on the wings. I left them off to aid painting because I don't have any bent brushes.

TheChronicOne · January 13, 2019, 03:08:47 PM

BADASS.... this is right on target.

Old Wombat · January 16, 2019, 04:14:43 AM

Interesting.

TheChronicOne · January 16, 2019, 07:44:02 AM

Very. I'm looking forward to more of this. It's almost like something from the GI Joe universe or something and they had some of the coolest aircraft creations ever. I'm jealous I didn't think of this first.

Scotaidh · January 20, 2019, 04:46:57 AM

I'm at the stage with this build where I'd normally spray a clear gloss, to seal the paint and provide a smooth bed for the decals. However, it's too cold outside now for that, and I don't have a spray booth indoors. I'll have to wait until the weather warms a bit. Other than that, and adding the glass & pitot tubes, the model is done.

A-7 Delta 015
Weapons load-out complete.

A-7 Delta 016
I always liked the SEPECAT Jaguar's over-wing AAM-launchers. Since I used the A-7's normal AAM position for the canards, I thought this would work better than either neutralizing an under-wing ordnance position or adding another .

A-7 Delta 017
I can find no pictures or references to the A-7 carrying unguided rocket pods - if it did, they were almost certainly Zunis, which are deployed from a quad-launch pod. These are Matra SNEB pods from a Harrier kit - new aircraft, new & expanded weapons capabilities.

Old Wombat · January 20, 2019, 06:42:40 AM

Tophe · January 21, 2019, 06:28:48 AM

Belated congratulations!

Ed S · January 21, 2019, 05:13:03 PM

Great changes to the SLUF.

DogfighterZen · January 22, 2019, 03:47:04 AM

Looking very good!

Ed S · January 23, 2019, 06:08:08 AM

I can find no pictures or references to the A-7 carrying unguided rocket pods - if it did, they were almost certainly Zunis, which are deployed from a quad-launch pod. These are Matra SNEB pods from a Harrier kit - new aircraft, new & expanded weapons capabilities.
[/quote]

As a former SLUF driver, we did carry rockets. The USAF usually carried 2.75 inch FFAR in 7 or 19 hole rocket launchers. The USN usually used 5 inch Zuni in 4 hole rocket launchers. I think most of the foreign users carried the same pods. I'm not familiar with any effort to certify SNEB or MATRA or similar pods on the A-7, but it wouldn't really be a difficult project. But in WHIFF world feel free to use them.

Scotaidh · January 24, 2019, 01:45:16 AM

Quote from: Ed S on January 23, 2019, 06:08:08 AM
I can find no pictures or references to the A-7 carrying unguided rocket pods - if it did, they were almost certainly Zunis, which are deployed from a quad-launch pod. These are Matra SNEB pods from a Harrier kit - new aircraft, new & expanded weapons capabilities.

As a former SLUF driver, we did carry rockets. The USAF usually carried 2.75 inch FFAR in 7 or 19 hole rocket launchers. The USN usually used 5 inch Zuni in 4 hole rocket launchers. I think most of the foreign users carried the same pods. I'm not familiar with any effort to certify SNEB or MATRA or similar pods on the A-7, but it wouldn't really be a difficult project. But in WHIFF world feel free to use them.
[/quote]

Thanks, Ed! I was pretty certain that A-7s would have carried rockets - I just couldn't find any pictures or references!

I'm using the Matra pods because I have them in the SSR without opening too many boxes.

I'm lazy.

Did you guys use muted or full-colour markings? I'm raiding my spare decal sheets, and I've got both but not sure which to use. Also, did you guys ever have shark-mouths on your SLUFs?

Scotaidh · January 31, 2019, 02:26:17 PM

And - she's done.

I really liked the shark-mouth - so much so, that I had to re-think my use of the subdued markings already on the model. I'[d already used Solvaset, so the grey decals were not coming off ...

The last two pictures really show the subdued markings under the full-colour ones.
<ahem>

This aircraft was a private venture on the part of LTV. Proud as they were of their Corsair II, they wanted to see if they could, by tweaking the design, make it even better. They asked for and got the use of a mothballed air frame from Davis-Monthan. The Air Force stipulated that the aircraft's original codes be kept, to keep their book-keeping straight. LTV agreed, and applied their new markings as decals, right over the original markings. If the Air Force bought the new A-7, the codes would then be changed properly.

Alas for LTV, their new A-7 was more agile but did not materially improve upon the original gross take-off weight, nor did it have any more pylons. The Air Force made it forcefully clear that they didn't want a new fighter, they wanted an attack aircraft that carried more ordnance. As for that over-the-wing-missile nonsense - forget it, it's too weird. And if we start carrying European ordnance then they won't buy ours. Duh. That's a non-starter.