Well, I've always liked the look of the A-10, so when the opportunity to do a "what if" build of one came up, well I had to take a shot at it.

This is my A-10W, what I like to call a Whiskey Hawg, kinda like the Whiskey Cobra in USMC service... It's still a WIP, I'm doing a wash on the weapons and underside and the decals still have to go on, but it's getting closer to being done. I thought I'd share a few photos with you all and get some feedback.

This kit is the 1/48 offering from Hobbycraft. I bought it because it was cheap, and the quality is so-so. It has a mix of engraved and raised panel lines and some soft details (non existant in the flight instruments).

Well, here goes:

This is the instrument panel right off the sprue. Nice, huh?


Here is what I did with bits from a leftover Mosquito PE fret, some scrap styrene and aluminum sheet.



Here's a couple shots of the office.

Now, I had been going back and forth on the paint scheme for this one. I didn't want another grey bird on the shelf. One day I lost my mind (spent the better part of the afternoon looking for it) and decided to try MARPAT. Yes, digital camo for my A-10! Well, here's what I came up with:




Well, I'm pretty happy with the results, and I hope to have this one completed soon. Thanks for taking the time to look.

Hey John

Nice build. MARPAT looks different, I like it.

Good job dressing up the cockpit. I know what you mean about no detail - I build alot of cheap kit too. But ain't that half the fun of turning something cheesy into a nice looking model.

N E O

Most ambitious paint scheme and you carried it off well. Congrats.

Not too much of a long shot though. Just prior to the Desert Storm, Congress (or was it the Pentagon) made the decision to transfer all of the A-10s to the Army and Marines. The Army would replace the Mohawk and the Marines would replace the Bronco with the A-10.

Of course DS showed the Air Force that the A-10 was still a viable ariframe with a real mission.

I'd love to see the A-10 in a Tiger-Meet theme. Strip it and start again, if anyone can pull it off you can.

I'm all excited to see the finished product. Load that baby to the hilt with weapons.

She'll be carrying a pretty decent loadout of weapons. I'm planning on putting 12 SnakeEyes inboard, then 2 1000lbs LGBs, 6 Rockeye CBUs (2 triple racks outboard of the landing gear) then 2 500lbs LGBs and then a jammer pod on one side and a pair of Stingers on the other for self defense.

I'm attmepting to put an oil wash on the underside right now, and then I'll move on to the decals.

Your loadout is pretty heavy. Without jammer, AIM-9 or fuel tank, you're at about 12000 of a 16000 pound max.Impressive to look at, but it would put some significant limitations on the flight.
Here's some info on this.

I was afraid that I was going a little too heavy, but it's hard not to hang a lot of ordnance on an A-10. I think I'll justify it as a "airshow demo" loadout and not something that would be really used.

Looking at the SnakeEyes, I think these are 250lbs units (taken from an A-6 kit) and not the 500lbs version, they're much smaller than the 500's that I have in one of my weapons sets...

Thanks for the link and the advice, I really appreciate it.

Glad it was of help. I built Monogram's dog of a 1/72 in the late 80's and overloaded it, too, with a bunch of Hasegawa's aftermarket stores. Impressive, but impractical. :-)

Hello John!

You should live here in Loupershouse (France)! A lot of Warthogs are flying above our house! Usually Thursdays! I believe they come from the 52d Fighter Wing in Spangdahlem (Germany) wich is North-West of the town we live! We can see them flying in pair, making turns and crossing each other! Often they fly very low! My girlfriend is always worried about them... and I just think it's great to hear the sound of their turbines! Woeeeeee!
They have grey paint schemes, nothing as cool as your A-10! You should send them your pictures so we would see some colorful aircrafts in our sky! :-)

Jean-Luc

Al, an A-10 fully loaded is like Brittney Spears wearing hand cuffs. They're both absolutely beautiful, they're both technologically challenged, and even though there are some restrictions with maneuverability, you'll still find plenty of ways to do the deed.

Outstanding paint scheme John. How long did it take to complete that? I love the look of the A-10. I have Tamiyas model of that. I like the all grey scheme the most. Great job, looking forward to seeing it done, Wingman out.

Easy Off...that is one of the best metaphors I have ever heard...well done

As far as the Hog, I spent a good part of my childhood around them so I cant imagine seing one fly in that paint scheme, but you pulled the MARPAT off well, not overdone or anything....great build!

Thanks everyone for the kind words of encouragement. I have to say, I wasn't sure how well this would turn out when I started it.

wingman, I actually knocked out the pattern in one afternoon of painting! The green base coat I did a few days before, but the flat earth, black and khaki I did over the course of Sunday afternoon. I just took my time and was careful of where I put my fingers as I moved the plane around.

EasyOff, I always looked at it like an A-10 with too many weapons is like having too much money, it's just not possible! But I like your example better.

You camo is most impressive. I think a huge payload will rock! You gatta have lots of ordinance hanging under that baby!

The paint scheme is amazing, but if you ask me, it looks too 'uniform', but is still very cool, how did you do it? What you did with the cockpit is also very ingenious.

cheers

Philip

I used a couple of paper punches that my wife has in her scrapbook tools to cut about a dozen stencils out. Then I just tuned my airbrush to as tight a spray as I could get and started to lay down the colors...I didn't want to go overboard with any one color, but I think if I did it again, I'd go with masks of some kind (maybe parafilm or frisket?) and do a more conventional method. But this way I got the sharp lines and pixel-shapes that make up MARPAT.

The cockpit was advertised on the box as "detailed", so I had a good chuckle at what I saw, and since this was a "what if" type, I thought I'd give my A-10 a major avionics upgrade while I was at it.

Well, good modelers, an update: Here is what I've gotten done today. Side note, I lost the HUD for my A-10, so I scratched one out of scrap styrene, and I think it'll work just fine. Here are the photos:

The Loadout:


My scratch stinger pod:


On its wheels:


And the HUD:

That is one impressive payload hung under there!!

IN the pic of the nose, with all the decals the MARPAT looks very, very cool!

cheers

Philip

Funny, MARPAT looks just like CADPAT, must be the same supplier/designer or something. Looks great, I must say, as I am A BIG A-10 Warthog fan. Thumbs up on the scratchwork too.

Well, she's almost done, I masked and painted the canopy, but it's a little fiddly fit-wise, so I have to play with it to get it to sit right. Then all that's left will be a few antenna, a last flat coat and some RBF flags, and it'll be done. I'll post the final results in the next couple of days.

Edited on 050821:

At long last I've gotten this hawg done and on the shelf! Here are the finished photos of my A-10W in USMC MARPAT. The Whiskey Hawg:







And a couple of detail shots of the sensor pod I added for PGM guidance and the office:

Hey John great job.. But I bet you forgot 2 main thing.. Did you do wing folds, and I don’t see a Tail Hook.. All Marine Corp Aircraft have to be able to be stored in the Hanger bay;; So they have to have wing folds.. The Aircraft would have to be modified for Carrier Operations.. Now the Army, a standard A-10 would be fine.. I’ve been thinking of doing with the wing folded for a long time now..

I like the paint scheme. What no external fuel tanks? Hauling all of that ordinance will suck a lot of fuel.

Thank you for the comments. My next A-10 is going to be a carrier-based version in USMC colors (maybe not MARPAT, I'm leaning to a high-vis scheme of some sort) and it will have the wing folds and a hook.

The load out is definitely heavy, more of a display version. The next one will have a more realistic mission load and probably some extra gas bags, too.